Bats, l'invasion des chauves-souris

The dialogue of the college-aged characters towards the beginning of this made for TV film captured my attention. The group, which tended towards the Gothic or nerd type of college stereotype, spoke like real people.

The pacing and editing was above par for a TV movie, and the fact that Lucy Lawless does not age continues to confound me.

I Tivoed this movie, and because of the Sunday time-shifts from the afternoon NFL games, I missed the last 15 minutes of the film. I hope to catch it the next time it is run. Ideally, I will not have to wait until next Halloween.

This movie, with a little more money and the proper advertising, could have been an acceptable movie theatre offering. OK, maybe another A/B list lead to counter Lucy Lawless would be necessary, but the basics of an intelligent, somewhat thought-provoking movie are firmly in place with Vampire Bats.

I personally wouldn't go as far to say that Vampire Bats is a great movie. However I don't think it is a terrible movie either, I have seen far worse. There is a predictable story that is not particularly scary that felt half nature gone amok and half of a derivative Scooby Doo episode, a cheesy and overly-talky script that is full of ludicrous scientific motivations, clichéd characters and the final scene was unnecessary, feeling tacked on. However, it doesn't look too bad a movie, the locations are great and the editing is much better than the slipshod quality I was expecting. The music is decent, adding a bit of atmosphere, and there are a couple of scenes that did make me jump if never really terrifying me. The vampire bats are reasonable, they are used more effectively than other creatures in other movies with similar if not completely identical ideas, and while not realistic they are less hokey in design than I thought. The acting is uneven, with Lucy Lawless who is actually good the best of the lot. Dylan Neal is a non-entity sadly and Brett Butler comes very close to overdoing it. All in all, not a good movie but there are far worse movies out there. 5/10 Bethany Cox

This made for TV film is about killer vampire bats but with an environmental twist.

Some college students get drunk and drugged, end up being attacked supposedly by wild animals but the college biology professor Lucy Lawless reckons its mutated Vampire bats caused by toxic waste in the river.

Lawless does her best with a lot of bland non entities. The CGI and special effects are below average and the action is boring with the bats being very selective as to who they attack.

A poor and rather silly film.

BAD, BAD, BAD ! I can't stress this enough. I know t.v. movies suck, but this... The actors who played the students should look for work in a paint factory, cause watching that dry would have been a much better use of my time. This could have had something, but it was handled poorly. Even the lead actors were very boring. It felt way to padded. It could have run at about one hour. That to would have been to long. I don't know why Xena would get hooked up in this. The ending was so bad, even a 5 year old could guess what was going to happen. I was sort of looking forward to this, but was let down, way down. Next Halloween leave this in the guano where it belongs and choose something with some real bite !

In Mercier, Louisiana, the freshmen friends of the Tate University Jason Ortiz (Arnie Pantoja), Aaron (Branson Rodriguez) and Eden (Jessica Stroup) go to an underground party in the woods nearby the local cemetery. They drink the punch spiced with ecstasy and completely drugged, Jason is attacked and killed by violent bats. When the police finds the body, they arrest Aaron and Eden as prime suspects. However, their biology professor Maddy Rierdon (Lucy Lawless) sees the corpse and advises that the youngster had been actually bitten by animals. When Maddy catches bats using a goat and a net, she realizes that the animals are mutant vampire bats with extra fangs and that the modification of the breed was caused by the water dumped by Carbide Waste Resources in the river. While a group seeks the lair of the bats and a means to eliminate them, Maddy discloses corruption in the town.

"Vampire Bats" will never win an Emmy but it is a pleasant entertainment. The Brazilian title of the DVD induces the viewer to horror genre and I believe the target audience is never reached. The story is actually an adventure and if the viewer watches this movie with minor expectation, he or she may find a nice surprise. There are some usual flaws and clichés in this film, but there are also good and funny moments. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Morcegos - Assassinos da Noite" ("Bats - Night Killers")

Note: On 07 March 2025, I saw this film again.