The Bat People, A Stan Winston Spectacular

Okay, just because Stan Winston did the creature f/x does not mean this is a good movie. IMDB rated it a 2.8/10.  Still...I liked it. We have a heartwarming story of a marriage gone wrong.  Sure, we all change after we get married, but usually fangs and bat-like appendages are not part of that change.  Our feature today is 1974's "The Bat People," directed by Jerry Jameson.

John (Stewart Moss) is a scientist who studies...bats.  Nerd, I know.  He is married to Cathy (Marianne McAndrew), a nymphomaniac beauty.  She likes to have sex.  In fact, this is what starts the problem.  John, shortly after they are married, takes Cathy to see a cave.  She'd rather...have steamy sex.  Not to let an opportunity go through her fingers, Cathy decides they will have sex in the cave as bats watch. This doesn't go well...go figure. The passion goes out the window when John is bitten...by a bat. Cathy, being a good nympho...er, wife, makes John get checked out at the hospital. Dr. Kipling (Paul Carr), who does not try to have sex with Cathy, bandages John and gives him rabies shots...eek!  Now John begins having seizures.

You guessed it, John begins changing into a bat monster.  Pretty nurse in white (Jennifer Kulik), who is not a nymphomaniac, is ripped apart by John.  Cathy and Dr. Kipling are in denial, but John believes he is changing into a bat person...or a bat man!  More pretty nurses in white will be put in peril. Also in peril are some nubile young babes.  Unfortunately for many of these babes, they will die as the creature chews them up and drinks their blood.  A cop, Sgt. Wood (Michael Pataki) investigates and all his clues bring him back to John.  Oh yes, Wood does try to have sex with Cathy...she resists, though one may posit that she could have resisted harder...after all, she appears to be a nymphomaniac.  John's seizures come more often and more will die horribly.

With Cathy being a nymphomaniac, would she consider having steamy relations with a monster, or bat man?  Given John is a dweeb and has nerdy interests, would Cathy be better off having him as a fanged creature?  Why aren't nurses in movies clad in white and attractive anymore?  This is a good one.  Some may enjoy it in a MST3K type of view, but it is a terrific creature film, although the creature f/x are kind of lacking. See "The Bat People" and avoid most of those new "Batman" movies.

So Cold the River, Creepy Hotel Carnage

I have got to stay at the West Baden Springs Hotel in Indiana!  After watching this film, this is the takeaway I convey to you. This place looks really creepy, I am guessing ghosts appeared during filming of this movie. I wonder if they take IHG or Marriott Bonvoy points.  Anyone know? Ominous, dark, and eerie through the entire 95 minutes, 2022's "So Cold the River," directed by Paul Shoulberg, is our entry today.

Erica (Bethany Joy Lenz) is a babe.  A haunted babe.  A babe with tremendous guilt from a horrible episode years ago. She now has a "gift," or should I say "curse."  She goes around filming events, usually funerals, looks at the footage and sees things others can't see.  Dead people, past events, eerie horrors, you name it, none of it will be edifying. Now she is hired by a relative of the almost dead Campbell Bradford (Michael J. Rogers). He has to be over 100 years old and is in a coma. The relative wants his story, as Bradford is a bit of an enigma...an evil enigma. Erica sets up her camera and guess what!  Yep. The weird happens. You'll see, but it is creepy.  Now Erica feels compelled to document, in her videos, the story of Bradford and this hotel he owns.  Now she stays at this hotel and sets up shop.

Erica sees things.  Now she is seeing visions and maybe hallucinating. Bradford's past and that of the hotel is a bloody one.  A lot of gory death.  But why?  Did Bradford kill everyone?  Is he still killing everyone? The spooky setting of the hotel will make one think the building is cursed.  She'll find a descendant of Bradford (Andrew J. West).  He is a hunk.  She'll have passion with this descendant.  Then we find out this hunk is kind of psycho.  He likes to blow up things.  I know, who doesn't?  Where is this all leading?  I have to confess, experienced horror film buffs will see where this is going within the first ten minutes of the film.  Still, it is spookily atmospheric and ominous.

Will Erica be all consumed by Bradford and the hotel and not be able to leave?  Is Bradford really the evil being Erica is seeing in her visions?  If you screw a psycho, will you...wait, I withdraw the question.  Like this film or not, horror film fans will be googling this hotel and looking for weekend rates. Trust me.  See "So Cold the River" and finally see a hotel in the movies creepier than The Overlook.  

