Killer Bees 1974

Edward van Bohlen is estranged from his family and their wine making business. His new girlfriend, Victoria Wells, convinces him to return to the family at their winery near San Francisco to reconcile, despite Edward’s warning that the clan is eccentric and reclusive. [Victoria Wells] is treated coolly by the family, but she becomes involved in the family power struggle.

[Victoria Wells] soon discovers that the family has been using an Africanized bee strain to improve yields at the winery, a detail that unsettles anyone hoping for a quiet return. The bees, however, are only part of a darker dynamic circling the Van Bohlen clan.

Madame Maria von Bohlen is the matriarch who runs the family wine business and wields more power than the veneer of a traditional winery would suggest. She possesses a psychic link that allows her to control the swarm that resides in the vineyard, effectively making her the queen of the hive.

As [Madame Maria von Bohlen] exerts this unusual authority, Victoria learns that the power is used to kill people she perceives as threats, a fact the family seems reluctant to acknowledge or confront. The tension inside the family grows as suspicion and fear thread through the estate.

[M adame Maria von Bohlen] dies under mysterious circumstances, and law enforcement remains highly suspicious but unable to obtain a search warrant to investigate further, effectively closing the case for the moment. Victoria and Edward plan to leave the family and return to their life once the funeral concludes.

During the Van Bohlen funeral, the bees assault the church, isolating Victoria as they shepherd her into the attic housing the main hives; yet, astonishingly, they do not attack her. The danger is real, but so is Victoria’s resolve to understand what the bees—and the family—really want.

Rather than depart in fear, Victoria returns to the winery, now accepted as the queen by the family, who begin to refer to her as Madame. The swarm responds to this new leadership, and Victoria finds herself occupying a perilous, enthralling throne at the center of the estate’s strange power dynamic.