Bats (1999)

Director:

Louis Morneau

Writer (WGA):

John Logan (written by)

Release Date:

22 October 1999 (USA)

Genre:

Thriller | Horror

Tagline:

Where can you hide?

Plot:

Genetically mutated bats escape and it's up to a bat expert and the local sheriff to stop them.

Plot Keywords:

Bat | Experiment | Closed Mine | Bitten In The Throat | Sliced In Two

Cast

Lou Diamond Phillips	...	Sheriff Emmett Kimsey
Dina Meyer	...	Dr. Sheila Casper
Bob Gunton	...	Dr. Alexander McCabe
Leon	...	Jimmy Sands
Carlos Jacott	...	Dr. Tobe Hodge
David McConnell	...	Deputy Wesley Munn (as David Shawn McConell)
Marcia Dangerfield	...	Mayor Amanda Branson
Oscar Rowland	...	Dr. Swanbeck
Tim Whitaker	...	Quint
Juliana Johnson	...	Emma
James Sie	...	Sergeant James
Ned Bellamy	...	Major Reid
George Gerdes	...	Chaswick
Kurt Woodruff	...	Major #2
Joel Farar	...	Bartender

Also Known As:

Blood Moon (USA) (original script title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of bat attacks, and brief language.; Rated R for some graphic, bloody bat attacks. (international version)

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS-ES | Dolby Digital EX

Certification:

Malaysia:18SG (uncut version) | Malaysia:U (cut version) | Netherlands:16 | South Korea:12 | USA:R (DVD version) | Australia:M | Canada:PA (Manitoba) | Chile:TE | France:-12 | Germany:16 | Mexico:B | Norway:15 | Singapore:PG | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:PG-13 (certificate #37019) | Philippines:PG-13 | Iceland:16

Filming Locations:

American Fork, Utah, USA

Company:

Destination Films

Trivia:

The stock USAF aircraft footage was taken from the movie Iron Eagle II (1988).

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: In the scene where Dr. Casper and crew arrive in Texas and meet the Sheriff for the first time, the Texas state flag can be seen flying upside down on a flag pole in the back ground. The Texas flag should be white over red.

Quotes:

Jimmy Sands: There. Now it's securer than the god damn Alamo.
Sheriff Emmett Kimsey: Bad example there Jimmy.

Movie Connections:

Features Iron Eagle II (1988)

Soundtrack:

Fury!

Meanwhile Back In The Bat Cave

Bats, a film that should have premiered on the Science Fiction channel on cable, somehow got a theatrical release. If it had been made fifty years earlier I can definitely see Boris Karloff or Bela Lugosi in the part that Bob Gunton plays as the mad scientist.

The scariest thing about Bats is not the creatures themselves although they are the ugliest looking things this side of the Black Scorpion. The scariest part of the film was Bob Gunton's portrayal of the mad scientist who created this race of killer omnivirous Bats. He's identified as working for the Center For Disease Control. I was watching this figuring out how this creep got government clearance.

Yet Gunton is the most enjoyable thing in this film. And you got to love the fact that he had all these government facilities to work with, he's not hidden away in some laboratory in an old castle the way Karloff and Lugosi used to be. He's bred this race of flying fox bats from Indonesia which are aggressive to begin with and they've taken up residence in a bat cavern in Lou Diamond Phillips's county where he's the sheriff.

After several suspicious deaths with mutilation, the cause is identified and zoologists Dina Meyer and Leon Robinson are brought in to clean out the bat cave. If you care about how and if they do it by all means watch the film and the hint is, think blob.

Bats will never go down as a great science fiction classic, but it does have a certain campiness to it. And Gunton is a hoot.