EVEN DeepER Blurting!: DBNS: Bat-ter Up!

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DBNS: Bat-ter Up!

Posted by Kenneth Morgan on 3/15/2008, 10:33 pm

Today, Kenneth Morgan reviews a movie that’s only recently started hanging around again.
*****
Even today, in our media-saturated environment, there are some items that just of vanish. Now, I don’t mean old movies or TV shows that were foolishly left to deteriorate or, even worse, were purposely destroyed (like Lon Chaney’s “London After Midnight” or all those “Doctor Who” episodes). I mean items that were made and shown, then forgotten. They probably still exist, socked away in a film vault somewhere, but they’ve slipped the mind of the general public. Actually, a fair amount of MSTed movies fall into that category, but today I’m focusing on one that didn’t get that far.

Thus, our subject for today: “Chosen Survivors”, released by Columbia Pictures in 1974.

The movie opens with a U.S. military chopper touching down in a remote desert area, presumably in the southwest. Then, a group of seemingly random civilians, looking pretty woozy, leave the chopper and are passed down a line of soldiers (SUGGESTED RIFF: It’s the non-Eastwood version of “The Gauntlet”.) to a concealed door, leading to an elevator. Moments after the door closes and the lift descends, there’s a massive series of jolts and tremors. Finally, the lift arrives and the group finds itself inside a 70’s-style ultramodern complex, all gleaming walls, glass pocket doors and computer consoles with flashing lights. (S.R.: It must be a branch office of the Forbin Project.)

A videotaped message finally gives us the lowdown: World War III is in progress. The missiles are flying. And the U.S. Government has constructed this bunker (one of twelve) to protect a computer-selected group of random Americans until the dust settles, the heat dissipates, and the radiation drops. (And the apes take control, I guess.) Oh, said random group (who were drugged to ease their transition to this new world) includes corporate bigwig Couzins (Jackie Cooper), novelist Mayes (Alex Cord), psychologist Macomber (Bradford Dillman), Congresswoman Fitzgerald (Diana Muldaur), Olympic athlete Russo (Lincoln Kilpatrick), scientist Dr. Crisman (Barbara Babcock) and a few others to fill out the cast. In addition, there’s Maj. Ellis (Richard Jaeckel), who’s been assigned there to keep the machines running.

Pretty quickly, we see these “chosen survivors” (hence the title) deal with this new situation. Their reactions range from cool and analytical (Macomber) to philosophical (Mayes) to bitter and paranoid (Couzins). It looks as though we’re in for some major human drama as the group tries to learn how to live together in this new post-Apocalypse state of affairs. However, there’s another problem. It seems that the shelter was built in an existing cave, which also happens to be the home of a very big colony of vampire bats. This being the movies, said bats are depicted as utterly vicious and deadly. Further, they’ve found a way to get into the shelter and are aided by a problem with the generator which causes the lights to go dim at the worst time.

So, with no help from outside, they’ve got to find a way to keep the bats out, as well as keep from killing each other. Makes you wonder if the other shelters are doing as badly…

I dimly remembered this movie from some ads that I saw during its initial release and a couple of mentions in some books. Beyond that, as I noted earlier, the movie pretty much dropped out of sight for many years. I don’t recall it being run in TV syndication or cable, or getting a home video release. Recently, though, it was released on DVD, so I finally managed to catch it. And, I think it’s OK, sort of.

On the one hand, the movie initially makes a good try at human drama. We get a bit of characterization as each person, to one extent or another, deals with the situation and tries to live together (or not) in spite of their many differences. There’s also some good production design and a fair amount of suspense at times, along with an interesting music score from Fred Karlin.

On the other hand, the movie does get pretty heavy-handed at times, particularly in its final moral, which is really piled on at the end. And, while most of the characters are played pretty straight, the movie goes overboard with the characters of Couzins and Macomber. Couzins, since he’s a corporate leader, is predictably played as pretty much a greedy, utter jerk who fouls things up for everyone else more than once. Macomber, to a lesser extent, is also too much the stereotypical cool scientist until a big revelation makes him go off-the-rails. Said revelation is a massive plot twist, which I won’t spoil for you, that occurs about three quarters of the way into the movie but which really didn’t take me by surprise. Also, the movie follows the now-standard rules for both slasher flicks (character left alone at worst possible time) and disaster movies (it won’t be difficult to guess who lives until the end).

The big problem I have is with the bats. Just like in the previously-reviewed “Fer-de-Lance” (the “snakes on a sub” movie), the addition of the bats as a threat seems almost unnecessary. They could’ve stuck with the “chosen survivors” idea and still made an OK movie. In any case, it feels too tacked on for my tastes. As for the bat attack scenes, some are done via some pretty obvious photographic overlays while others, to my surprise, used real, live bats. This includes one scene where they’re (pardon the expression) batted out of the air when going after one character, and another where a captured bat is examined and prodded in a lab. The credits list a couple of bat experts, so I assume the crew knew what they were doing during filming. Still, I’d be interested in knowing if the ASPCA was keeping an eye on the filmmakers. (Shades of the rabbits in “Night of the Lepus”.)

As for riffing material, there’s a good deal of it to be found. For example, there’s the scene where the elevator shakes during its descent and we hear slowed-down moans on the soundtrack (S.R. So, Jacob Marley is in there with them?). Or, when Couzins rants about how he’s sure there’s some kind of dark conspiracy behind their confinement (S.R. I blame the Pentavirate for this.). Or, whenever the video messages end, there’s the announcement that the message was pre-recorded and pre-programmed (S.R.: Any unauthorized copy or reproduction of this message without the consent of the commissioner of baseball…). And, of course, there are the expected references to “It Lives By Night” and, at some point you just have to shout at the screen, “I HAVE HAD IT WITH THESE MOTHERBLANKING BATS IN THIS MOTHERBLANKING NUCLEAR WAR SURVIVAL SHELTER!”

All in all, I’d say “Chosen Survivors” is pretty much an OK movie. It’s good as riffing material and acceptable as a movie thriller. It certainly didn’t deserve to be buried and forgotten for this long.

Now, is there any chance we can just collectively forget about a few other movies instead? Shall we start with the “Deuce Bigalow” movies?

CONTENT NOTE: “Chosen Survivors” is rated PG and features violence, adult situations and some scary sequences. It’s tame compared to today’s stuff, but you might want to be careful.

CONNECTIONS NOTE: Near as I can tell, the main connections are film editors John F. Link (who worked on carol-inspiring “Road House”) and Dennis Virkler (who worked on the previously-reviewed “Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle”), and Richard Jaeckel (Ellis), who co-starred in the first MSTed movie “The Green Slime”. (And when will that pilot get released?)