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THE HUMAN BEEing
Produced by Colin Harper Plank
Directed by Tony Shea
Written by Tony Shea, Jim Coughlin, Colin Harper Plank, and Andy Abramowicz
Edited by Jennifer Katz
Director of Photography - Megan SchoenbachlerDr. Metzenbeamer - Jim Coughlin
Stacey -Ronit Feinglass
Bee-ing - Edmund Hives
Allen - Eric Hoffman
Joe - John VargaHorror movies of yester-year aren't anything like those of today. Instead of morality plays about monsters and the men who created them, we now get teens in peril with a side order of sensory overload.
Tony Shea's THE HUMAN BEEing is an homage to those simpler times when an independent filmmaker would drive his movie around the country if he wanted it shown. Men like William Castle would peddle their gimmicks from town to town in the trunks of their cars in hopes of creating attention and attracting an audience. Trialers weren't merely shots of a film's best moments that gave away key plot details, but rather straight hyperbole designed to create the illusion of a quality production. Looking back, that grassroots era of exploitation is more pure and innocent than today. In those days all the lies and deception came with a wink. Today we're suppossed to buy into all the bullshit surrounding a production. For me, that takes away all the fun.
Right from the getgo viewers know THE HUMAN BEEing isn't going to be run-of-the-mill. It opens with a William Castle figure talking up the picture and describing the sheer terror audience members will be subjected to thanks to the hokey effects and overly ripe dialogue. He then goes on to list all the heart patients and palsy-types who shouldn't be allowed to subject themselves to the frightful experience. I guess that "sheer terror" can be too much for someone not in peak health.
Of course that's not what we get. The monsters and mayhem are approached with tongue planted firmly in cheek, and those acquainted with 1950's horror and sci-fi will be best equiped to catch all the jokes and references, some of which, admittedly, even went over my head.
The Human Bee-ing is just that, a genetically spliced "flam gobbledy blib" of human and XXXXX DNA. Created by one Dr. Metzenbeamer, the resulting creature is a 1950's office worker whose sole goal is to put forth endless hours of manpower for the betterment of the hive-like corporate structure. Just as bees are breed into two classes, drones and workers, each with specific duties and tasks, Tony Shea reflects the sexually biased world of 1950's corporate America by breaking the sexes down into sterotypes of "men who sign" and "women who type".
Shea uses the conservative timeframe to satirically explore other avenues of social weight bearing relevance today including bigotry and racial profiling, as well as inter-racail relationships. Never making light of his topics, Shea prefers to satically poke fun of the closed-minded attitudes surrounding those people that don't question the norm. In the end, it's those that strive for inviduality who set the norm for the rest of the hive to follow. It's a retro-flavored take on life, but one that's well suited for THE HUMAN BEE-ing.