Bats: The Awakening

I understand that in a zero to ten rating system that minus numbers are not possible, but if I could I would give this movie a -3.75. It's not a full minus 4 movie, but almost as bad as that. The acting is pretty bad and the directing is just as bad. It's just not a good movie. But I bet they had fun making it. Good luck next time.

Bad.....the writing, directing, acting, lighting, location, editing. The saving grace....the sound engineer did a reasonable effort. Don't be fooled by the description, it hardly fits.

Once the family of talentless acting ability took over the story it was pretty much all downhill from there. The attempts at fake crying I'm sure was enough to make most people cringe and stop the movie (if they even made it that far). However, onward I tread so I could write this review.

This is not a remake or sequel to the movie BATS (1999, starring Lou Diamond Phillips) as I had originally thought based on the title alone. In fact, this movie isn't really even about bats at all. So if you're looking for a movie about bats, then you may wanna skip this one. This one is closer to the 1974 film THE BAT PEOPLE. As bad as that movie is, it's still better than this one. So again, if you're looking for a movie about bats, then you'd be much better off watching literally any other movie that's actually about bats, such as the aforementioned BATS (1999), it's 2007 sequel BATS: HUMAN HARVEST, genetically altered bats in FANGS (2002), the TV movie VAMPIRE BATS (2005), or the 1979 classic, NIGHTWING. I've also recently read about another movie, THE SILENCE (2019), which may be worth a look as well, though I have yet to view it.

Others have complained about the poor quality of the creature effects, whereas I didn't really mind them all that much, but it is true, the special effects aren't really that special. I have seen worse though (Danzig's Verotika quickly comes to mind). But, I am an avid horror fan and have sat through some of the absolute worst b-horror dreck in existence. While I wouldn't lump this into the "Worst Movie Ever" category, it does rank towards the bottom of the barrel regardless. I did enjoy the score throughout most of the running time though. So there's that.

Where to start? I would like to say there was one positive thing to say about this film but there really isn't. None of the film makes any sense and isn't helped at all with the atrocious acting. The start of it was ridiculous and had the one decent person in the whole film who had any likeability or could act a bit. From the end of that first scene it runs at a snails pace and doesn't improve at all. The creature looks ridiculous and doesn't act like the predator were supposed to believe it is. Also bats have good ears so with all the shouting i I don't know why it left them alone. They basically do everything that would get them attacked. No real suspense or thrill to it at all. The other bats films are so bad they're good, but this is so bad all round. They're supposed to be a family but they could just be a bunch of strangers or acquaintances. No one to root for and you basically want them all to die horrendous deaths just so the film can end. Don't waste your time with this. The earlier bats films are so much better. The ending is cliché and so laughable how she kills the creature of which there seems to be only one is such poor writing. I was hoping for a bit of redemption but there was none - give this film a wide birth and ank me later.

With every scene nearing its end one just hopes that the bat arrives, but sadly it doesn't. Now that's the spell binding part in this movie and collectively this this movie can be called a spell binder. And finally the bat arrives and you suddenly lose base with the reality with what real bat looks like. And that's what I call it nerve wrecking!