The Bat People (1974)

Director:

Jerry Jameson

Writer:

Lou Shaw (writer)

Release Date:

January 1974 (USA)

Genre:

Horror

Tagline:

After the sun has set and the night wind has died comes the hour of the bat people!

Plot:

After being bitten by a bat in a cave, a doctor undergoes an accelerating transformation into a man-bat creature, which ruins his vacation and causes considerable distress for his wife.

Plot Keywords:

Bat | Cave | Transformation | Vampire | Honeymoon

Cast

Stewart Moss	...	Dr. John Beck
Marianne McAndrew	...	Cathy Beck
Michael Pataki	...	Sergeant Ward
Paul Carr	...	Dr. Kipling
Arthur Space	...	Tramp
Robert Berk	...	Motel Owner
Pat Delaney	...	Ms. Jax
George Paulsin	...	Boy in Pickup
Bonnie Van Dyke	...	Girl in Pickup
Jennifer Kulik	...	Nurse / Victim (as Jeni Kulik)
Laurie Brooks Jefferson	...	Nurse

Also Known As:

Angel of Fear (USA) (working title)
It Lives by Night
It's Alive

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo (Todd-AO)

Certification:

Australia:M | USA:PG | Canada:PG (Ontario) | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | Canada:13+ (Quebec)

Filming Locations:

Bishop, California, USA

Company:

American International Pictures (AIP)

Trivia:

The first feature film for makeup artist Stan Winston.

Goofs:

Continuity: The second cave tour is several days after the first. Both tours contain the same tourists, wearing the same clothes.

Quotes:

Dr. John Beck: You're quite the philsopher!
Tramp: That's me: Jack-of-all-thoughts and master of none.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Mystery Science Theater 3000: It Lives by Night (#11.10)" (1999)

Soundtrack:

Angel of Fear

This movie causes rabies...

Or maybe that's what it feels like. Anyway, "The Bat People" is about as flat as a rug, bland as a sack of flour and as exciting as a rock...and as intelligent as all three combined.

Okay, plot in a nutshell (fitting vessel, that...): a doctor (Moss) gets bitten by a bat while checking out a cave with his wife (McAndrew) and subsequently turns into a bat - well, not exactly a bat but a bat-like creature that looks more like a werewolf who kills his victims in a first-person camera viewpoint....

But then there's the business of the sheriff (Pataki), who is about the WORST kind of sheriff: the hick kind. He hassles people, he leers at married women, he steals handkerchiefs from haberdasheries (the FIEND!), he smokes with one of those cigarette holders in his mouth and talks at the same time, making him look and sound like Buford T. Justice in "Smokey and the Bandit" and (this is the worst part)... HE'S THE MOST LIKEABLE CHARACTER IN THE WHOLE FILM!

The whole film, though, is just TV movie-of-the-week-like crapola (guano, in this case). It's an AIP, for crying out loud! What did you expect, Oscar caliber stuff?

And what else can you say about a film that not even MST3K can save?

How about...no stars for "The Bat People", full version OR MST3K version!

By the way, if there's ever a sequel for this movie, I'm burying my TV.