La Nuit des chauves-souris

What is all the commotion about with regard to this movie? So many people seem genuinely ticked off at it....and I am just curious about their expectations before seeing it. My expectations were realistic...meaning I didn't expect much, nor was I disappointed in my expectations. This film is bad, yet in a way fairly entertaining. Like many films of its ilk it is not trying to be taken too seriously. We can tell this by the compact acting styles, the huge loopholes in plot, and the horrendous dialogue. None of the actors are particularly good. The CGI effects are dismal, and when the bats attack close-up one cannot see anything in the blurred action. Watching it I almost felt it looked a bit like Gremlins, only to be taken seriously and without the professionalism of all concerned in that film. On the other hand, there are many ways your time could be used less effectively...personally I like watching bad movies....especially a bad movie you can sit through and not be bored out of your mind with. Bats is just that ...a bad movie you can sit through.

I think the Oscar race just got a little tighter when Bats was released into the market. This is clearly one of the best films that has come out this year. You can forget about the cynicism of American Beauty, the brilliance of Fight Club, the ingenuity of Three Kings and the mania that is Sixth Sense, Bats is set to go down as one of the greats up there with Jaws, Patton, Rocky, Annie Hall and Amadeus. I think future generations of Hollywood directors and writers are going to turn to BATS to see how it is done. John Carpenter's Halloween and Spielberg's Jaws used to be the bench mark when it came to horror, but this has put a whole new perspective into how to scare someone at the theater. When I left the theater my knuckles were a ghostly white from gripping the arm rests and when I looked on the ghastly faces of the hundreds of people leaving the theater, they all had the same expression. They were frightened. The show ended at about midnight and we were all anxious to get into our cars because we were afraid those cunning bats were waiting to get us, right outside the theater. Now that is good film making. Jaws made me afraid of the ocean, I think Bats is going to make me afraid of the night sky. I have never seen bats that look this real in a movie. Those fangs were so real looking that most of the budget must have gone into the production of those intricately designed bats. Fangs, eyes, and even their hissing sounds were realistic. What a fantastic film. If this isn't nominated at Oscar time for best picture and director, then I would say that something is up with the academy. I am still in awe and utter fear as I sit here and write this review of Bats. This is one of the scariest films that I have ever seen. WOW!!!

Okay, I just had to do it. I had to.

Bats is really one of the worst films to come out this year. But this is a film that is so easy to rip on that I thought it would be fun to do the exact opposite and just confuse the hell out of the readers for a minute or so. The only award this may be winning this year is the Raspberry awards. But you know what? Going into this film, I was expecting a really, really, really bad film. I only got a bad one, so that was unexpected and a nice surprise. I think I, like most other horror movie nuts enjoy a good "bad" horror flick at times. There is just something about cheese that is fun at times. And for that reason, Bats delivers. Everything you have heard about the film is true. It is all bad. The bats are laughable, the story is a joke and the writing is awful, even the commercials looked pretty bad. But there is one good thing going for it, and that is that it had a subtle homage to Jaws in it. The guy that first gets killed at the beginning is named "Quint" and when they do an autopsy on him, it wreaked of Hoopers little angry deposition in Jaws when he tells them that it wasn't a boating accident. And if you can pick up on little subtleties like that then the film is more fun. Really, this isn't all that bad, I mean it is bad, but there are really worse out there. Have you ever seen Truth Or Dare? I mean the movie where mental patients get a hold of a grenade and blow their own heads off? Well that is really bad, I mean really, really bad. And as I said, this is just bad. But I saw it in an empty theater during the day. Seriously, there was just me and a friend. And at AMC in Toronto, they have retractable arm rests so that you can put them back and use the seats as a couch, which is what we did. It was very comfortable and we enjoyed the movie quite a bit more that way.

Bats will probably be gone by the time this review gets to IMDb so you may not have a chance to see it at the theater, but if you are in a campy horror movie mood, then rent this when it comes out on video. You may enjoy it. I hope you didn't take my accolades too seriously at the beginning of the film, it was all in good fun. And remember, sometimes bad movies can be fun to see. You don't have to think, you don't really have to feel either. And you get to laugh at stupid people doing stupid things. Bats is a great example of that. If Bats is even ever mentioned in the same sentence as American Beauty come Oscar time, there will be a federal inquiry and Mr. Logan and the backers of this movie may go to a maximum state prison and his punishment would be to watch this movie every day of his sentence. Now that would be funny.

