Bats

Variety Joe Leydon

Smoothly maneuvering within the limitations of genre conventions, Bats emerges as a vigorously paced and surprisingly satisfying piece of work.

Chicago Tribune John Petrakis

Perfect late-summer drive-in fare.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

In its own B-film, let's-make-them-jump-out-of-their-seats way, Bats is quite the hoot.

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

A sleek rip-off of "The Birds" that is fast, furious, and watchable, but lacking in the two elements most essential to a silly screamfest like this: scares and laughs.

Entertainment Weekly Doug Brod

The kind of rote schlocker that rarely makes it to big screens anymore.

LA Weekly Ron Stringer

Overlong, hard look at the perils of tampering with Creation.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

A straight-faced throwback to the glory days of mutant wildlife on the rampage.

Philadelphia Inquirer Desmond Ryan

If you are unlucky enough to stray into the presence of Bats, I strongly recommend you follow their wise example. Hang from the ceiling and go to sleep.

New York Daily News Robert Dominguez

Unfortunately, it isn't until the final scene -- a spoof of the horror genre's false-ending cliché -- that Bats really takes wing.

USA Today Staff [Not Credited]

Really just an update of the kind of hapless grade-Z effort that once played the bottom half of a drive-in double bill.

TNT RoughCut Christopher Brandon

Everything in it is old bat.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

So uninvolving it scarcely matters what it looks like.

Film.com Tom Keogh

Pours on some of the most ridiculous dialogue heard in a feature film in a long time.

Film.com John Hartl

So campy...may be good for a few laughs.

Miami Herald Phoebe Flowers

Dumb cliches run amok.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Violent and vapid, but the visual jolts may please horror buffs.

San Francisco Examiner Walter Addiego

A dimwitted, fill-in-the-blanks horror opus that slanders a fine and useful mammal.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

A reassuring little cheeseball of a movie.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Falls apart immediately, then limps on for 45 minutes more.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Not especially scary or funny, this lame comedy-thriller wastes a decent cast in a plodding tale.

The New York Times Lawrence Van Gelder

Cause for fright in only one respect: the possibility that it could spawn sequels.

Dallas Observer M. V. Moorhead

A work of hilarious, nearly Ed Wood-worthy ineptitude.

Film.com Robert Horton

An amazing compendium of dumb behavior, bad dialogue, and incoherent direction.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

Hopeless rip-off of Hitchcock's "The Birds."

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

All I saw were unimpressive digital effects; artless, quick-cut abstracted gore; and a last-ditch attempt to evoke a visceral response by heaping the climactic scene with bat shit.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

It's relentlessly bad in a way that just makes those theatre seats plain uncomfortable.