It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

In this made-for-TV film, a group of freshman college punks get drugged up at an underground party, and ended up being attacked by violent bats. This leads to an investigation by biology professor Maddy Rierdon (Lucy Lawless), who discovers that the creatures are mutated vampire bats, threatening to the town.There are some average-rated action, including all the scenes of investigations, bat attacks and residents fleeing for their lives. Other than that, everything else was batty. The cast of characters didn't have much acting abilities, save for Xena star Lucy Lawless; the overall plot lines were not exciting; there were lack of scares and suspense; and the movie had an illogical messaging (especially the environmental elements).Overall, it is a pretty predictable but unexciting film, with no suspense built-up.Grade D

I personally wouldn't go as far to say that Vampire Bats is a great movie. However I don't think it is a terrible movie either, I have seen far worse. There is a predictable story that is not particularly scary that felt half nature gone amok and half of a derivative Scooby Doo episode, a cheesy and overly-talky script that is full of ludicrous scientific motivations, clichéd characters and the final scene was unnecessary, feeling tacked on. However, it doesn't look too bad a movie, the locations are great and the editing is much better than the slipshod quality I was expecting. The music is decent, adding a bit of atmosphere, and there are a couple of scenes that did make me jump if never really terrifying me. The vampire bats are reasonable, they are used more effectively than other creatures in other movies with similar if not completely identical ideas, and while not realistic they are less hokey in design than I thought. The acting is uneven, with Lucy Lawless who is actually good the best of the lot. Dylan Neal is a non-entity sadly and Brett Butler comes very close to overdoing it. All in all, not a good movie but there are far worse movies out there. 5/10 Bethany Cox

The main monster movie formula hasn't changed since the 1950s: The pet evil technology of the time (radiation, pollution, germ warfare, genetic engineering) in conjunction with the pet villain of the time (mad scientists, the CIA, right wing militias, evil industrialists) turn some natural creature into a dangerous mutated version of itself. Fighting it is made harder by clueless citizenry, corrupt politicians, and head-in-the-sand bureaucrats. Frequently the good guys are aided by a guilt-wracked insider. In the end, some sound or scent is often used to lure the creatures into one place where they can be destroyed.The variables are filled, in this entry, by pollution, evil industrialists, vampire bats, and music. Instead of an explosion, they are killed by steam. We don't see much of the insider, who is used mainly to throw the audience off as to which character is a crook.This movie isn't as silly or heavy-handed as many movies using this formula, plus the acting is better, but the fact remains that you've seen it dozens of times before. (Although the choices of evil technology and favorite villain always result in some reviewer gushing that it was "ripped from the headlines.")

*** May contain spoilers. *** Any viewer who has sit through three or more made-for-TV "attack of nature" movies will not find any clever plot twists in VAMPIRE BATS. However, the appealing elements of this movie more than make up for an unremarkable story.First, VAMPIRE BATS has no 11-year-old snotty nosed whiz kid upstaging the grown-ups. Please see my reviews of previous made-for-TV movies to see how many other films have been ruined by kid this Steven Spielberg wannabe convention. In VAMPIRE BATS, command of science remains in the adult realm.Second, but not least by all means, VAMPIRE BATS captures countless moments of attractive young females moving about in skimpy clothing. We are not talking just quantity here (although I dare say that this film can hold its own with the best R-rated horny teenager movies) -- no, we are talking QUALITY. The director of VAMPIRE BATS simply loves young, ripe, female curves in motion, and often proves this fact to the viewer.Don't expect GLADIATOR. Don't expect high drama or an epic film score. But if you are a heterosexual male who watches a lot of commercial TV, you can plan on having some fun with VAMPIRE BATS.