By Geno McGahee
I’m usually a big fan of horror films that involve freaks of nature, and I have contended that Lou Diamond Phillips has not made the impact on film that he probably should’ve, but he did himself no favors with his decision to be in the terrible horror film “BATS.” The 1990s wasn’t a great time for horror with only films like THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT and SCREAM standing out among the countless terrible films of the genre. So, BATS lived up to the low standard
set by that decade. Good job BATS.
Genetically-engineered huge bats created by the mad scientist, Dr. Alexander McCabe (Bob Gunton) have terrorized a small town, prompting bat experts to be called to town. Dr. Sheila Casper (Dina Meyer) and her assistant Jimmy Sands (Leon) come down to help solve the problem. They team up with the local Sheriff, Emmett Kimsey (Phillips) to deal with the killer bats.
Gunton is always good and he’s good here too. He does the best he can with the shitty material he has to work with. His delivery is spot on here and Phillips also does his best to make this movie work, but there isn’t much going on here. There isn’t much to this movie. There are killer bats and a battle of survival but other than that, there is little character development and there is plenty of filler.
The bats attack the town and the survivors attempt to fight them off. They are looking for a plan to stop them before the military bombs the entire town to save the surrounding communities. After the crazy scientist is taken out, Casper and Phillips team up, walk through a lot of bat shit to find their base and take them out. (Spoiler) They take out the bats and drive away victorious and leave the audience asking the important question: How did I make it through this film?
BATS, despite a capable cast, is a horrible movie. Gunton and Phillips try very hard to make this movie compelling, but they have nothing to work with and the moments where they show their magic are quickly forgotten as this movie pushes forward. The movie had more than one ending as well. I am guessing that they had to push this flick to 90 minutes and had to add more scenes.
Not that it was necessary, but there was no love story between the sheriff and the scientist. No, not Gunton…although that would have been fine too. The lack of romance between Casper and Sheriff Kimsey took away from the film. They were strangers walking in and remained so at the conclusion. There wasn’t that partnership that you like to see in these films where you have people going against some force.
There is nothing redeeming about BATS. This was in the infancy of CGI and it seems the focus was on that. They could create fake bats using a computer and they were quite taken with it. Other than the bats, they seem to have no ideas for this one.
Rating: 2/10
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