The dialogue of the college-aged characters towards the beginning of this made for TV film captured my attention. The group, which tended towards the Gothic or nerd type of college stereotype, spoke like real people.

The pacing and editing was above par for a TV movie, and the fact that Lucy Lawless does not age continues to confound me.

I Tivoed this movie, and because of the Sunday time-shifts from the afternoon NFL games, I missed the last 15 minutes of the film. I hope to catch it the next time it is run. Ideally, I will not have to wait until next Halloween.

This movie, with a little more money and the proper advertising, could have been an acceptable movie theatre offering. OK, maybe another A/B list lead to counter Lucy Lawless would be necessary, but the basics of an intelligent, somewhat thought-provoking movie are firmly in place with Vampire Bats.

This made for TV film is about killer vampire bats but with an environmental twist.

Some college students get drunk and drugged, end up being attacked supposedly by wild animals but the college biology professor Lucy Lawless reckons its mutated Vampire bats caused by toxic waste in the river.

Lawless does her best with a lot of bland non entities. The CGI and special effects are below average and the action is boring with the bats being very selective as to who they attack.

A poor and rather silly film.

I'm a huge fan of creature features, even the dodgy ones in which CGI monsters run amok and tear overacting cast members to pieces. Hell, I got a kick out of ATTACK OF THE SABRETOOTH and AZTEC REX, which is saying something. But VAMPIRE BATS, a sort-of modern-day version of NIGHTWING, turns out to be a deathly dull and completely senseless addition to the genre.

Originally shown on Halloween in 2005, this is a short TV movie which nevertheless feels like it goes on for ages. The entire production is padded with dull SCOOBY DOO-style scenes of the characters creeping around and investigating a series of mysterious murders. It's all routine and predictable as you'd expect. Oddly, this is a sequel, a follow up to LOCUSTS which also starred Lucy Lawless.

Needless to say that the acting is extremely bad, even from Lawless who would later go on to enjoy a mini career renaissance with her great role in the gory TV show SPARTACUS: BLOOD AND SAND. The special effects are a mix of silly CGI bat swarms and some slightly more convincing rubber models. One of the worst things about it is that there's no gore to speak of, no decent attack scenes a la THE BIRDS, just mindless, mind-numbing plotting with no wit, style or imagination. Give it a miss.