The Bat People

...it's still a load of crap.

As far as I am concerned, this movie is only notable as an early effort in the career of master make-up king Stan Winston (back when he was still listed in credits as "Stanley Winston". His huge talent is wasted on one halfway decent prosthetic hand, since the rest of the film's "horror makeup" consists of one bruised face and a lot of greasy sweaty faces. I mean, this is a movie about a guy turning into a bat, and aside from the above-mentioned hand, the only time he actually turns into a bat, it looks like they borrowed an ape mask from a bad 1950's werewolf movie.

The acting is horrid, the plot paper-thin, the script awful, the music painfully bad, the ending lame, the effects laughable (except, as always, for the hand), and the directing is atrocious. Heck, even the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode featuring this movie is mediocre.

Okay, okay, to be fair, the scene with the hospital wristband is not THAT bad, but any movie that features a woman who turns into a bat after having sex with a man who was bitten by a bat...trust me, avoid this movie at all costs. About the only thing I can say in its defense is that it isn't quite bad enough to be too bad even for an MST3K episode.

This movie promised bat people. It didn't deliver. There was a guy who got bit by a bat, but what was with the seizures? And the stupid transformation? Where was the plot? Where was the acting? Who came up with the idea to make this? Why was it allowed to be made? Why? Why? I guess we'll never know.

Stewart Moss & Marianne McAndrew play a newlywed couple(married in real life as well) who go exploring Carlsbad Cavern, where Moss(Dr. John Beck)is bitten by a fruit bat after he falls into a hidden crevice. After he frees himself and goes home, he finds to his horror that he now transforms into a killer Man-Bat, who must drink blood in order to survive. He is helped by his sympathetic wife, but pursued by the local sheriff, who has designs on Mrs. Beck...

Film has a distinct aura of melancholy about it, and isn't badly acted at all, but is awfully slow-paced, with inadequate make up F/X by future Oscar Winner Stan Winston. Has some distinct atmosphere at times, but ultimately fails, despite a haunting final scene.

This movie may not be classic material (to put it charitably), but it does have a couple of things going for it. Not the plot, dialogue, production values, or anything else meaningless like that. But it does have a sense of time and place (a chic Colorado ski resort in the midst of the swingin' Seventies), and it does have Paul Carr as Dr. Kipling, the very archetype of the hip, swingin' Seventies dude. With the blow-dried coif (reminiscent of those old "Dry Look" ads), the bushy moustache, the deep, mellow voice and manner, and overall air of grooviness, Dr. Kipling is the ultimate in Seventies cool! Confident without being smug or arrogant, cool without being aloof, this man is a suitable role model for anyone to emulate.

As for the movie itself, well, it bites.

After a doctor is bitten by a bat, he goes on a killing spree as a man-bat creature.

The Bat People is a slow and sluggish film with very little thrills or excitement. The premise isn't a bad one but it's so poorly executed that you end up bored throughout the entire picture.

The only redeeming factor is the decent make-up effects by a young Stan Winston. However even they are very few and far between.

Most of the time you're treated to stock footage of bats and uninteresting characters.

So, if you want some 70's schlock then look no further than The Bat People. It currently has a 2.3/10 on IMDb so that should indicate what you're getting into.