Harefooted Halloween: Bats

What I Liked: Wow what a fast paced and extremely slimed down story: there are genetically mutated bats on the loose and it’s up to the best damn bat expert there is (Dina Meyer (Starship Troopers)) and the local sheriff (Lou Diamond Phillips (Renegades)) to take ‘em down.

The bat attacks are frantic and plentiful.  Interestingly it’s not just the sheer number of these things that make them a threat but also the fact that any single one can rip your goddamn throat out in one bite.  Also, a good effort was made to vary the attacks scenes.  Sometimes people are stuck in a car, wide open on the streets, in a mine, in a school, etc. and that kept things exciting.  Even though the movie keeps throwing yet another bunch of bats at you it never gets old.  I found myself getting into it every time.

One thing I didn’t expect to see were animatronic/puppet bats.  I thought these fuckers were gonna be 100% CGI but they only used that technique for the massive swarms.  Otherwise you got honest to goodness tangible creatures and boy does it look charming/silly.  Look I love this shit but a bat with a frowny face wiggling its head at you from the dude shaking the thing just off screen is a little hard to take seriously.

What I Didn’t Like: We know next to nothing about the characters.  There are a few funny quirks the filmmakers added in though like the bat lady’s terrible story about how her dad forced her to confront her bat phobia by holding one, and the sheriff’s secret love for opera.

Unfortunately the attacks are shot mostly in close-ups and chopped to shit in editing so you can’t make out what’s happening too well.  This style wouldn’t be popular for another four or five years so you could call this movie a pioneer in that regard (that was sarcasm by the way).  Really though I can’t fault the filmmakers too much because they had to find a way to cover up the cheap CGI and puppets that the actors had to pretend to fend off.

Overall Impressions: I can’t believe how much of a good time I had watching this.  When it came out I remember the reviews were horrible but I honestly don’t get it.  Those assholes must’ve had bats in their belfries because this film has everything you’d want out of a killer bat concept.  I think it might be the ongoing prejudice against bats.  They don’t get a lot of love so it seems like a knee jerk reaction to bash anything bat-centric.  But not here.  I support the little fellas.  Although this movie sure ain’t doing much for their reputation.

This one’s a real easy watch.  You don’t have to be batty to like it, but that might help.