Skip to main content

The Bat (1926) - Roland West


The Bat by Roland West is a crime/mystery movie that is wrapped up in a nice little creepy house story. West is known for his noir-style films and this movie is a testament to those. The heavy shadow use and dark almost never ending night sequences are enough to really play into the horror genre. If it weren't for the forced comedy, this movie would have been top notch. It just isn't scary.

The movie has to do with a group of people all spending the night in a creepy house, looking for a lost fortune in a secret room. Unbeknown to them, they are joined by The Bat, a creepy thief that murders people in the group one by one. The Bat is pretty interesting, he dresses up like a giant bat. Not like the Batman, just actually in a giant bat costume. It's pretty strange. However, according to Bob Kane this character was the inspiration for Batman. Hell, they even had a Bat Signal in the movie. Pretty interesting stuff.

The movie has a lot of moving shadows that are meant to keep you entranced. Tons of sneaking around and a plethora of finger-pointing. Oh, it even has a cockney maid that plays comedy relief, to round out the crowd. The Bat plays into just about every stereotype in the movie. The only outlier being The Bat himself. He is pretty original. It isn't until 1930 that we see the return of this guy, and I understand that this is remade in the 50's with Vincent Price. I will be sure to give that a peek.

While this movie was provided on YouTube without a soundtrack, I suggest watching with Danny Elfman's Dark Shadows: Original Score. It actually followed the film quite nicely and did it justice in a few scenes. The times don't really add up with the scenes, but who really cares. The movie doesn't scare you but it does keep you entertained.

Stay here jappy, watch that other room!
  • This was a former Lost film. It has been found. 
  • The filming was done mostly at night. Just a few scenes were done during the day. 
  • The villain for the movie, the Bat, was the inspiration for Batman.  

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ju-On (2000) - Takashi Shimizu

Watching Japanese horror is similar to watching British comedy. If you enjoy dry whit then you probably enjoy the boys of Monty Python in drag. That's the joke, they're dressed like women. Get it? Well, that's British humor. But if you're like most Americans you probably prefer Adam Sandler farting his way across a football field and hooking up with chicks that are way out of his league. Americans usually prefer this more in your face, crass brand of humor. My point is funny in England is different from funny in the US. The same goes for J-Horror. What the Japanese consider scary is very different from what Americans consider scary and it shows in this horror film. Japanese horror is generally slow (a little too slow sometimes), suspenseful and creepy. Ju-On is a creepy effing film. The movie has almost no soundtrack. It is incredibly suspenseful and the pay-offs are pretty awesome, but I think that it was done better in the American version (cultural t...
Post a Comment
Not scared yet? »

Humanoids From the Deep (1980) - Barbara Peeters and Jimmy T. Murakami

This is your standard old drive-in Creature Feature that has tons of gore and boobs. It's great if your in for a cheap thrill. This film goes right up along side any Roger Corman produced picture from the eighties. It's rumored that Joe Dante was approached to direct this movie but he turned it down. Humanoids from the Deep, also known as Monster, is a strange but forgettable piece of exploitation that failed to make it's notch in history. Don't let that detour you though. This is a really fun little film that doesn't fail to be entertaining.  A small sea town in California is terrorized by some mutated creatures from the deep. They look like some sort of mutated fish, merman-thing. They seem to have one goal in mind and that is raping and impregnating the females of the town. Also the town is being taken for a ride by a shifty businessman and his new corporate cannery. Could this evil cannery corporation be responsible for the Extreme Creatures of the B...
2 comments
Not scared yet? »

Escape From Tomorrow (2013) - Randy Moore

This review may contain spoilers. An American independent horror movie from filmmaker Randy Moore. It stars Roy Abramsohn, Elena Schuber, Katelynn Rodriguez, Jack Dalton, Annet Mahendru, and Alison Lees-Taylor. It premiered at the official selection of Roger Ebert, at the Sundance Film Festival on January 18th, 2013. Synopsis Jim is a depressed middle-aged man that despises his family life but wants to try to hold it together for a vacation to the Walt Disney World Resort. Jim receives a call before they leave and, unfortunately, Jim has lost his job as well. It proves too much to handle as this trip to the Magic Kingdom becomes a hellish nightmare. Jim’s mind cracks as we watch him deal with Disney’s seedy underbelly. Complete with elaborate corporate conspiracy, undercover sex workers, and demons. Oh and two very young French girls that Jim lusts over. It’s gross. Analysis The acting is amateurish. It’s nothing that’s going to win any awards or anything. The wri...
Post a Comment
Not scared yet? »