Editorials
‘Bats’ Flies High as a Proud Slice of B-Movie Entertainment [We Love ’90s Horror]
The ‘90s often get a bad rap with horror fans. After the numerous successful slashers and creature effects films of the ’80s, the ‘90s offered a different variety of horror fare. Though there were plenty of hits, hidden gems, and misunderstood classics, the ‘90s usually don’t get the kind of love that other decades get when it comes to horror. It’s time to change that.
Released in 1999, Bats is the kind of movie almost everyone is going to scoff at as soon as they hear the title. Immediately, images of cruddy SYFY premiere movies and direct-to-video schlock fills their brains. It’s understandable. A movie about a swarm of genetically mutated killer bats starring Lou Diamond Phillips sounds exactly like the kind of lazy, slapped together creature feature that drowned video stores in the late ‘90s and throughout the ‘00s. There is no reason why someone shouldn’t take a cursory look at Bats and think it’s as equally disposable and poorly constructed as oh-so-many bargain bin bad movies.
Here’s the thing: Bats knows this is what you think of it. And it says, “Hell, let’s be the best version of that we can be.” And damn does it succeed.
The script by John Logan – his theatrical feature film debut – doesn’t have an original bone in its body and decides to run with that knowledge. By embracing every cliché of its sub-genre, Bats is free to revel in the simple pleasures of itself. The story hits the ground running and never really stops. Does that mean you’re going to have time to build complex characters out of Sheriff Emmett Kimsey or Dr. Sheila Casper? No, but that’s why you cast genre stalwarts like Lou Diamond Phillips and Dina Meyer to infuse those characters with charm and tenacity.
Plus, there’s Bob Gunton as the evil scientist, Dr. Alexander McCabe. Most viewers will recognize Gunton from The Shawshank Redemption, so you know this is a thespian with real acting chops. Given the chance to play a Saturday morning cartoon villain, Gunton lets loose in what has to be one of the most point-blank explanations for a mad scientist’s experiments. It’s comically simplistic but Logan’s script is acutely aware of that. So, when Gunton gets an opportunity to play evil, he plays it with a capital E.
What’s surprising to me is that Bats has been mostly forgotten by the majority of horror fandoms including effects lovers. When the bats aren’t being brought to life by unfortunate CG animation, they are practical monsters created by KNB EFX, the legendary special effects company. The practical bats are always a joy when they show up and they show up a lot. You’ll get plenty of shots where a bat puppet is crawling towards an unsuspecting victim – one of those moments involves a wonderfully creepy image of a bat in a baby’s crib – or even extreme close-ups on the bats’ grimacing faces. Director Louis Morneau is not shy about showing off the work KNB did with these creatures and it’s all a blast.
And there are even a few moments where the CG bats are put to creative use. The first is when our heroes capture one of the infected bats and implant a tracking device underneath its skin. As soon as they let it loose into the air, two other bats come and slice it in half. How can you not like that? But, the best CG bat moment comes during the film’s climax. As Emmett and Sheila try to escape from the bat’s lair, they look up and see a sea of sleeping bats on the cave ceiling. And all at once, every bat opens its eyes and the darkness is illuminated with their creepy stares. It’s a moment that must read perfectly on the page.
And that’s the real reason to check out Bats: John Logan’s script. It shows that being bare-bones doesn’t mean you have to lack in creativity or fun. Sometimes, it’s okay for a B-movie to lean into every bit of its B-movieness without a sense of irony or self-aware satire. Bats is exactly that: a proud piece of drive-in doofiness that rolls with the punches and is just here to make you smile. For some films, that’s the only goal they need to achieve. Bats will put a smile on your face. And who couldn’t use one of those right now?
Having grown up in a religious family, Christian movie night was something that happened a lot more often than I care to admit. However, back when I was a teenager, my parents showed up one night with an unusually cool-looking DVD of a movie that had been recommended to them by a church leader. Curious to see what new kind of evangelical propaganda my parents had rented this time, I proceeded to watch the film with them expecting a heavy-handed snoozefest.
To my surprise, I was a few minutes in when Denzel Washington proceeded to dismember a band of cannibal raiders when I realized that this was in fact a real movie. My mom was horrified by the flick’s extreme violence and dark subject matter, but I instantly became a fan of the Hughes Brothers’ faith-based 2010 thriller, The Book of Eli. And with the film’s atomic apocalypse having apparently taken place in 2024, I think this is the perfect time to dive into why this grim parable might also be entertaining for horror fans.