Trickle Down by B. Harrison Smith, Literature Review

Where did we go wrong? Perhaps we were mistaken.  The mistake was huge. World War 2 ended and our mistake was thinking we won.  President Eisenhower tried to warn us.  Then, maybe America was overthrown when President Kennedy was assassinated by...indeed, by who?  Arthur C. Clarke did an interview, and he was irate.  Mr. Clarke believed everything he wrote about in his book 2001: A Space Odyssey was entirely reachable by 2001...but our Space Shuttle program (under President Reagan) decided to deploy weapons systems instead of searching for new worlds. America's greatness could have solved so many problems in the world, including starvation...instead we have stupid wars, an entertainment industry that makes us stupid, and no ambition and altruism in our national consciousness.  Today we look at Trickle Down by B. Harrison Smith. 

This tome is about John Carpenter's film, 1988's "They Live."  I saw this movie when it came out at the theater.  Thought it was subpar.  That fight scene? Way too long.  Through the 90's, through the first Bush, then through Bill Clinton, then through the second Bush...then, I liked the movie a whole lot more. Eisenhower's warning and a complete view of the 80s economic and social policy cast more light in what Mr. Carpenter was trying to say.  Who better to tell this story than a student of the 80s and a terrific 1980s historian, B. Harrison Smith?  I saw "They Live" because it was made by the fella that made "Halloween."  I should have watched "They Live" because it was made by a man who was furious at America for not caring for the least of us. Jesus did say, "...what you to the least of us, you do to me" (paraphrase).  The least of us (homeless, AIDS patients, crack addicts, public school kids) were left fending for themselves, and the movie maker was incensed.

The military industrial complex (MIC) flourished under Reaganomics. It provided a lot of jobs and wealth for many.  My point...here in the 2020s, allegiance to the MIC has murdered over a million young people in The Ukraine. Leaders of The Ukraine and NATO refuse to talk to Putin. Perhaps diplomacy, real diplomacy, is not good for the MIC. The schools continued to falter, at an alarmingly greater rate as the 80s progressed...but, here it is...as we all believed all was fine and steaming speedily in the right direction.  The miserables in "They Live" suffered from this delusion and John Carpenter was on it. Elites flourish...real peeps suffer, thinking their new electronic devices are worth what ever they put up with. The rich save millions in tax cuts while the real peeps save a nickel. 

Metaphor, satire, and biting irony is delivered in a seemingly subpar movie.  Is this film "subpar," however?  Mr. Smith delves into John Carpenter's reasons for including a seemingly gratuitous fight scene and other plot devices.  Now we understand...as just like Roddy Piper in the film, we now have magic sunglasses on thanks to Mr. Smith.  Not defending President Johnson, President Carter, President Bush, President Clinton, or the other Bush, Mr. Smith applies what he implores us all to get more of.  Critical thinking!  In his critique of the Reagan Era and what has taken over America since, he understands what John Carpenter was trying to do with the budget he had.  Today, even Senator Lindsey Graham and Speaker of the House Johnson glorify spending money in The Ukraine and more bombings, reminding us U.S. jobs and even our economy will benefit from it.  Who cares if millions more die in bombings in Europe?

Left wing anti-Reagan dribble? There is plenty of that.  Not here.  Critical thinking and honest critique from a guy (Mr. Smith) who was trying to gather enough money to attend a state university back in the 80s.  If you have noticed the homeless creeping toward intersections not too far from your nice house, this book is for you.  Historical context is added, and I mean historical in the sense of who Mr. Smith and Mr. Carpenter are. The last chapter of the book, Mr. Smith gives us a charge...read the book, see the movie, and critically think.  Are the evils of post World War 2 ideology easily exorcised?  Do we really need a cold war mentality to address post cold war problems?  Do we really need to buy things we don't need, or obey people who don't care about us?  Do we need to like Taylor Swift music because Marriott and a whole bunch of companies will be able to hire a lot more Americans if we buy her records?  There's an easy answer to this.  That answer is sadly, "Yes we do." However, if you watch "They Live" for how John Carpenter wanted you to watch it, or if you do what B. Harrison Smith wants us to do, critically think, then maybe the answer is slightly more complicated.

"We're all in this together."  Gag me with a spoon. Yell "Not me!" and apply the Howard Beale philosophy, "I'm mad as Hell and I'm not going to take it anymore."  This won't be easy, but if you care about your kids and grandchildren...it is imperative.  The great science fiction novelist Robert A. Heinlein professed...you would be shocked how few people would have to do this until a worldwide movement is begun. Don't be a coward like me.  These problems are fixable.  John Carpenter's frustration is that he probably knew that.  We are so much better than we have displayed over the past several decades.  Thank you B. Harrison Smith for this book and forcing us to look at "They Live" with critical thinking" as our guide.  This book is available at Amazon, just click on this link TRICKLE DOWN .