“Oh, yeah, what are you gonna do? Release the dogs? Or the bees? Or the dogs with bees in their mouth and when they bark, they shoot bees at you?”
Homer Simpson
Little did Homer know that this almost became a reality in the small town of Black Stone. Almost, because instead of dogs, the ones shooting bees from their mouths are humans.
Giant bees have taken up residence in the town, and if you get stung you turn into a zombie like entity that walks aimlessly around, making bee sounds, until you realize the source of the bee sounds is the bees in their tummies. Then it’s too late. Then they are shooting bees at you from their mouths.
The bees are genetically engineered, of course. Were supposed to be a weapon for the army, but now they are in Black Stone making zombies out of the good town folk. Thankfully, the scientist that made them is also in Black Stone. That scientist is portrayed by Robert Englund, the only actor in the whole film that can act.
Armed with competent acting, Robert plans to revert the bees to their original none-zombie-making form, and he gets help from the local sheriff, her boyfriend, her young daughter, and an old blind woman. The problem is that maybe the army doesn’t want the bees to be reverted.
They might be wasps. They call them both bees and wasps and I don’t care enough to find out.
Black Swarm is mildly entertaining but only because of Robert Englund. His brilliance shines a light on how lackluster the other actors are. The wasps are terrible CGI but the film is competently made and far from the worst of the Maneater series.
