After sidetracking myself during my first attempt to watch Wasp Woman (I was trying to do it while writing a query letter to send to Outside magazine), I sat down again last night and applied myself a little more to the task at hand. Yes, those are my priorities. My obligation tonight? Watch Wasp Woman. Kids, this is what adulthood is really like. Don't let anyone tell you different.


Wasp Woman is basically a Roger Corman (you didn't think we'd get very far into this collection before his name came up, did you?) knock-off of The Fly, which was very popular at the time. For this particular story, an aging cosmetics queen becomes addicted to a new anti-aging formula her resident scientist has derived from wasp eggs. See, you think smearing wasp eggs on your face to reverse the effects of aging is weird, but think about what really happens. People inject themselves with bovine botulism to reverse the effects of aging. When reality is dafter than a Roger Corman sci-fi quickie, you know things have gone insane.

Of course she eventually uses too much of the wonder cream and is turned into the titular freak of nature, which causes her to go around killing people and building nests in the corners of their porches and storage sheds. Frankly, I'm surprised there hasn't been a made for the Sci-Fi Channel about a woman who OD's on botox and becomes a hideous cow-monster with the ability to shoot botulism from her fingertips. Or hooftips. Whatever she has. And shooting botulism or any other disease out of your fingertips is no less far-fetched than actually willingly injecting yourself with botulism to smooth out some wrinkles.

Scientifically, it's best to just roll with this movie. You can't expect a high degree of scientific reliability from a movie that is unable to tell the difference between wasps and bees.

Wasp Woman is a hard march for the first half hour, but once the craziness begins, Corman delivers exactly what you expect: a solid and silly if unspectacular B-movie. The acting is OK -- except for Corman's. He appears as a doctor who apparently injected himself with the essence of wood. This movie works as a great companion piece to Horror of Spider Island, and I'd like to see the freakish man-spider from that movie fall in love with the wasp woman. Now there's a monster -- a wasp-spider!?! Just what the world needs.

Labels: Set: Sci-Fi Classics