Bats MPAA Rating: PG-13 Entertainment: +2 Content: -2

When genetically altered bats attack a West Texas town, Dr. Sheila Casper (Dina Meyer) is called in to investigate. And an astounding discovery meets her there. A group of bats, normally plant and fruit eating animals, has been attacking and killing humans. This has happened because some of the bats with which Dr. McCabe (Bob Gunton) has been experimenting have escaped from his laboratory. So Dr. Casper, along with her assistant Jimmy (Leon) and Sheriff Emmett Kimsey (Lou Diamond Phillips), sets out to capture the bats responsible for these horrendous killings. But these bats have since infected other bats and now hundreds of them are infected with the virus. If the bats cannot be contained, their migration patterns will ensure that they come in contact with and infect other bats. This would lead to mass killings all over North America. Filled with corny jokes, lame dialogue, and a non-cohesive story, BATS is simply not that entertaining. On top of that, the action doesnt really pull through either, with expected bat attacks that hardly ever materialize. However, heavy advertising prior to Halloween may lure a lot of poor souls into theaters opening weekend.

Dr. McCabe clearly has a God complex. He feels that his advanced mind is responsible for creating the man-eating bats, an animal that supposedly rivals humanity as the most powerful creatures on the planet. But the movie portrays him as a lunatic who obviously thinks too highly of himself. It is also refreshing to see a film that lacks any hint of sexual content, with not even one crude sexual reference. Violence revolves completely around the bats, with either the bats being killed or doing the killing. When bats are killed, the scenes get pretty bloody; when people are killed, they are usually only covered with puncture wounds. A few mutilated corpses are shown, but other than that nothing is graphically violent. However, BATS doesnt fly with Preview due to frequent foul language, including 1 f-word, 17 s-words and 8 regular profanities.

Preview Reviewer: John Adair
Distributor: Destination Films