Reaction & Review | The Bat

 

Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be covering a horror movie from 1959. That movie is "The Bat". Which comes as part of a DVD 2-pack that has both this movie and "House on Haunted Hill". Later on this month, I will be covering the other movie from this 2-pack.

As for tonight's movie, I really don't know very much about it. I'm gonna tell you everything that I know about it right here. I know that it's, as I've stated, a horror movie. I know that there is some killer who calls himself "The Bat", and is killing people in a mansion. I also know that this movie is based on a novel and stage play that I've never read or seen. So, any comparisons between this movie and those mediums are going to be completely irrelevant here.

The only other thing that I know about this movie is that it stars the legendary Vincent Price. So, the good news is that if this movie ends up being terrible, at least Vincent Price will make it worth watching. I'm certainly hoping that the entire movie is going to be worth watching, but I have no idea if it will be. And the only way I'm gonna find out if this thing is any good at all, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "The Bat".

1 minute later

Well, guys, I can say, so far, that this opening song here is pretty catchy. You guys can't hear it for obvious reasons, but this song is catchy as hell. I'm hoping that this is a good sign of things to come.

18 minutes later

So this maid is gonna set this item on top of the door, and that if anybody tries to get in through the top of the door, it will fall. And she claims this as a booby trap. I wouldn't call that a booby trap, that's more of an alarm than anything else. Plus also, what happens if, say, it falls off on it's own and no one was in front of the door to knock it off? I'm kinda curious about that now, because this booby trap doesn't really sound foolproof, you know?

3 minutes later

Seriously? They believe that fake toy bat creature bit her on the arm? How the hell did they not notice the damn thing, when it was laying on top of Cornelia's arm in a lifeless pose? If it was a real bat, then it would've continued flying after it had 'bitten' her. I'm sorry, guys, but there's a HUGE difference between a toy bat and a real one. The fact that neither of them noticed that just comes across as really stupid to me.

19 minutes later

You know, guys, for a horror movie, this thing really isn't all that scary. Granted, I don't think the movie was aiming for it's scariness, but still, even for the standard of horror movies, it is incredibly tame, even by the standards of 1959.

20 minutes later

Sorry, guys, if I haven't been saying a whole lot. I'm kinda getting sucked into the story here. It's been pretty decent, so far.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "The Bat". And the movie just ends, as it just brought me back to the DVD menu screen. So I don't have to wait for any credits to roll. So I'm gonna go ahead and shut the movie off...all right. Well, what to start with first?

I guess I should start with something that has been on my mind while watching this movie. Now, as I made mention during the reaction portion of the film, it really lacks any kind of real horror. Now, I will admit, I haven't seen a ton of horror movies from the 50's, so I may not be the best person to judge this film's style of horror. But just for the sake of it, I'm going to try it anyway. So, if I were viewing this by the standards of late 50's horror, I would say it's OK, but it doesn't really feel like a horror movie. In fact, this movie really focuses more on the mystery of who this killer, the Bat, really is. And that part works fine. But as a horror movie, it kinda falls flat. Part of the reason is of the Bat's appearance. We're told straight up in the beginning of the movie that the Bat has no face and leaves no fingerprints behind. And the reason why the Bat leaves no fingerprints behind is because he wears these Freddy Krueger-like claws. And he's able to use those to open locked doors, and kill his victims. And for a horror movie, he only has a body count of about 4 people. And all of his kills are incredibly spaced out. As for his appearance, it really isn't all that terrifying. Like I said, he has these Freddy Krueger-like claws, and has his face is covered in all black. Basically, I want you to imagine the Question's face from DC Comics, if the Question didn't have eyes poking out from his face. Other than that, the Bat doesn't look scary in the slightest. And I'm saying that he doesn't look scary, even by the standards of 1959. In fact, now that I think about it, this movie kinda has the same problem with another movie that I covered for this series way back when, which was "The Old Dark House". I mentioned back then that the movie failed as a horror comedy, but it totally works as a straight up horror movie. In this movie, it's kinda the reverse opposite. Where it totally works as a mystery film, it kinda fails at being a horror movie, because it's really not that scary. Now normally, I would've used the excuse of me being desensitized by the lack of scary stuff happening in horror movies. However, because this doesn't really work as a horror movie, I really didn't feel like I was disturbed or creeped out by "The Bat". But again, since this thing came out in the late 50's, I may not be the best judge of character when it comes to horror movies that came out of this time period.

