GL84 Sent to investigate a colleague's disappearance, a team of soldiers along the Russian forest finds the area overrun by genetically-altered bats created as a biological weapon and try to get out alive.On the whole, this is much better than expected and is overall quite fun. One of the best elements about this one is that the films beginnings as an Action film work incredibly well in placing rather impressive action scenes in the film. the first ambush in the forest is one of these great scenes with a lot going on to take control of the bats as they're valiantly fighting the creatures swarming all over the area, making for an impressive sequence. Likewise, the take-over of the bunker and the later ambush in the woods help keep the action going with the fire-fights, explosions and creature attacks to work in a rather impressive amount of action. Aside from the fine action pieces, there's some rather good times here with the film making the most of the bats as the central villains as the swarm here is just big enough to do some real damage as this is gory enough to matter and the special effects used for them are actually very well done with the CGI swarms getting good definition by letting each creature be spotted and the close-ups for the individuals being kept to a minimum so that the focus remains on the group in action. There are a few flaws here, mainly in the rather flimsy story about the purpose behind the mission to get the scientist. It's all quite haphazard as it was done in just a few brief segments that don't make a lot of sense. Otherwise, the bat attacks comprise so few moments of screen time that it's bound to be somewhat disappointing with that factor keeping the creatures to a few select scenes, but this isn't enough of a flaw to really hold back the rather important factors here.Rated R: Graphic Violence and Language.

alex wolfman After watching many horror films over the years, the idea of bats being the central feature of a film never really crossed my mind. Bats sometimes are in the background but not the stars of the show. These little mammals are obviously small and maybe a little creepy but unless you get very close, I just don't find them very scary.That said in 1999 came the movie Bats which received negative reviews and has been long forgotten. Bats was only for die hard horror fans. Then close to ten years later in 2007 and really out of nowhere, came this sequel on the SyFy channel, Bats: Human Harvest.The setting is supposed to be Afghanistan but unfortunately it looks nothing like Afghanistan. Here there is a Delta Force groups of soldiers trying to track down a terrorist who is a rogue American weapons researcher but along the way, they are attacked by genetically-altered killer bats. Looking at this, the main reason this film fails is because of the bats. There are no close ups of the bats and they are very generic and boring. They just don't work as a villain or a source of danger. Being a SyFy film, there are many unknown actors who are shallow and really struggle at times. All in all, the horror aspects as well as the CGI here is just of very low quality.One thing I was wondering is just what does this film want to be? It has horror aspects to it but it also contains a war story that is itself pretty shallow and wouldn't work on it's own as a war film. Frankly, I do not think war stories mesh well with horror ideas so this puzzle doesn't really fit even though it is original no doubt.Bats: Human Harvest is frankly very low quality junk horror that is very hard to sit through and I couldn't wait until it was over. Frankly this series is useless and unnecessary.

TheLittleSongbird Bats: Human Harvest is not a good or great movie, but I can think of far worse ways to waste my time. I did like the setting, not quite exotic but atmospheric enough, the photography is not too slipshod and the editing and music were decent. The effects and acting were uneven but by no means across-the-board-distractingly-bad. Some of the effects do look artificial, but the bats are ferocious enough. In terms of acting, there are some who do put effort into their roles, but also others who look as though they are just reading lines. The real problems though were with the characters, story and especially the script. The characters are stereotypical with not much development going on. The story is not exactly dull, but it is never exactly exciting either, and holds few surprises too. The script is the worst offender, often cheesy and stilted than not. All in all, one of the movies that falls into the some good/some bad category. 5/10 Bethany Cox

etg1701 Dull one-note characters with next to no development, unimpressive performances by people who sound like they're simply reading lines, and ludicrous special effects combine to make this a genuine stinker. The story begins with eminently bland commando Russo and his fellow soldiers attacking an Al-Qaeda training base. The scene tells us that Al-Qaeda has recently come to seek an ultimate weapon, and also serves to illustrate Russo's only character trait, a tendency to eschew teamwork. With the help of a collection of blank slates and walking stereotypes, including a Russian spy, Russo travels to Chechnyan territory to catch a mad scientist working for the terrorists. Along the way, they encounter vast hordes of flesh-eating bats that fly in broad daylight for some reason. From there, the movie becomes nothing more than a dragging morass of ridiculous action, including a scene in which a swarm of bats slices a soldier's arm off!