When I was no more than 8, I was reading a particularly upsetting issue of Marvels TOMB OF DRACULA comic, alone, in my creepy room at our remote family cottage. I kept hearing this relentless “fup, fup, fup” sound, but dismissed it as my mom clambering about in the kitchen. But when I looked up, I saw this spastic black-blur circling overhead. It was a big-ass bat, trapped and circling overhead…
I shrieked in terror and my mother came running in to see what was wrong; when she herself saw the uninvited fanged guest, she screamed louder than me and ran from the room, closing the door behind her. Thanks mom!
Almost immediately my grandfather came in with socks on his hands, swinging a badminton racket, taking care of the creature for keeps and carrying my sobbing, shocked and shuddering self to safety.
Ever since then, Ive had this unnatural obsession with bats. I know they’re not the monsters the movies make them out to be. But, still, they freak me out and give me great cause for kinky fixation.
Here then is a rundown of my five favorite films featuring home-invading bats out for blood…
5. NIGHTWING (1979)
Terribly underrated eco-minded, post-JAWS-informed thriller about a strain of plague carrying bats who terrorize an Arizona Indian reservation. Arthur Hillers adaptation of Martin Cruz Smiths eloquent novel NIGHTWING was a flop when it came out and is hard to find; but its really good, with a strong central performance by Nick Mancuso (Bill from BLACK CHRISTMAS) , beautiful photography, a great sense of dread, an infusion of mysticism and a terrifying pack of little mutant bat monsters created by Carlo Rambaldi. Oh, and David Warner is in it, which is always a good thing…
4. BATS (1999)
Another critically maligned killer-bat epic, unlike NIGHTWING, BATS did a brisk box-office before being put-out to home video pasture (the film has of this writing not yet made it to Blu-ray). Its ripe for rediscovery. Blending mad science ( a lunatic doctor engineered a species of hyper-intelligent, carnivorous bats to wipe-out mankind) and nature-run-amok action, BATS (which feels like a perverse remake of NIGHTWING) may have damaged star Lou Diamond Phillips career but its great fun; an endless onslaught of frenetic and bloody bat attacks, trash-movie dramatics, lurid plotting and armed with a berserk, guano-filled climax.
BATS rules!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NWlsXlHT9Q
3. HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY (1981)
Lucio Fulcis weird Italian hybrid of THE SENTINEL, THE AMITYVILLE HORROR and his own THE BEYOND also takes a few cues from Dario Argentos landmark surrealist horror masterpiece SUSPIRIA, chiefly in its wild bat-attack. And while SUSPIRIAs bat-centric scene is a stunner, Fulci as he was prone to doing takes it wayyyyyy further, offering what is probably the single most insane crazy-bat sequence ever filmed. In it, the patriarch of a supernaturally-assaulted New England family (Paulo Mallco) goes to basement with his wife (Fulci regular Catriona MacColl); first she is attacked by a rabid, squealing, bloodthirsty bat and, when hubby steps in, the beast becomes fang-locked on his hand and he needs to get a pair of scissors to pry the bastard off.
Have a look at the inspired insanity…
2. KISS OF THE VAMPIRE (1962)
Director Don Sharps 1962 Hammer Horror masterpiece KISS OF THE VAMPIRE (shown on television in an edited and expanded with clumsy re-shoots version called KISS OF EVIL) has a curious history. Originally poised to be the second non-Christopher Lee starring sequel to 1958s HORROR OF DRACULA and a follow-up to 1960s incredible BRIDES OF DRACULA, further essaying the various vampire cults worshiping the dead Count, KISS utilized the ending intended for BRIDES. In it, the sadistic, bloodthirsty vampire Dr.Ravna (Noel Willman) and his family and secret social society of aristocrat undead are wiped out by a maniacal horde of bats, sent by the hero (Edward de Souza). Its an astonishing climax, with legions of the leathery-winged avengers whipping through the castle and obliterating everything. And then, in true Hammer fashion, the movie doesnt end, it just stops. Brilliant!
1. CHOSEN SURVIVORS (1974)
TV director Sutton Roleys obscure skin crawler is a chilly, nihilistic future-shocker that plays like an extended episode of THE TWILIGHT ZONE loaded for bear with hordes of starving vampire bats.
Echoing the classic TZ episode Five Characters in Search of an Exit and, to a lesser extent, the much later Vincenzo Natali thriller CUBE and even Romeros DAY OF THE DEAD, CHOSEN SURVIVORS revolves around a government selected group of otherwise unrelated American men and women of various professions and creeds who are drugged, whisked away and wake up 13,000 feet below the earths surface in a machine run, state of the art, hermetically sealed bunker. These lucky folks have been randomly chosen by the powers that be to survive an already in-progress, full-blown nuclear holocaust, with the hopes that, after the radiation levels ebb, theyll re-emerge and effectively reboot the human race.
But as the tragedy of their hopeless situation slowly sinks in and inevitable interpersonal tensions mount, events take an even grimmer turn when a pack of blood-starved, rabid vampire bats from the stalactite dripping guts of a nearby New Mexico cave, squirm their diseased way through the bunkers ventilation shafts and do their best to relieve the not so lucky subterranean homesick survivors of their most precious of bodily fluids.
The bats keep coming and coming and coming in this bizarre and obscure offering that also stars such notable character actors as Jackie Cooper (THE LITTLE RASCALS, SUPERMAN), Lincoln Kilpatrick (THE OMEGA MAN) and B-movie legend Bradford Dillman (BUG, ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES. The score by Fred Karlin (who also provided cues for one of the best made-for-TV genre films, BAD RONALD) is a primal, nihilistic, moog smothered drone and analog phasing freak-out that is absolutely first rate.
But the real stars of CHOSEN SURVIVORS are the convincingly ravenous, red eyed bats themselves, inching their way through tiny openings and swooping upon their screaming prey with lip biting gusto. Their presence in the shuddery elevator shaft escape climax alone is enough to have you shredding the sofa armrests. And if some of the blue screen special effects attack sequences fail to impress as much as they should by todays CGI soaked standards, its a forgivable flaw; if anything, they just add to the sheer hallucinatory, otherworldly weirdness the film manages to elicit from frame one to frame none. You can find it the now out of print MGM Midnight Movies DVD double feature with Robert Lipperts THE EARTH DIES SCREAMING. Hopefully someone puts it out on Blu-ray soon.
What are some of your favorite films featuring bats behaving badly?
