Chosen Survivors (1974)

A diverse group of characters - including a behavioural scientist (Bradford Dillman), an Olympic athlete (Lincoln Kilpatrick), a novelist (Alex Cord), a doctor (Barbara Babcock), and a corporate honcho (Jackie Cooper) are whisked away by the government. Armageddon is at hand, and these people are taken to a specially designed shelter buried almost two miles below the Earth. They're all stressed out as it is, but the main problem is yet to come. It seems that the government, which modified existing caves, just couldn't create a shelter that was vampire bat proof."Chosen Survivors" has the feel of a TV movie, and in fact the director, Sutton Roley, worked mostly in that medium. Nothing about it is particularly stylish, although it does have decent atmosphere, especially in scenes where the lights go out. Shock and squirm moments are variable: when real bats are used, things are fine, but the special effects are simply *terrible* when it comes to creating mass bat attacks. (The movie *is* gorier than the typical TV movie, to be sure.) The screenplay by Harry Spalding and Joe Reb Moffly has some rather thin characters and silly dialogue, making it all the more impressive that some of the actors would come off as well as they do. The music score by Fred Karlin is pretty good.Of course, this does fall into the clichés of the genre, particularly when it comes to characters. One of our "chosen survivors" is a loudmouth Jerk (the Jackie Cooper role) who does a lot of complaining. Also, we get one poor woman, Kristina Lerner (Cristina Moreno) who's obliged to do most of the screaming and panicking. The cast does the best it can with the material; the quietly effective Kilpatrick and the excellent Richard Jaeckel come off the best.At the very least, "Chosen Survivors" can boast one very well executed set piece, when one person tries to step to the heroic challenge and scale the massive elevator shaft to send a signal to potential rescuers. It's here that Roley is able to generate the most genuine tension.This is very much of its time, but still offers a reasonable amount of entertainment for undemanding B movie lovers.Six out of 10.

A diverse group of people are flown to an underground bunker, where they are informed that they are the sole survivors of a nuclear war that has broken out. They are naturally shocked and upset by this, but try to learn more about the war and new surroundings, when another horror happens...the survivors discover that their underground cavern is filled with vampire bats, who are not content to leave them in peace.Obscure film deserves to be better known, since it is well acted by its stars(Jackie Cooper, Diana Muldaur, Alex Cord, Bradford Dillman, among others) and has an intelligent script that contains quite a few surprises for the viewer. Ultimately downbeat drama, but compelling,and would have been at home on either "The Twilight Zone" or "The Outer Limits". Is on DVD at least, and worth seeing.

Selected intellectual minds, and important folks deemed special for forwarding the human race once a thermonuclear war is to rage across the globe, find themselves fighting for their very lives underground in their fancy governmentally (supposedly)secure bomb shelter well equipped with all the resources they could possibly need as vampire bats, which rest within a cavernous area secret to them, enter and attack when the group is most vulnerable. With a female assigned, via taped recording, guiding their day to day activities, offering a planned regimen for them to survive on, the group find themselves at odds with Raymond Couzins, a loudmouth who often stirs up bad vibes with his constant talk of conspiracy theories, and drunken insults. Yet, perhaps there is some truth to what he's saying as Dr. Peter Macomber(Bradford Dillman)holds a secret which will only add to the worsening mental state of the group as a whole. Realizing that they were merely part of an experiment on how a group could function together in an isolated situation, had such a catastrophic event taken place, the group hope that a signal had reached Washington, for Couzins, in a bumbling mishap that damages important electrical equipment resulting in the death of a member, leaves them with few alternatives left. Major Gordon Ellis(Richard Jaeckel)comes up with a method that could be quite dangerous..someone could climb an elevator shaft 17oo feet which could open a door to the outside providing a chance for contacting help. Macomber, despite the group's hostile feelings towards he and his government which put them in their difficult crisis, comes up with an idea on how to kill the bats, through electrocution by suckering them with blood as bait.I must say that this was a pleasant form of entertainment. Sure, the special effects are rather inferior to today's modern technical improvements, but they didn't seem to bother me all that much because I found the cast so much fun to watch, and the premise was quite enjoyable. It's essentially mixes the always-reliable "animals attack" premise with the theme of nuclear war and how mankind could deal with such a thing. Perfectly capping these elements with a government conspiracy plot yielding terrified characters in search of an exit. Perfectly 70's carrying the sensibilities of the time, with a cast of familiar faces. I thought Dillman has a startlingly good scene where he admits to who he really is and the hoax that has put them all in grave danger..I think Dillman realistically displays the emotional weight his character is bearing in both coming clean with his confession while showing that he believed that the experiment was for the betterment of mankind. I thoroughly enjoyed Cooper as the antagonist, and Jaeckel is a delight as the sincere army man, burdened with keeping the underground shelter under operation despite a series of set-backs that make that nearly impossible. I also loved this confrontation between the accusing Couzins claiming Ellis was perhaps behind a conspiracy to keep them in the shelter..Jaeckel and Cooper produce some fireworks. Some performances are overwrought, as often was the case for Made-for-television movies with character actors, but I think the situation stressing and depressing those caught between a rock and a hard place, warranted such heightened emotions. I think Woody's elevator shaft climb was quite suspenseful..it sure had me biting my nails. I do think the story provides some food for thought, and is a perfect time capsule of what was on the minds of the country at that time.

