Nightwing (1979)

User Rating:

3.7/10   

Director:

Arthur Hiller

Writers:

Steve Shagan (screenplay) &
Bud Shrake (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

22 June 1979 (USA)

Genre:

Horror

Tagline:

In the dead of night they come - Swift - Silent - Savage

Plot:

Killer bats plague an Indian reservation in New Mexico.

Plot Keywords:

Bat | Plague | Vampire Bat | Rabies | Cave

Cast

Nick Mancuso	...	Youngman Duran
David Warner	...	Phillip Payne
Kathryn Harrold	...	Anne Dillon
Stephen Macht	...	Walker Chee
Strother Martin	...	Selwyn
George Clutesi	...	Abner Tasupi
Ben Piazza	...	Roger Piggott
Donald Hotton	...	John Franklin
Charles Hallahan	...	Henry
Judith Novgrod	...	Judy
Alice Hirson	...	Claire Franklin
Pat Corley	...	Vet
Charlie L. Bird	...	Beejay
Danny Zapien	...	Joe Mamoa
Peter Prouse	...	Doctor

Runtime:

105 min | Belgium:99 min (video)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Germany:12 | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 (1980) | Norway:18 (video premiere) | UK:15 | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

Company:

Polyc International BV

Quotes:

Anne Dillon: How could something so evil live in a place so sacred?

Movie Connections:

Featured in Terror in the Aisles (1984)

Soundtrack:

Don't It Make Your Brown Eyes Blue

Mysticism Uber Alles

This movie's fun, if based on a questionable premise. We have the stereotypical Menace -- in this case, vampire bats -- who have to be exterminated before they Get Us All, and the pivotal character is an American Indian cop.

A tribal elder on a reservation is apparently behind the appearance of the bats, as he apparently shamanistically summoned them to "end the world." This because sacred grounds are being threatened by an industrialist, who wants to exploit resources.

Now, a word of reality here: movies to the contrary, real Vampire Bats don't suck blood. They evolved from fruit bats, and they nip their sleeping victims and lap the blood. The astonishing thing is that they do this without waking their victims. Their bite and anticoagulant saliva are being studied by medical institutions for new technological advances (in surgery and anesthesiology). They're neither aggressive nor dangerous.

Nonetheless, the movie bats are a menace, and a force of nature. The film reaches a satisfactory ending, which solved the problem set up by the industrialist, too. Fun, but not to be taken seriously.