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The Bat People
Any problems with bats
were already foreseen with this 1974 Jerry Jameson film. However, no
lessons were learned from it, as we know from 2020, and I would say not
out of ignorance or superficiality, but because I am sure no one has
ever managed to finish this film without falling asleep. È
"The Bat People" isn't about vampires (maybe at some point but
superficially), it's not a Batman spin-off. It is just a film about a
guy who turns into a bat, wearing a ridiculous costume that we see in
full in the last minutes of the film.
A soporific, very slow story, where very little happens and where, for
a horror film, there is just a little splash of blood. But very little
indeed.
Instead, there are a series of stereotypical characters ranging from
the protagonist, to his wife, to a serious and capable doctor, and
ending with the classic stupid and crude provincial policeman who wants
to do the protagonist's wife. Who, despite then being harassed by the
man, drives around with him without any problems. OK.
Carlsbad Caverns National Park is a nature park in New Mexico famous
for its caves where, according to Wikepedia, sixteen species of bats
live. And it is there that husband and wife John and Cathy Beck
(Stewart Moss and Marianne McAndrew who were also husband and wife in
life) go on holiday. During a hike in a cave, he is bitten by a bat and
soon begins to suffer from ailments. He is also a medical expert on...
bats. A chiropterologist in short.
After the first ailments he immediately thinks of rabies, does some
check-ups and occasionally turns into a bat that for some reason kills
people. On the case and especially on the right track we find Micheal
Pataky (Rocky IV, Star Trek and Halloween 4 among many other things)
playing the slimy Sgt. Ward, an obvious sacrificial and expendable
figure leading to an ending, I'll tell you so you can fall asleep while
watching it, in which it is revealed that Mrs. Cathy is also a bat.
I am left wondering why a bat-man would go around killing people is
unclear. But I certainly don't want to watch this film again to find
out.