Theresa Derwin [ed] - Killer Bees from Outer Space

[dem bones]

Theresa Derwin [ed] - Killer Bees from Outer Space (KnightWatch Press, 2015)

Bob Veon

Theresa Derwin - Foreword

Dave Fragments - Beta Ares Prime
Pauline E. Dungate - Closed Borders
Nick Walters - Blood Slobber of the Scrunge Worms
Christine Morgan - Moth Women of Mars
Lily Childs - Bite of the Horrorcane
Holly Quinn - There's Something in the Lake
Amelia Mangan - I Was a Teenage Mummy Girl
Deborah Walker - Captain Clone
Doug Blakeslee - Bride of Gronk
Kevin Redfern - The Devil's Duck
Spindles [Simon Potthast] - Return to the Kingdom of the Shadow People
Ken Shinn - Punk'd Ya
Lynn M. Cochrane - Arthropod
Ross Warren - The Day of the Trifles
T. M. McLean - Council Workers
Gene Stewart - An Electric Hum

Blurb:

If you're over a certain age, you'll remember double features, and if you were a '70s child in Britain, you'll remember the Sat night Universal/Hammer Horror double bill showing such classics as Frankenstein Created Woman and Twins of Evil. Some of those films were great, and some were just plain awful.

Everybody loves a good B-Movie.

From Plan 9 from Outer Space, to Tarantula, and into the more modern era of B-Movies; Sharknado and Big Ass Spider (referenced in Nick Walter's decade-spanning story Blood Slobber of the Scrunge Worms). There's something wonderfully nostalgic and entertaining about seeing heroes battle giant CGI sharks or rubber spiders.

This anthology is a collection of stories inspired by and paying homage to the nature and style of a B-Movie. And boy, have we got a great eclectic mix of stories.

Moth-women of Mars, giant worms, tentacles, Mummy Girls, Shadow People; they're all in here! The difference is, where some of those old films were a little, er, badly written, these cultural gems are intelligent, witty, and sometimes moving pieces of literature playing with the clichés of the genre.

So grab your popcorn, your beverage of choice, sit down, open up this book and immerse yourself into the world of Killer Bees from Outer Space.


"From the very depths of space — they came to devour the human race."

Amelia Mangan - I Was a Teenage Mummy Girl: A thousand-year-old mummy inexplicably shows up at a drive-in during a screening of The Creature From the Black Lagoon. A hot-rodder, mistaking the desiccated husk for a Peeping Tom, lashes out, catching his fist on a golden scarab which draws blood .....

Holly Quinn - There's Something in the Lake: "Are you telling Friday the 13th again but changing Jason to a girl?" Angie Kim, councillor, is assigned supervision duties over the twelve-year-olds in Cabin 23 at Tranquil Oaks, the only girls summer camp in America to lack its own grisly murder legend — until now.

Nick Walters - Blood Slobber of the Scrunge Worms: Alan and Darren scour the racks in Solent Video for this Saturday night's VHS gore fix. After much argument, they take a chance on a late 'fifties cult classic they never heard of, Blood Slobber of the Scrunge Worms; "... it contains an uncharacteristically high level of body horror for its era with worryingly convincing special effects." Better still, a member of the cast died during the shoot. Back in 1958, Dale Jenson finally persuades his dream gal to ride out with him to Lakeville's lovers' lane. Just as he and Ella reach Make-out ridge, a meteor lands in the wood .....

Lily Childs - Bite of the Horrorcane: The God of the Wind inventively kills patrons of Joey and Ray's Beach Britannia Resort on the French Riviera, covering its tracks with a complex razing typhoon. Once media interest in the disaster is done, local officials again offer this prime site to overseas investors. The wind demands its regular quota of sacrificial victims, so better they're bloody foreigners.

Ross Warren - The Day of the Trifles: Should a Sarah Lee Deluxe start acting shifty in Besco, leg it.

TBC

[dem bones]

Horror at bath time; Alien sex games; When Dinosaurs ruled the Earth again; revolt of the dipso clone .... glad I took a punt on this one.