Bats is a very generic late-'90s killer animal flick that follows most of the genre rules to the letter. All of the expected characters are present and correct—untrustworthy government scientist, brave local sheriff, doomed-to-die deputy, dedicated (and sexy) animal expert, wise-cracking sidekick—and the plot develops in an extremely predictable manner, opening with young couple alone in the dark falling victim to the bats, before introducing a whole townful of potential victims, and climaxing with our brave heroes risking their lives in a showdown against the deadly critters.

It all gets very silly at times, with perhaps the most unbelievable scene being the securing and electrification of a whole school by just four people in the space of a few hours, but it still proves to be quite a bit of fun, director Louis Morneau keeping the action moving at such a swift pace that such nonsense is fairly easy to forgive (unlike the director's tendency to 'skew', stretch and blur the image during the frenzied bat attacks, which I found bloody irritating).

What really helps to elevate this formulaic nonsense to slightly-above-average are the solid cast and some fairly decent special effects. Dina Meyer (of Starship Troopers fame) and Lou Diamond Phillips make for a likable protagonists, and Leon is far less objectionable as 'token comedy relief black guy' than one might expect. As for the bats, they're a mixture of more than reasonable CGI and nifty puppetry from KNB; my only gripe, FX-wise, is a lack of splatter—a bit more gore would have been very welcome.

"Bats" had its theatrical run and was widely distributed on rental VHS/DVD. Videostores carried multiple copies which got rented fluently. Yet from the looks of it - its rating on here - most people thought this was bad. Boy, have they not seen 'bad' yet. Things would get a lot worse in years to come with these type of films. For one thing, try watching the alleged sequel to "Bats" called "Bats: Human Harvest". The thing was made in 2007, for TV and then dumped to DVD as well. Go watch it; it's about 5 times worse than this film. Then come back and tell me which is the bad film out of those two. Or go watch "Fangs" from 2001 (starring Corbin Bernsen). It's the silly version of "Bats". I tell you, things can get a lot worse than this modest piece of killer bats entertainment. It even stars Lou Diamond Phillips and Dina Meyer. In 'worse' movies, you can't even count on a cast like this anymore. So why the complaints & puss-poor ratings on here?

I've seen quite some crappy horror-movies already, and you can say what you want about "Bats", but it's not a bad movie. Clichéd? Yes, kind of. Seen it all before? Yes, most likely. But the production values are more than just okay. It's well made. It looks good. Good camera work. The acting is more decent than what you normally can expect from a movie like this these days (like stuff produced by Sci-Fi Channel, The Asylum, need I continue?). I've seen much, much worse special effects when it comes to the CGI used in this one. And there are actually some cool shots of animatronic bats to be admired (from puppets with full body movement to close-ups of their heads with moving ears, grinning teeth and blinking eyes - it's always a kick to see SFX artists go the extra mile on this). The film's fairly fast-paced, keeps you going and never gets boring. It's basically a B-movie that looks damn good, sort of like stuff similar to "Tremors" (a fine early 90's monster movie classic) and its sequels. Or if you bump down the ladder a bit, you'll find a lot more (lower budgeted) genre outings telling pretty much the same story ("Skeeter" from 1993 comes to mind).

Of course "Tremors" works better on a variety of levels and "Bats" isn't as great by a long shot. For one thing, it misses some wit, and that black guy (Leon playing Jimmy Sands) trying to provide it didn't do a lot of good either. Still, a fun popcorn-movie for the somewhat less demanding horror-fan. If you have this feeling that genetically altered killer bats might amuse you, then ignore the low rating on here and just watch it.

Now, can someone recommend me a better movie with a whole bunch of killer bats in it?

I have always liked these kinds of creature feature movies. They are a lot of fun and unlike Friday the 13th, Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street etc it is clean enough that I don't mind the kids watching it. With Halloween around the corner they are already all about the scary, spooky, fun movies but the boys are only (almost) 10yrs old and finding fun stuff that doesn't have nudity and sex throughout isn't easy. We mostly have to stick to the old black and white spooky classics to avoid it. With the exception of a few things like this. Overall, a fun little watch that shouldn't be taken too seriously.