The Vampire Bat

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Blu B It’s fine, that's about it. Very forgettable. You know in other horror movies from this time the lack of any soundtrack really doesn’t bother me at all or I don’t even notice. But here it’s noticeable and this has a dry feeling every now and then to it. Fundamentally everything is fine. It makes perfect sense. The problems all revolve around the acting which is very dated and that classic theater style. This alternates between overreacting and being wooden the entire way save for Douglas who is the one good thing in this. It’s a shame for long stretches he disappears or isn’t given much after the opening. This bounces around with a whodunit style mystery more than any sort of horror despite the first scene. It’s really just a lot of talking and characters that aren’t that likeable or forgettable. The direction isn’t bad. Besides the acting, the major flaw here is it’s not scary, moody, or even funny despite the light hearted moments it throws in. None of the settings are really that memorable and there isn’t much horror here or a memorable monster. Heck we don’t even see the “villain” until the final 2-3 minutes. And this feels WAY longer than 60 minutes as well. Which isn’t really a good thing in this case. Skip This. It does nothing that Dracula or the Hammer movies haven’t done better. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 12/25/24 Full Review Chris M Amazing how backwards people were still even in the 1930s. The truth is only more bizarre and dumber when you think about it. There is no real mystery to it. You see the character come on screen and instantly you say, "He did it." And you'd be right. It's not totally horrible but it is piss poor. Rated 1.5/5 Stars •  Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 11/19/22 Full Review Audience Member Blobbo like. Period piece. Old. Pretty good. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/17/23 Full Review Audience Member The was a cute wannabe "Universal Horror" film. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/13/23 Full Review Audience Member At the time a total cash grab, Fay Wray and Lionel Atwill had previously starred in Dr. X, and were about to film Mystery of the Wax Museum, when they made this little picture, the presence of Melvyn Douglas and the always creepy Dwight Frye add a bit more prestige to this film than most poverty row pictures usually had or deserved. The plot is beyond convoluted, to the point where you wonder why the film took such a hard right turn in about halfway through. However Atwill, Douglas and Wray keep everything watchable with Atwill getting to bring his scenery chewing up to an 11. Also worth noting since this film is in the public domain a lot of shit copies exist so finding a good one is hard to those early horror film purists out there who haven't seen it Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/04/23 Full Review Audience Member The Vampire Bat is an unexpectedly effective film. Although it is completely unapologetic about copying both Draculaand Frankenstein, the recycled elements are combined in a highly imaginative way that seems to reflect a much clearer and more developed understanding of what a horror film could be than either Tod Browning or James Whale possessed in 1931. And while the recasting of traditionally supernatural horror commonplacesâ?? werewolves and zombies especiallyâ?? as the products of mad science would become a recurring theme of poverty-row fright films in the 1940â??s, few of those later movies would wed science to the supernatural with anything like the degree of care and craftsmanship on display in The Vampire Bat. Von Niemannâ??s technology-driven vampirism has an internal logic to it which is extremely rare among very old horror films (except for that part about using Emil as a remote-control killerâ?? thatâ??s just plain silly), and the real nature of his research, when it is finally revealed, is both commendably ghoulish and commendably different from the earlier cinematic mad science which so obviously inspired it. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/06/23 Full Review Read all reviews

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