Nightwing (1979)

Nightwing is the title of an 'ecological thriller' written by Martin Cruz Smith, detailing an outbreak of vampire bats at an Indian Reservation in New Mexico. I hated that book; found it dry, boring and with characters I didn't care about. NIGHTWING the film improves on the book a little, but only a little: it's saved by a couple of okayish performances and some fun, cheesy scenes, but for the most part plays out the proceedings with a wearying po-faced seriousness. The one thing that NIGHTWING has in its favour is the setting, an Native American reservation in the middle of the New Mexico desert. At least the locale, and the inevitable political strife, has a different look and flavour than is usual for a monster B-movie. It's a shame, then, that the script is so darned pedantic, explaining every little detail and throwing in unwanted romantic sub-plots so that we're half asleep by the time the first bat attack comes.It's a shame, because that attack is a lot of fun – almost as fun as the fiery climax, in which David Warner is strung up on a rope and Native American hero Nick Mancuso goes crazy after chewing on some mystical root. These scenes have vitality and tension, which isn't spoiled by the crudity of the special effects – the bats here are a mixture of stock footage, silly rubber puppets (looking virtually the same as the ones in SCARS OF Dracula) and hand-drawn effects. Still, the inclusion of Warner is a welcome delight and he looks to be having a ball with his role here. I'm not sure how plausible Nick Mancuso is as a Native American, and I was put off by his dodgy wig for the most part; he's less annoying than Kathryn Harrold, though, who starts off as a feisty sidekick and before long becomes stupid-woman-in-peril.Some good moments, such as the one where a corpse starts bleeding or another where our heroes are separated from violent death by a flimsy chain-link fence, make NIGHTWING better than it has any right to be. I still don't think it's a very good film, as it's pretty boring, but you COULD do a lot worse...

How many movies about killer bats do you know of that are actually any good? With "Nightwing" I believe I may have stumbled upon one that's actually a bit better than the generic "Bats" (1999), one I deemed to be the best (as in: all others were worse) I've seen so far. Mixing Indian mysticism & science clashing with economical progress in a creature feature about the 'desmodus rotundus'; in other words: an unusually large horde of vampire bats out for flesh & blood. While not exactly on par with, let's say "Jaws", it's still a far better film than its measly 4.2/10 would have you believe on here. The acting is a bit of a mixed bunch, but we are presented a variety of pretty likable characters, each serving their purpose to the well-balanced plot. Well-balanced, that is to say: there's not too much killer bat action, actually, but one massive nightly attack on a bunch of campers around the 45 minute-mark stands out as a memorable bloodbath and remains a horrific highlight of the movie. David Warner is excellent as the determined scientist that tracks down vampire bats and kills them (that's pretty much his mission in life, and he takes it very serious). The plot does an admirably effective effort to explain things as well as making the threat of the vampire bats tangible and we're talking a fairly large-scaled production here. Henry Mancini did a nice job on the score and legendary Italian SFX artist Carlo Rambaldi also made a fine contribution in the Visual Effects department. If you're into these type of eco-horror movies from the late '70s, "Nightwing" might make up for a fun double bill with, for instance, "Prophecy" (1979). Or if you're looking for another seventies flick were the desmodus rotundus steals the show, check out "Chosen Survivors" (1974).

The only interesting thing about this dud is the title. The film itself is not even remotely scary. Nick Mancuso is a deputy trying to figure out why bats are killing livestock, horses, etc...Kathryn Harrold is a bleeding heart doctor working at an Indian reservation & Stephen Macht is on hand too, though he adds nothing to the film. Nor does David Warner, fresh from THE OMEN and already on the road to accepting any role offered. What could have been a campy, nature-gone-wild fun-fest is instead one of the most boring "thrillers" imaginable. And why did Henry Mancini(!) provide the music score? Charles Rosher, who worked on a few Altman films, did the cinematography. Director Arthur Hiller & writer Steve Shagen simply forgot to include any scares.

Not that I can think of any others. In fact, the only other killer bat movie I know of is "Bats" and it looked really bad. This one though I liked...as a kid anyway. It used to come on HBO and Cinemax all the time when I was a kid and I watched it numerous times, it was a horror movie that was PG and easy to see, a rarity in those days. This movie is of course about killer bats terrorizing an Indian reservation. There are conflicts of culture and other messages of this sort, but for me it was the killer bats. David Warner is in this one as a researcher, and he has a rather good scene where he is stuck hung up in a most dangerous position. There is also another Indian, who I think was some sort of law enforcement agent or some sort of park supervisor who is also trying to find out what is behind the strange killings. There is a good scene where the bats attack this group in the desert and many other good bat attack scenes. There are also a number of scenes that may be happening or they may just be a hallucination.