Originally penned by gaming journalist and The Walking Dead: The Game co-writer Gary Whitta, the spec script for The Book of Eli was already making waves back in 2007 when it appeared on the coveted Blacklist. It wasn’t long before Columbia and Warner Bros. snatched up the rights to the project, hiring From Hell directors Albert and Allen Hughes while also garnering attention from industry heavyweights like Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman.
After a series of revisions by Anthony Peckham meant to make the story more consumer-friendly, the picture was finally released in January of 2010, with the finished film following Denzel as a mysterious wanderer making his way across a post-apocalyptic America while protecting a sacred book. Along the way, he encounters a run-down settlement controlled by Bill Carnegie (Gary Oldman), a man desperate to get his hands on Eli’s book so he can motivate his underlings to expand his empire. Unwilling to let this power fall into the wrong hands, Eli embarks on a dangerous journey that will test the limits of his faith.
SO WHY IS IT WORTH WATCHING?
Judging by the film’s box-office success, mainstream audiences appear to have enjoyed the Hughes’ bleak vision of a future where everything went wrong, but critics were left divided by the flick’s trope-heavy narrative and unapologetic religious elements. And while I’ll be the first to admit that The Book of Eli isn’t particularly subtle or original, I appreciate the film’s earnest execution of familiar ideas.
For starters, I’d like to address the religious elephant in the room, as I understand the hesitation that some folks (myself included) might have about watching something that sounds like Christian propaganda. Faith does indeed play a huge part in the narrative here, but I’d argue that the film is more about the power of stories than a specific religion. The entire point of Oldman’s character is that he needs a unifying narrative that he can take advantage of in order to manipulate others, while Eli ultimately chooses to deliver his gift to a community of scholars. In fact, the movie even makes a point of placing the Bible in between equally culturally important books like the Torah and Quran, which I think is pretty poignant for a flick inspired by exploitation cinema.
Sure, the film has its fair share of logical inconsistencies (ranging from the extent of Eli’s Daredevil superpowers to his impossibly small Braille Bible), but I think the film more than makes up for these nitpicks with a genuine passion for classic post-apocalyptic cinema. Several critics accused the film of being a knockoff of superior productions, but I’d argue that both Whitta and the Hughes knowingly crafted a loving pastiche of genre influences like Mad Max and A Boy and His Dog.
Lastly, it’s no surprise that the cast here absolutely kicks ass. Denzel plays the title role of a stoic badass perfectly (going so far as to train with Bruce Lee’s protégée in order to perform his own stunts) while Oldman effortlessly assumes a surprisingly subdued yet incredibly intimidating persona. Even Mila Kunis is remarkably charming here, though I wish the script had taken the time to develop these secondary characters a little further. And hey, did I mention that Tom Waits is in this?
AND WHAT MAKES IT HORROR ADJACENT?
Denzel’s very first interaction with another human being in this movie results in a gory fight scene culminating in a face-off against a masked brute wielding a chainsaw (which he presumably uses to butcher travelers before eating them), so I think it’s safe to say that this dog-eat-dog vision of America will likely appeal to horror fans.
From diseased cannibals to hyper-violent motorcycle gangs roaming the wasteland, there’s plenty of disturbing R-rated material here – which is even more impressive when you remember that this story revolves around the bible. And while there are a few too many references to sexual assault for my taste, even if it does make sense in-universe, the flick does a great job of immersing you in this post-nuclear nightmare.
The excessively depressing color palette and obvious green screen effects may take some viewers out of the experience, but the beat-up and lived-in sets and costume design do their best to bring this dead world to life – which might just be the scariest part of the experience.
Ultimately, I believe your enjoyment of The Book of Eli will largely depend on how willing you are to overlook some ham-fisted biblical references in order to enjoy some brutal post-apocalyptic shenanigans. And while I can’t really blame folks who’d rather not deal with that, I think it would be a shame to miss out on a genuinely engaging thrill-ride because of one minor detail.
With that in mind, I’m incredibly curious to see what Whitta and the Hughes Brothers have planned for the upcoming prequel series starring John Boyega…
There’s no understating the importance of a balanced media diet, and since bloody and disgusting entertainment isn’t exclusive to the horror genre, we’ve come up with Horror Adjacent – a recurring column where we recommend non-horror movies that horror fans might enjoy.
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