Customer Reviews

Outer Limits: Zzzzzz [VHS]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Flawed, but good. Joanna Frank stands out - literally and figuratively, thanks to a set of enhancing falsies she still likes to joke about in interviews - as a Queen Bee turned human bee-ing by her hive, in an attempt to breed with man and overrun the earth with superior hybrid offspring. (Q: How did the bees manage that? A: What are you, some kind of troublemaker? They just did, okay?)

Philip Abbot is miscast as the object of Frank's sinister affections, but is exceptionally effective in the dramatic finale. Marsha Hunt is cattily effective as Abbot's wife, who doesn't like this hussy homewrecking newcomer one little bit. Frank is simply fabulous, a stunningly cheery, psychopathic femme fatale, who dispatches rivals to death one second and unfeelingly asks "Can we get married, now?" the next.

The camerawork and cinematography in this one are especially good. There's a "starburst" lighting effect reflecting from Frank's eyes to give her a more alien appearance - and her eyes are already pretty large and almond-shaped - and the frequent skulking-about scenes are dark and shadowy, with added good use of music.

It also has two excellent scenes in it: the finale, which is quite powerful for a number of reasons, not least of which is that you actually feel sorry for the Queen Bee even as you're glad to see the back of her, and the scene in which Hunt discovers Frank for what she is, which is chilling. Much of this episode works because Frank's character never comes off as evil, rather more alien to our psychology, and extremely, extremely dangerous. She is a strangely sympathetic monster.

Not OL's best, but definitely worth watching.

The Official Companion tells us that this was written for the actress Joanna Frank whom Joseph Stephano had seen and wanted to fashion an episode around, because of her unusual look - with "those strange big-almond kind of eyes". This look is perfect for her to play a queen bee who has been transformed into human form by her superintelligent hive in order to mate and produce hybrid offspring. Since we are told that the queen bee can produce hundreds of fertilised eggs from one mating, the hive clearly has world domination as their agenda. One might wonder how it is that entomologist Phillip abbott happened to come across the very colony of bees with a plan, as the ones whom he uses with a computer translator to study the language of bees. But then that allows the queen to communicate with the bees and for us to understand the translation. Frank is always seen with her hair over her face, sometimes with only one eye visible, which is suggestive of both her other-worldliness and her sensuality. Director John Brahm gives Frank a wonderfully erotic and gothic close-up with bees in flight superimposed over her face, though the evening gown she is transformed into is odd, particularly the way it provides her with huge falsies. No wonder Abbott is slightly distracted and his wife (Marsha Hunt - who poses like a manniquin) is unnerved. Frank sets her colony onto Hunt to turn the triangle into a couple, but we are told it wasn't the stings that killed her! The Companion tells us that the original draft had Abbott falling in love with Frank, which is the reverse of the filmed version, which would seem a better treatment since as it is, the age difference between them effects the plausibility. And in spite of Conrad Hall giving Abbott twinkly eyes, his entomologist is not a candidate to fall in love with, or to be a stud. The ending too is a worry. The Companion tells us that there were 2 versions and even the one that remains is ambiguous. This episode is also noteworthy for being made when President Kennedy was assassinated. Perhaps this gives the image of Frank in the deceased Hunt's wedding veil an added irony.

Although this OUTER LIMITS episode plays out more like a "Twilight Zone", it is still classic .... The undertones are wonderful, and the sexy bee-girl alone makes ZZZZZZZ worth watching ... Really kitschy good stuff !

Writing a review about the OL and proclaiming that the premise is "an absurd notion" is like complaining that cartoons aren't real. Give it a break. There's nothing wrong with this episode. It's fun to watch.

With about as many plot "holes" as there are in a hive, "ZZZZZZ" benefits from a great Joanna Frank performance as a "woman" with hidden designs for boss/scientist Phillip Abbott. It's too bad that wife Marsha Hunt stands in the way.

But, such is life, even in the insect world.

This is great fantasy. Joanna frank is great as the sexy queen bee,sure its absurd but most fantasy is.

The ZZZZZZ in the title refers to the sound that bees make when they fly, but in this case it should refer to the sound the audience makes after they have fallen asleep. The main premise of the episode is that the queen of a hive of bees manages to take human form and takes a job as the aid to a male scientist engaged in research on bees. The scientist has managed to decode the language of the bees in order to communicate with them, but other than that the man is clueless. He fails to question the actions and mannerisms of his new assistant, for she is uncertain in the ways of the world.
The now human queen bee is clearly romantically interested in the scientist, and this understandably makes his wife jealous. Since the research facility is attached to the dwelling of the scientist and his wife, the assistant lives under the same roof and the two of them work together well into the night. Although the assistant seems to do little more than make coffee and clean up and there is no hint of romantic interest on the part of the scientist.
There is of course a climactic scene where everything is put forward and there is a resolution of the situation of the bee in human form. Unfortunately, it is slow to form, obvious in the action (how else would a queen bee attack a rival) and the episode ends with one of the worst lines ever uttered on television. Which is fitting, for the dialog was so poor you find yourself looking at the clock and wondering how much time is left. The most amusing part for me was trying to read the mathematical formulas on the chalkboard in the background and the second was the absurdly false breasts on the queen bee. They remain perfectly conical even when she is lying flat on her back.

The lame title is however appropriate. And you thought "Tourist Attraction" or "The Brain of Colonel Barham" was bad!Puts me to sleep everytime I attempt to watch it!

...but a close second. "Zzzzz" represents OL at its worst, rehashing cliche's from the schlockiest of 50's movies. Now schlocky b-movies can be fun, but fans of OL had learned to expect much more from the series by the time "Zzzzz" hit the airwaves.

The plot revolves around the absurd notion of a queen bee assuming human form. How is this accomplished? Could this be accomplished elsewhere by another hive? Neither of these issues are addressed. Instead the bee-lady makes a beeline (pun intended) for our scientist hero. She wants him to father her brood of world-conquering children (nyah-hah-hah) and thinks that his doting wife should buzz off (pun intended).

From there the absuridites pile up. Our "monster" almost dies from food poisoning. Later she whines, "love me" to our hero scientist, still hoping to seduce him into fathering her brood of world conquering insects (nyah-hah-hah). Basically we learn that our monster-for-the-week is physcially weak and has all the manipulative cunning of a frustrated toddler. Her defeat seems inevitable less than half way through the story! Plus, her bee-buddies "think" the scientist's wife to death. Now even if I could wrap my head around that, I have to ask why they need to propagate a hybrid bee-human race if they could just think us to death. The good OL episodes would never allow such a gaping hole in logic, but this is not a good episode.

Much has been made of the attractiveness of the lead actress, and yes she is nice to look at and gets ample screen time. Unfortunately, her acting talents are mediocre, and when combined with a mediocre script, the episode sinks almost as low as OL could go. My advice is when this one comes on, take the next hour to catch a few Zzzzz's (pun intended).