vchimpanzee Aaron, Eden and Jason are back for another semester at Tate University in Louisiana. It is quite hot, so many of the guys and gals are showing off lots of skin as they have fun getting wet. The three students with lines want to party too, but in a different way. They all go to a party at night where there is drinking--and they do more than get drunk.One of the students starts hallucinating and hearing weird noises. He even hears what might be bats.Dr. Maddy Rierdon, who saved the world from locusts in another movie, teaches biology at Tate, and her husband Dan does as well. They are building a house, with the usual problems that causes, and their two kids need someone to take care of them while their parents are in school. That responsibility falls to the kids' Aunt Shelly, who likes to move things around even when Maddy and Dan have everything the way they want it.Two of Maddy's students are arrested after another of her students is found dead. Maddy gets involved, but it's not just because she cares too much about her students. Her area of expertise allows her to figure out just why the student died the way he did (isn't this amazing!). It turns out the student has similar wounds to those found in dead deer in the area--and he has been completely drained of blood.This may or may not be related, but Hank, the town's mayor, seems to be a little too friendly with Carbide, a company dumping toxic wastes.The party animals find a new place for their next event--the steam tunnels under the campus. Their guests, as it turns out, include bats. In fact, Maddy and Dan also attend a party--a much more dignified one--and guess who also shows up?Maddy comes up with a plan for getting rid of the bats. It's not perfect, but it might work. And her students are all too willing to help. Several solutions to the problem are found--all pretty unbelievable and none quite ideal, but entertaining nonetheless. Especially since the wildlife officer doesn't completely support Maddy's efforts.I didn't see a lot of good acting in this movie, but Lucy Lawless seemed to do quite a good job in class as she explained to her students what was going on. Brett Butler did the best job as the annoying Shelly, who was nowhere near as caustic as the "Grace Under Fire" character, which I never saw except in clips.The story wasn't all that scary. Most of it was investigation and problem-solving, which turned out to be enjoyable if not all that realistic. Maddy and her students would have to be absolutely brilliant and incredibly lucky. As for the bats themselves, I have to wonder why they were so selective with their targets and with their lairs. I didn't care for their ugly faces or the graphic violence (which probably lasted all of 15 seconds). Another thing: we are lucky rabies symptoms don't appear as quickly as they apparently did here. Once there are symptoms, there is no hope.Maddy's students included Lizzie (Robin Hines), Eden (Jessica Stroup), Aaron (Brandon Rodriguez), Keith (Andrew Matthews) and Miles (Josh Segarra).Overall, I found this enjoyable.

whpratt1 Found this film very entertaining and horrifying with a real close up to a bats face and horrible teeth and angry looks. These bats had a devil looking way of dealing with humans and animals. It took quite a while before some of the local people and mostly college students discovered the fact that bats had taken on an aggressive attitude to loud, wild music and were mostly turned on to red hot blood flowing humans. Lucy Lawless,(Maddy Rierdon), gave an outstanding performance and showed off her great body form. There was lots of wild parties and plenty of young gals and guys getting really spaced out. One girl started foaming at the mouth in class and caused a great deal of gasps in the classroom. Great film and lots of fun to watch, especially the Vampire Bats!

Futura 1. Is this a horror movie about bats, or a preachy movie about pollution? 2. In the party scene, when the bats attack, Lucy and her close friends are not attacked, but many others are. 3. The bats are known to kill or to transmit rabies, but Lucy and her friends keep going to the bats without any protection (except a broom, sometimes). 4. Only one teacher's students are attacked. Are there any other teachers at this school? 5. What did Lucy use to catch the bats? This was never explained. It looked like some kind of huge sticky web, but where did it come from?6. In the big finale, Lucy outruns flying bats (and she isn't even running fast), then manages to close a metal door without ANY of the bats getting through. She's not burned by the steam, either. I guess her broom protected her. 7. The editing in this film was atrocious, and the script wasn't very well written. Too many unexplained events. 8. One plus: Lucy answers the phone and says, "This is she." That's the first time I've heard CORRECT grammar concerning the use of pronouns following the verb "to be" in a LONG time. Usually, a character would say, "This is her," or "That's me." 9. Admittedly, Lucy looks good, but the skimpy outfits mentioned by another reviewer can be seen in only one scene, when the college girl leaves her window open and moves around on her bed in her underwear. Strangely, she isn't killed by the bats, but develops rabies. She didn't even realize that she had been bitten. 10. The final scene (three months later) made NO sense. Why was it included at all?Sorry, but I wish I HAD missed most of this movie. I certainly can't see any reason to recommend it to anyone.Final fotnote, added on 8/19/06: When Lucy fills a sample vial by dipping it into the polluted runoff from a waste pipe, she doesn't even wear gloves. Is THAT the sign of an experienced scientist?

Pro Jury *** May contain spoilers. *** Any viewer who has sit through three or more made-for-TV "attack of nature" movies will not find any clever plot twists in VAMPIRE BATS. However, the appealing elements of this movie more than make up for an unremarkable story.First, VAMPIRE BATS has no 11-year-old snotty nosed whiz kid upstaging the grown-ups. Please see my reviews of previous made-for-TV movies to see how many other films have been ruined by kid this Steven Spielberg wannabe convention. In VAMPIRE BATS, command of science remains in the adult realm.Second, but not least by all means, VAMPIRE BATS captures countless moments of attractive young females moving about in skimpy clothing. We are not talking just quantity here (although I dare say that this film can hold its own with the best R-rated horny teenager movies) -- no, we are talking QUALITY. The director of VAMPIRE BATS simply loves young, ripe, female curves in motion, and often proves this fact to the viewer.Don't expect GLADIATOR. Don't expect high drama or an epic film score. But if you are a heterosexual male who watches a lot of commercial TV, you can plan on having some fun with VAMPIRE BATS.