Terror Out of the Sky Blu-ray Review

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Terror Out of the Sky’s ineffectual filmmaking fails with such grandiosity, its turns a school bus full of kids swarmed by killer bees into tedium. That takes talent.

Chasing the escaped bees around the south western US, stars Dan Haggerty, Efrem Zimbalist, and Tovah Fedshuh bicker with one another over a tepid love triangle, taking attention away from the insects. The bugs are the only interesting thing in this story.

Terror Out of the Sky meanders lazily through tropes, wholly dull

Layered menially with the traditional “animal attack” genre cliches, the systems collapse when trying to stop the spread. Greedy people want money to help, and stubborn people won’t leave an area as the bees approach. Usually, that calls for a high body count and memorable stunts. Not so much in Terror Out of the Sky. As a kind of/sort of disaster flick, so few perish from this threat, it’s a wonder how dangerous these angry critters can actually be.

A follow up to 1976’s The Savage Bees, the dated threat remains, that of aggressive bees migrating southward into the Americas due to human transport. That’s not inherently at issue in Terror Out of the Sky – the bees arrived two years prior and were presumably destroyed. Screenwriting said the heroes missed a few last time because that’s how sequels are born.

Including the romance, Terror Out of the Sky meanders lazily through tropes, wholly dull, generating zero excitement. Even by TV movie standards, this clunky nature’s revenge/ripped from the headlines dud stumbles around, dodging the typical fatalism of the decade’s cinema. There’s nothing of consequence in this one.

Video

A satisfyingly clear, sharp presentation brings Terror Out of the Sky into the HD era. From a fresh new master, pinpoint grain replication allows the sharpness to show through. Detail follows, texturing the screen both in close and from afar.

Duller color is a downside, although flesh tones saturated well. A primary or two will stand out in various scenes. This from a satisfying print, generally damage free. A few scrapes are minor.

Great contrast isn’t matched by the weakened black levels. Vertical banding will show in the shadows where the depth can’t keep up. Luckily the brightness can account for a lot, near clipping at times, but consistent.

Audio

A screechy score challenges the DTS-HD track. Highs wobble and wane. Dialog flattens out, the dubbed lines obvious against those recorded live, if typical for the era. Nothing spectacular, just serviceable, workmanlike sound.

Extras

Kino includes a new commentary with historian David Del Valle and filmmaker David DeCoteau.

The following six screen shots serve as samples for our subscription-exclusive set of 34 full resolution, uncompressed HD screen shots grabbed directly from the Blu-ray: