The Bat People
The Bat People
PG | 15 January 1974 (USA)
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Dr. John Beck, recently married, decides to take his wife, Cathy, spelunking in Carlsbad Cavern. While there, Dr. Beck, who specializes in bats, is bitten by a fruit bat. He is then, inexplicably, transformed into a vampire bat. While he escapes and seeks help from another doctor, it is clear the treatments are not working. In fact, they are aggravating his condition. Dr. Beck unwittingly goes on a killing spree, catching the attention of Sergeant Ward.

Reviews
Nessieldwi

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

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Livestonth

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

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Griff Lees

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

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Ariella Broughton

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

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oscar-35

*Spoiler/plot- The Bat People, 1974. A scientist and his wife are enjoying a delayed honeymoon when he is bitten by a bat while hike in the desert. Afterwards, he begins to experience strange seizures and terrifying nightmares. He then become the prime suspect in a recent series of grisly murders many that duplicate his own dreams. With the body count mounting, he is soon the focus of the police manhunt and he becomes less and less human and more of a wild bat.*Special Stars- Stewart Moss, Marianne McAndrew, Paul Carr, Michael Pataki.*Theme- Modern science can only do some much.*Trivia/location/goofs- The couple in the film were really married in life. First film for special make-up artist Stan Winston. Identical cave tour footage is used on two successive days of the plot.*Emotion- Unfortunately this film does not deliver or give entertainment to the viewer. This film's over-done premise is just an updated them of the 'werewolf' story. Everything in the film plot is boring until the odd ending when the wife of the infected man goes off to join him in his misery rabies holding bat cave.

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gavin6942

After being bitten by a bat in a cave, a doctor (Stewart Moss) undergoes an accelerating transformation into a man-bat creature, which ruins his vacation and causes considerable distress for his wife (Marianne McAndrew, Moss' real-life spouse).So, yeah, there is a lot of unnecessary fluff, such as scene of skiing and sentimental music playing. But why the hate? We still have a cool transformation scene, not unlike a werewolf film... only into a much more awesome animal. Did the creators of this film read Detective Comics #400 (June 1970) and get inspired by Man-Bat? Maybe...Best of all, this was the first film for makeup legend Stan Winston. Say what you will about this film, but the effects are cool and Winston went on to some of the greatest projects in film history.

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Chase_Witherspoon

Real life husband and wife team (Moss & McAndrew) are enjoying a delayed honeymoon on the ski slopes, when Dr Beck (Moss) is bitten by a rabid bat during a cave tour, transforming him into a murderous bat freak. Sleazy local sheriff (played by the reliable and underrated Pataki) suspects Dr Beck might be involved, but his efforts to catch him in the act are constantly thwarted. The metamorphosis scenes are pretty lacklustre to say the least; each time Moss' eyes roll back into his head, the grainy stock footage of bats appears amid psychedelic hallucinations, while he goes into convulsions on the floor.The doctor's lovely wife becomes completely deranged, impregnated with the bat freak chromosome after an intimate, 70's loop-style embrace. A spine-tingling score belies the tepid chills felt throughout the film, which struggles to build suspense and often seems like it's run out of road. Moss' conviction is admirable, but ultimately misguided, such is the over-the-top intensity with which he executes his characterization. McAndrew is a dark, brooding beauty, but with precious little to do except look neglected or supportive dependent on Moss' mood, and former 20th Century Fox studio player Paul Carr is also on hand to offer medical support.If perchance you're wondering what would a bat manimal look like, it's not dissimilar to one of John Chambers' primate creations from the Apes movies. Evidently, make-up man Stanley Winston was inspired by Chamber's creations, despite the fact these are bats, not apes. But that's a trivial detail.

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sddavis63

I didn't think this was as absolutely horrible as some people apparently do. It passes as one of those cheesy horror movies you might waste time with in the middle of the night when you can't sleep, although admittedly it's no better quality than that. It's true that the acting isn't great - I thought Marianne McAndrew as Cathy Beck, for example, came across as completely passionless - but the main problem is that several aspects of the plot didn't really make sense to me. The Becks are on a trip described by John (Stewart Moss) as part work and partly the honeymoon they never had (now that's romantic!) The work part has something to do with touring caves, which in itself sounds strange (how does being part of a tour group through a cave relate to anyone's work?) but it gets stranger when we find out that he's a doctor doing research in the area of preventative medicine (huh? That connection completely lost me.) Bitten by a bat while he's in the cave, he begins to transform into what I guess was supposed to be a human-bat hybrid (although when we finally see him in makeup he looks a lot more like an ape-man of some sort) and a killing spree starts. Here's another problem. The first killing is a nurse in a hospital. At first, everyone thinks her death was an accident. The second murder is of a young girl, who is described as having her throat ripped out. The sheriff (Michael Pataki) then tells us that her death was similar to the nurse's (meaning throat ripped out? - How could anyone think that was an accident?) And what's with the sheriff? He seems pretty no-nonsense until the scene in Cathy's hotel room when he takes a swig of liquor and then almost rapes her, after which everything seems to go back to normal. It's saddled with an ending that left almost everything unresolved, and also with one of the most irritating theme songs I've ever heard in a movie. Even for all that, there was something here that kept me watching. Sometimes pure cheesiness can get you through an hour and a half. Pretty bad, yeah - but not as awful as some people say.

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