While I'm on the subject of the Bat, this is gonna lead to my only real gripe I have with the writing. And that is the identity of who the Bat really is. Now, I could totally see that this movie was trying to build up tension, as the movie tries to make you guess on who the Bat is. And while I will say that it is sorta fascinating to watch it unfold, I can already tell you who it is right from the word go. Because we're introduced to 3 suspects. We have Dr. Malcolm Wells, which is Vincent Price's character in this movie, who also happens to be studying bats. Then we have Cornelia's butler, who use to be a suspect in a robbery at one point in his life. And then we have the police lieutenant, who, according to this movie, is the bright shining star in the police force that is trying to track down the Bat. Now, I'm not going to spoil who the Bat is among those three characters, on the off chance that you want to go and see this movie for yourself. However, if you can't tell who it is, judging by my description of those three suspects, then it's going to fly right over your head really quickly. I'm just gonna leave it at that. Now, the other reason why I can sorta tell who the Bat was really quickly has to do with my experiences from watching another mystery show that I use to watch, which was Scooby-Doo. You see, this movie sorta has the same problem with Scooby-Doo, in which they both telegraph who the mystery killer, or in Scooby Doo's case, monster really is. They both don't really do a good job in hiding it very well, and it comes off as rather weak. Now, I really can't count this as a negative, because I'm basing this off my own experiences with watching mystery shows like Scooby-Doo. So you have to take it for what it's worth. Now I will say that, unlike an episode of Scooby-Doo, which has not been interesting or entertaining in many, many years, this thing, for the most part, keeps you engaged, because it's still able to tell it's story really well. Our characters are really interesting and developed rather well. And while it may fail as a horror movie, it certainly works it's mystery well enough to where you can bypass the lack of horror that is in this movie. However, if you're looking for more horror in your mystery films, this movie doesn't really do that very well, so you have been warned.

So the writing here is a little bit weak. But it's still interesting enough to make you want to keep watching. Now, with all that being said, let's get to the acting. The acting is pretty strong, for the most part. Nobody here really phones it in, and they're able to work with their characters, because the script is very well written. Special mention has to go to Vincent Price. A lot of people may not know this about Vincent Price, but he was sometimes known as an acting god, at least when it comes to horror movies. Because that was his real specialty, was when he was working in horror movies. In fact, the only other movie that I can recall ever seeing him star in was a movie known as "The Last Man on Earth", which was a pretty good movie, and I would highly recommend it if you are into post-apocalyptic movies. But anyway, as I stated a moment ago, Vincent Price was mostly known for his roles in horror movies. And a lot of people today probably don't know that about him, because they mostly think of his voice acting roles in "The Great Mouse Detective" and "The Thief and the Cobbler". And if you've never had a chance to see what Vincent Price could do back in the days of horror movies, I would highly recommend you go check them out. Now granted, I've only seen about two of his films, those being this movie and "The Last Man on Earth". And, as I stated at the start of this thing, I am going to be checking out "House on Haunted Hill", which is another movie that he stars in. But as I just said, just based off the two movies I've seen Vincent Price in, he is amazing at what he does. So in case you couldn't tell, the acting in this movie is really solid.

The only thing I can mention involving special effects is the bat creature I mentioned early on. And by that, I mean when the killer known as the Bat is in front of the door of the room that Cornelia and her maid are sleeping in. He slips in a bat toy that is suppose to be a real bat, and it starts flying around the room. Now that part looks fine on it's own, but then when the bat creature is flying towards Cornelia as she sleeps, it just lands on her arm, and that was enough for Cornelia to wake up and scream, because she was bitten by it. However, when the bat creature lands on her arm, as I just stated, it just looks like a fake toy that looks nothing like a real bat. Now, I understand that it would be kinda difficult to work with a real bat, considering the nature of those creatures. However, you could've totally pulled off something different here that didn't look like a really obvious toy. I will also say that, for a horror movie, this movie lacks blood. However, considering that this movie was shot in black and white, I don't think it would've been noticed anyways. So, I can give the lack of blood a bit of a pass here.

Camerawork here is pretty good. I was a little bit worried about the picture quality of this movie at first, because I noticed that the company that put this movie out on DVD, which was Good Times, also put out a butchered copy of "McLintock!" on two separate occasions. Where it felt like a poorly made-for-TV film, and someone over at Good Times fucked up with the picture quality so bad on those versions of the movie. Thankfully though, it doesn't look like there was anything wrong with the picture quality for this movie on DVD, so at least I can cut them some slack here. Lighting here is pretty good. Sound-mix is mixed competently. The score is pretty good, and it does it's job well enough to when it needs to be used.

Overall, guys, am I able to recommend "The Bat"? If you're looking for a good mystery film, then this movie is definitely worth watching, at least once. However, if you're looking for an interesting horror movie, then this movie doesn't really live up to that, because there's barely anything here that I would classify as horror. But even so, if you're a fan of Vincent Price, and you've never had a chance to see any of his movies that doesn't require a voice acting role, then I would say go ahead and check this thing out. Because I really do think that people who only know him for his voice acting roles should get into his other movies, unless they're not fans of horror movies. As for myself, I thought it was pretty good. I'm not sure if it's something I would watch a second time, but at least I have another movie of his to check out later this month, and I'm hoping that it's going to be even better than what was shown here. Now...as for myself, I'm going to continue my run of watching the Puppet Master movies I have on DVD this month, so I'm going to do that by watching the second movie.

Anyway, guys, with that, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all in the near future. Peace.