Dave Fragments - Beta Ares Prime: With Earth facing doom through mass overpopulation, man begins readying distant planets for colonization so he can ruin them, too. Captain Thorne's sexual proclivities give rise to a tree people on Beta Ares Prime.

Deborah Walker - Captain Clone: Disgusted at her "mother," the captain's treacherous pact with the leader of an advanced tentacled race, Mikar, a clone with a conscience and a red wine dependency, flies off with the ship.

Pauline E. Dungate - Closed Borders: Freelance journalists Cullen and Arkady investigate a meteor strike on Armenia's Khosrov Forest. The size of the lizards around this place! And why is the nature reserve patrolled by armed troops?

Kevin Redfern - The Devil's Duck: A novelty plastic bath toy is demonically possessed on a night of bloody soapsuds.

[dem bones]

Christine Morgan - Moth Women of Mars: Set in the year 2023 after man's colonization of the Red Planet. A team investigating a fatal tunnel collapse come under attack from giant man-eating lepidoptera in backless halter-top dresses. The chief-op takes it upon himself to detonate the entire cavern, no matter who is trapped down there. Female lead Dr. Corwin, entomologist, suspects his despicable behaviour has made matters worse.

Lynn M. Cochrane - Arthropod: Autobiography of a long-lived mutant spider on Milk Street.

Gene Stewart - An Electric Hum: Giant alien killer bees nest in a suburban garage. Clyde Wallach, misery guts, picks an inopportune moment to meet the Queen.

Spindles [Simon Potthast] - Return to the Kingdom of the Shadow People: one grim discovery in the caverns beneath Greenham Common airbase is swiftly followed by an ominous second threatening man's continued supremacy above surface.

Moth Women of Mars and Bite of the Horrorcane are personal highlights to date. Haven't disliked any.

[dem bones]

Doug Blakeslee - Bride of Gronk: A meteor strike on the Columbian river coincides with a fatal explosion in Professor Pearson's lab, letting loose his prize creations, a pair of enormous man-eating platypuses, the female heavily pregnant and none too particular about who she eats. It's best you stay clear of the Chinook salmon around here, too.

Ken Shinn - Punk'd Ya: Terry's employment at the Norton Pharmaceuticals plant is especially fortuitous for his happy slapping, drug-dealing mate, Mick Carter, the council estate's resident bully. One night, Terry arranges for them to steal a stash of a wonder opiate yet to hit the market. They'd have gotten away with it, too, were not Norton dumping chemical waste in the nearest river.

T. M. McLean - Council Workers: One morning, without prior notice, workmen in viz jackets and jodhpurs get busy digging holes throughout the village. A news report on TV seems to confirm the vicar's "alien invasion" theory. While the community cower in Mrs. Ledger's store, Fat Harold demands answers of the guy with a clipboard. Which is when things turn weird.

[jepersonoatcake]

Crikey! You've got round to this collection. My tale in this one was my first professionally (as in, I got paid for it) published piece of Horror fiction. Looking back on it now, I do find it a bit clunky and overly obvious, but I did enjoy writing it at the time and I still like parts of it now. My intent was to produce something like one of those early chapters in early James Herbert books where horrible things happen to horrible people and it rapidly becomes clear that the danger is spreading...

[dem bones]

Feb 5, 2023 2:49:58 GMT jepersonoatcake said:

Crikey! You've got round to this collection. My tale in this one was my first professionally (as in, I got paid for it) published piece of Horror fiction. Looking back on it now, I do find it a bit clunky and overly obvious, but I did enjoy writing it at the time and I still like parts of it now. My intent was to produce something like one of those early chapters in early James Herbert books where horrible things happen to horrible people and it rapidly becomes clear that the danger is spreading...

I "enjoyed" it, as I did much of the rest. Maybe Council Workers should have been last in the running order?

I got lucky with Killer Bees, chanced upon it while seeking out something else, and it was only £3.93 at the time. A week or so on, it's shot back up to £9.99 (Am*z*n). Maybe there's something to "the Vault effect" after all.