The world as we know it, is about to end. Total Thermonuclear Destruction: 4 billion casualties, 168 survivors, 12 hi-tech underground facilities spread across the USA at a depth of 1.758ft, one located in the New Mexico desert inhabited by 11 unsuspecting citizens on government command with their sole purpose… the survival of the human race. But our group of chosen survivors will soon have something else to worry about than the lethal radiation levels above their heads: Desmodus Rotundus, commonly known as the vampire bat.CHOSEN SURVIVORS is one nifty 70's post-nuke paranoia-thriller. The opening-scene already looks promising: 11 sedated citizens are flown in by helicopter over the ominous desert landscape, accompanied on the tunes of a tense brass score. In slow-motion they are shoved into an elevator and when it starts to go all the way down, the opening-credits come on and slow-motion shots of the elevator rattling and shaking continue. Great stuff! Once inside the facility, the survivors learn about their faith.The characters are all well drawn-out, each of them having an expertise in a certain field (science, sports, writing,…). They'll all have to get along and work together in order to survive, but needless to say tensions arise and conflicts occur. All that is pretty entertaining already, but the real fun starts when they discover a vampire bat inside the facility. They realize that a whole horde of hungry killer-bats is lurking inside the caves surrounding the facility. And paranoia turns into survival. Psychologically, the characters are also well thought-out. Naturally, there's one guy you love to hate that eventually does something very stupid, but even his character changes throughout the movie. So, all-in-all CHOSEN SURVIVORS is pretty unpredictable when it comes to who'll survive and who won't, if any.The set-design, of course, looks dated but nevertheless was a well-constructed concept for those days. The bat attacks are staged in a decent fashion. Good thing is that they actually used a lot of real bats in certain scenes, instead of going for the obvious fake ones. The blue-screen effects are obvious in certain scenes, but always effective. Aside from the survival-horror-element with the bats, CHOSEN SURVIVORS is a bit more in the sci-fi/thriller vein of other 70's paranoia/conspiracy movies like, for instance, CAPRICORN ONE. Only this time with nobody being hunted down, but the whole group being trapped deep below ground. As to be expected, the facility isn't all that big (limited budget, limited sets), but the location is put to good use.With the look and feel being obsolete, CHOSEN SURVIVORS actually could inspire a decent remake, in my opinion. Just replace the global nuclear devastation angle with that of the ever-so-popular killer-virus one, put the whole concept in capable hands with a decent budget for a skilled crew and up-to-date special effects supported by a good cast, et voilà, we should have a remake that's far more decent than the uninspired crap they keep cranking out nowadays. No need to change the script even, because it already contains a decent twist around the middle part, which in today's suspense cinema has become a must. Actually, they might want to make the bats virus-infected this time, because how in this film they manage to kill off adults in a couple of minutes with a dozen bites or so, is beyond me. Other than this shortcoming, the script successfully blends genres. A typical 70's accomplishment on the one hand, and ahead of its time on the other. Check this one out. It's a gem.