THE BAT PEOPLE (1974) aka It Lives By Night
“After the sun has set and the night wind has died comes the hour of the bat people!”
Directed by Jerry Jameson (The Mod Squad 1968-1972, The Over-The Hill-Gang 1969, The Six Million Dollar Man 1974, Mayberry R.F.D 1968-1970, Airport ’77) and Cinematography by Matthew F. Leonetti who was director of photography on Poltergeist 1982, Breaking Away 1979 and more- check out his impressive IMDb page. With makeup by Stan Winston.
This is an obscure 70s low-budget horror film, the likes which were cropping up all over drive-ins and little art house movie theatres in the mid-1970s.
The Bat People stars Michael Pataki as Sgt.Ward who begins to investigate and hunt down the vampire bat people. Stewart Moss (who did a lot of television from the 1960s-1990s) plays Dr. John Beck who studies bats and Marianne McAndrew (again, lots of tv series and tv films) is Cathy Beck, John’s new bride.
Dr. Beck is bitten by a bat while exploring Carlsbad Cavern (a location used in many sci-fi films of the 50s-70s) and then begins his transformation into a hybrid man/bat, who doesn’t want to bite innocent people for their blood. Will his wife be able to help or will she become infected too!?
The Bat People has the perfect stylistic look of a great obscure made-for-television 70s treat though it had it’s own theatrical release. It’s a guilty pleasure for those of us that enjoy rare looks at 70s drive-in oddities!
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Joey, thanks for going batty.Just the other day I saw THE BAT again.Cool to revisit the Price Moorehead classic. And I do remember THE BAT PEOPLE(altho as I recall there was only a bat person) from early 70’s.Tho not at an art theater but a “local itch” in my childhood nabe of city line bklyn. Loved all those A.I.P. pics.Cool trailer.Good to have you back at the last drive-in.
Odd that you didn’t mention that Stewart Moss and Marianne McAndrew were married in real life (but for Moss’s passing in ’17, they would have reached their 50th anniversary this year).
Ooh, I’ll need to poke around and see if this is on a disc as well. Thanks for the heads-up, J.!
The Bat People aka They Live By Night is actually on YouTube though the quality is awful!
Yep. I did see that video and was hoping for a saving throw, lol. Hopefully it’ll get at least a cleaner disc version at some point. :D
Jo, where do you find these treasures?
This one seems especially creepy to me because, you know, bats.
Haha! One of my persona’s is MonsterGirl it’s my mission in life to keep track of these ghastly ghoulish gems!
At this point (cue mad scientist cackle), I’m all for cloning you as the world could use a few more MonsterGirls pointing out the proper cinematic and TV scares. Of course, you’d be in charge of wrangling those clones so they don’t cause too much mayhem. But consider the free time you’ll have when you can substitute yourself when needed. :D
Cue Mad Scientist Cackle then cue this ( though it’s a prairie dog and not a chipmunk geez-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1Y73sPHKxw
Haha!! That’s what the world needs now, a bit more of me…. And I wouldn’t mind spreading delicious mayhem of an absolutely harmless nature around, if you agreed to be the Cool Ghoul Guy to my Mayheming MonsterGirl…
https://youtu.be/8oo0Nj3fMf8?t=1m53s Time to draw up the proper world domination paperwork, I guess!
LMAO- Power!!! Unto the Holy of Holys MWAAAAAA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWHNA_j7h5A Well, we’ll surely do better than this pair, lol!