Vampire Bats (2005)

Very well executed

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

Vampire Bats is set in the small Louisiana town of Mercier where Maddy Rierdon (Lucy Lawless) & her husband Dan Dryer (Dylan Neal) both teach biology at Tate University, Maddy learns that one of her students named Jason (Arnie Pantoja) has been found dead with all the blood drained from his body. Although murder is initially suspected Maddy takes a look at the body & discovers that it is covered in little bite marks that were caused by some animal but is unable to identify what. Shortly after two fishermen are also found dead with the same bite marks & having been drained of blood. Maddy eventually discovers that due to pollution an existing strain of Vampire Bat has mutated into something more aggressive that attacks & kills humans. Because all the local officials are incompetent Maddy & a few of her teenage students set out to destroy the Bat menace by themselves & save Mercier...Not to be confused with the classic Vincent Price film The Vampire Bat (1933) this cheap made for television Creature Feature crap was directed by Eric Bross & is terrible, the second time husband & wife team of Dan Dryer & Maddy Rierdon have battled mutant creatures after having previously appeared in Locusts (2005) which I have not seen but am sure is as crap as Vampire Bats. Vampire Bats is one of those routine lacklustre Creature Feature films that has stupid scientific reasoning behind it, illogical character motivation as they just do the most inane things, a shallow environmental message that feels like an afterthought & some terrible attempts at plot twists which come off as predictable. Even though the IMDb lists a run time of 120 minutes (maybe that's with commercials?) Vampire Bats runs a more modest 90 odd minutes but still feels like a real effort to sit through it in one go, the pace is slow with minimal Bat attacks, a low body count & dull character's who are purely stock clichés for this type of film. If I am honest I can't really think of a single positive thing to say about Vampire Bats (both the film & the real life creature when I think about it) & there are far better Creature Feature films out that that are far more fun to watch. A real lifeless, bland & routine effort that exists purely to fill a time-slot on television.Vampire Bats also has that made for television look to it, it plods along with no real style & has a young teen cast that were hired for their looks rather than their acting ability. There are very few actual Bat attacks, those we see are poorly staged with no sense of build-up at all. The film uses a mix of traditional puppet Bats & CGI computer effects with neither looking that great, the Bats are barely used to be honest & while there's lots of panicked talk of the threat they pose we see much of that threat materialise. There's zero gore, OK maybe a couple of dead Deer & a few Bat bites but nothing that will shock you or keep you up at night.Apparently the filming of Vampire Bats had to stop while the production was in New Orleans because of Hurricane Katrina & was relocated to Nova Scotia in Canada for completion. The acting is bad, just bad all round really.Vampire Bats is a poor Creature Feature of no interest at all, it has no gore, no scares, a stupid predictable plot & typical environmental message. Just another worthless Creature Feature that fails to deliver in any aspect, there is much better out there.

I have no hesitation to give this a one out of 10. The last time I check, this movie scores a 4.7 on the IMDb; no doubt the work of maligners who abused the ratings system simply because of the presence of Lucy Lawless in the movie. This is crazy. If Lawless strapped on her Xena armour and started dishing out pain to the bats, I might have given this movie at least a 5. However, Lawless only got a broom as weapon in this movie. What did she do with the broom in the movie? She tripped the bad guy. Boo Hoo. Big Deal.There is no excitement in the movie and I felt like I am getting a lesson in environmental conservation from some greenies. The death scenes of victims are lame. One guy got bitten to death despite just an inch away from the swimming pool and he would have been safe if he just jumped into it. The way they killed the bats are lesson 1 in lame. There is twist in the end. Actually, not a twist but more like a crumple in the script which really doesn't connect to anything. The final scene (3 months later) is completely, utterly and totally unneeded. It looked like they just thought to get Lucy Lawless on screen again for the last time.Lame and terrible. Xena would not have been pleased.

Aaron, Eden and Jason are back for another semester at Tate University in Louisiana. It is quite hot, so many of the guys and gals are showing off lots of skin as they have fun getting wet. The three students with lines want to party too, but in a different way. They all go to a party at night where there is drinking--and they do more than get drunk.One of the students starts hallucinating and hearing weird noises. He even hears what might be bats.Dr. Maddy Rierdon, who saved the world from locusts in another movie, teaches biology at Tate, and her husband Dan does as well. They are building a house, with the usual problems that causes, and their two kids need someone to take care of them while their parents are in school. That responsibility falls to the kids' Aunt Shelly, who likes to move things around even when Maddy and Dan have everything the way they want it.Two of Maddy's students are arrested after another of her students is found dead. Maddy gets involved, but it's not just because she cares too much about her students. Her area of expertise allows her to figure out just why the student died the way he did (isn't this amazing!). It turns out the student has similar wounds to those found in dead deer in the area--and he has been completely drained of blood.This may or may not be related, but Hank, the town's mayor, seems to be a little too friendly with Carbide, a company dumping toxic wastes.The party animals find a new place for their next event--the steam tunnels under the campus. Their guests, as it turns out, include bats. In fact, Maddy and Dan also attend a party--a much more dignified one--and guess who also shows up?Maddy comes up with a plan for getting rid of the bats. It's not perfect, but it might work. And her students are all too willing to help. Several solutions to the problem are found--all pretty unbelievable and none quite ideal, but entertaining nonetheless. Especially since the wildlife officer doesn't completely support Maddy's efforts.I didn't see a lot of good acting in this movie, but Lucy Lawless seemed to do quite a good job in class as she explained to her students what was going on. Brett Butler did the best job as the annoying Shelly, who was nowhere near as caustic as the "Grace Under Fire" character, which I never saw except in clips.The story wasn't all that scary. Most of it was investigation and problem-solving, which turned out to be enjoyable if not all that realistic. Maddy and her students would have to be absolutely brilliant and incredibly lucky. As for the bats themselves, I have to wonder why they were so selective with their targets and with their lairs. I didn't care for their ugly faces or the graphic violence (which probably lasted all of 15 seconds). Another thing: we are lucky rabies symptoms don't appear as quickly as they apparently did here. Once there are symptoms, there is no hope.Maddy's students included Lizzie (Robin Hines), Eden (Jessica Stroup), Aaron (Brandon Rodriguez), Keith (Andrew Matthews) and Miles (Josh Segarra).Overall, I found this enjoyable.

*** May contain spoilers. *** Any viewer who has sit through three or more made-for-TV "attack of nature" movies will not find any clever plot twists in VAMPIRE BATS. However, the appealing elements of this movie more than make up for an unremarkable story.First, VAMPIRE BATS has no 11-year-old snotty nosed whiz kid upstaging the grown-ups. Please see my reviews of previous made-for-TV movies to see how many other films have been ruined by kid this Steven Spielberg wannabe convention. In VAMPIRE BATS, command of science remains in the adult realm.Second, but not least by all means, VAMPIRE BATS captures countless moments of attractive young females moving about in skimpy clothing. We are not talking just quantity here (although I dare say that this film can hold its own with the best R-rated horny teenager movies) -- no, we are talking QUALITY. The director of VAMPIRE BATS simply loves young, ripe, female curves in motion, and often proves this fact to the viewer.Don't expect GLADIATOR. Don't expect high drama or an epic film score. But if you are a heterosexual male who watches a lot of commercial TV, you can plan on having some fun with VAMPIRE BATS.