GL84 After a rash of strange deaths, a teacher in a small Louisiana college town comes to believe that the strange deaths are the result of a strain of vampire bats mutated from released toxic waste and must try to find a way of stopping the creatures from further spreading throughout the area.This here turned out to be quite the enjoyable and entertaining effort. One of the better parts to this one is the fact that there's much more to the main storyline on display here, and makes for quite a stronger story than expected. The first half where the police being the investigation into the first accident and let the murder investigation turn into the initial realization of the bats being the culprit before turning into the investigation of their appearance there. That does lead into this one managing to feature some rather impressive action scenes here once they do learn of the creatures as the first attack on the boat-bound fisherman comes off rather well, the rather impressive double-attack where the bats simultaneously attacking the ferry's party and the rave at the same time which is rather fun how they're cross-referenced in order to play out at the same time and the chilling night-time sequence in the pool where the teens are attacked while trying to have a date- night in the pool are all quite chilling here. The finale is also quite fun with the confrontation in the church with the bats and their attempt at getting the bats to leave gives this some rather enjoyable fun to give this a high-end finale. With some solid- looking bat puppets used for their scenes, it looks quite nice overall. While these here are quite fun, this one does have a few minor issues against it. The film's biggest issue here is the fact that there's just not a whole lot of screen time with the bats in here, though there's some rather nice scenes of them here. There's several factors that hold up the pacing, with a large part of it due to the film's incessant and rather overlong explanation scenes where they go about tending to the kids and how they go about finding the different rationalizations that bring the bats to their attention, and it really seems to keep the attacks to a minimum while really figuring on the extended downtime here to this one. Being filled with the kinds of scenes that really just holds the creatures to these few scenes and really focuses on the other elements which is where the main problem with this one lies. Likewise, the fact that this one goes for the environmental cover-up in the second half is another rather strong factor in this one which really doesn't need to be here and really stretches this one out on bat-attacks as well as going for quite a clichéd plot line. As well, there's also the rather big issue with the CGI featured, which is quite a rather large issue here with the utterly terrible scenes in here showing their flight through the air or the plainly bad sequences of the multitude of creatures in one scene. These here really manage to hold this one down.Rated Unrated/PG-13: Violence and Language.

Prismark10 This made for TV film is about killer vampire bats but with an environmental twist.Some college students get drunk and drugged, end up being attacked supposedly by wild animals but the college biology professor Lucy Lawless reckons its mutated Vampire bats caused by toxic waste in the river.Lawless does her best with a lot of bland non entities. The CGI and special effects are below average and the action is boring with the bats being very selective as to who they attack.A poor and rather silly film.

Leofwine_draca I'm a huge fan of creature features, even the dodgy ones in which CGI monsters run amok and tear overacting cast members to pieces. Hell, I got a kick out of ATTACK OF THE SABRETOOTH and AZTEC REX, which is saying something. But VAMPIRE BATS, a sort-of modern-day version of NIGHTWING, turns out to be a deathly dull and completely senseless addition to the genre.Originally shown on Halloween in 2005, this is a short TV movie which nevertheless feels like it goes on for ages. The entire production is padded with dull SCOOBY DOO-style scenes of the characters creeping around and investigating a series of mysterious murders. It's all routine and predictable as you'd expect. Oddly, this is a sequel, a follow up to LOCUSTS which also starred Lucy Lawless.Needless to say that the acting is extremely bad, even from Lawless who would later go on to enjoy a mini career renaissance with her great role in the gory TV show SPARTACUS: BLOOD AND SAND. The special effects are a mix of silly CGI bat swarms and some slightly more convincing rubber models. One of the worst things about it is that there's no gore to speak of, no decent attack scenes a la THE BIRDS, just mindless, mind-numbing plotting with no wit, style or imagination. Give it a miss.

Paul Andrews Vampire Bats is set in the small Louisiana town of Mercier where Maddy Rierdon (Lucy Lawless) & her husband Dan Dryer (Dylan Neal) both teach biology at Tate University, Maddy learns that one of her students named Jason (Arnie Pantoja) has been found dead with all the blood drained from his body. Although murder is initially suspected Maddy takes a look at the body & discovers that it is covered in little bite marks that were caused by some animal but is unable to identify what. Shortly after two fishermen are also found dead with the same bite marks & having been drained of blood. Maddy eventually discovers that due to pollution an existing strain of Vampire Bat has mutated into something more aggressive that attacks & kills humans. Because all the local officials are incompetent Maddy & a few of her teenage students set out to destroy the Bat menace by themselves & save Mercier...Not to be confused with the classic Vincent Price film The Vampire Bat (1933) this cheap made for television Creature Feature crap was directed by Eric Bross & is terrible, the second time husband & wife team of Dan Dryer & Maddy Rierdon have battled mutant creatures after having previously appeared in Locusts (2005) which I have not seen but am sure is as crap as Vampire Bats. Vampire Bats is one of those routine lacklustre Creature Feature films that has stupid scientific reasoning behind it, illogical character motivation as they just do the most inane things, a shallow environmental message that feels like an afterthought & some terrible attempts at plot twists which come off as predictable. Even though the IMDb lists a run time of 120 minutes (maybe that's with commercials?) Vampire Bats runs a more modest 90 odd minutes but still feels like a real effort to sit through it in one go, the pace is slow with minimal Bat attacks, a low body count & dull character's who are purely stock clichés for this type of film. If I am honest I can't really think of a single positive thing to say about Vampire Bats (both the film & the real life creature when I think about it) & there are far better Creature Feature films out that that are far more fun to watch. A real lifeless, bland & routine effort that exists purely to fill a time-slot on television.Vampire Bats also has that made for television look to it, it plods along with no real style & has a young teen cast that were hired for their looks rather than their acting ability. There are very few actual Bat attacks, those we see are poorly staged with no sense of build-up at all. The film uses a mix of traditional puppet Bats & CGI computer effects with neither looking that great, the Bats are barely used to be honest & while there's lots of panicked talk of the threat they pose we see much of that threat materialise. There's zero gore, OK maybe a couple of dead Deer & a few Bat bites but nothing that will shock you or keep you up at night.Apparently the filming of Vampire Bats had to stop while the production was in New Orleans because of Hurricane Katrina & was relocated to Nova Scotia in Canada for completion. The acting is bad, just bad all round really.Vampire Bats is a poor Creature Feature of no interest at all, it has no gore, no scares, a stupid predictable plot & typical environmental message. Just another worthless Creature Feature that fails to deliver in any aspect, there is much better out there.