Movie Reviews

Bats

10 June 2000

Bats is the umpteenth horror film in which humans tamper with nature, turning animals into hideous monsters. Sharks have already suffered greatly from this concept. Jaws might have made us fear them, but it was Deep Blue Sea that made us hate them with a passion by making Jacqueline McKenzie one of their victims. Bats, however, is at pains not to give its chosen monsters a bad name, pointing out in an early scene that that, despite their awful reputation (caused by vampires and badly-dressed superheroes), bats are actually gentle creatures.

Oh, except these ones. These are the result of genetic re-engineering by crazed scientist Dr Alexander McCabe (played by Bob Gunton, the sad-faced Shawshank Redemption villain), in an effort to make perfect killing machines for the US Government. No, I'm not being facetious.

Enter the other standard horror movie characters, like Sheila Cassidy (Dina Meyer), a young and surprisingly good-looking scientist; and her assistant Jimmy (Leon - the guy's name is just "Leon"), a hip black guy who provides light relief. Of course, there's also a heroic, law-making hunk involved, this time Sheriff Emmett Emmett Kimsey (Lou Diamond Phillips), whose redneck town is being plagued by these demon bats. Oh, and there's a couple of other guys, who aren't as funny or attractive. And obviously, the military makes an appearance, with the traditional solution of blowing things up and not listening to reason.

If you've seen enough of these films (one of them will do), you can probably work out which of these people will survive and which will suffer hideous deaths in a barrage of digital effects. Director Louis Morneau seems to believe that suspense is heightened through chaos. When the bats attack, they are shown in a series of messy, confusing close-ups.

Nonetheless, Bats has some effective moments, perhaps because the monsters are real-life animals. Hitchcock's The Birds (1960) was even sillier, but was a chilling film nonetheless, if only because flocks of birds are far more common than mutant aliens.

Bats, sadly, becomes a far less convincing film. If you insist on seeing a silly animal movie, ignore this and rent Deep Blue Sea. Better still, watch Napoleon or A Bug's Life. Some animals have much better things to do than mutilating people.