Rating: NR
Genre:
Horror
Release Date: 04/15/2003
Dubbed: English
Flags: Questionable for Children
Distributor/Studio: Alpha Video
Bloodsucking winged creatures who may take human shape appear to have returned after centuries of dormancy to the middle-European municipality of Kleinschloss in this atmospheric, low-budget
thriller from small-scale
Majestic Pictures, and the burgomaster (
Lionel Belmore) demands answers. With victims scattered everywhere, all bearing the distinctive puncture marks, police detective
Karl Brettschneider (
Melvyn Douglas) finds himself completely stymied.
Brettschneider, who refuses to accept what he considers mere superstition, is not pleased when that eminent physician
Dr. Otto Von Niemann (
Lionel Atwill) hints that there may indeed be such things as murderous human bats.
Herman Gleib (
Dwight Frye), the village idiot, meanwhile, just happens to have a fondness for the nocturnal creatures -- "They're so soft!" -- and the villagers, as they are wont to do, grab their torches and commence a manhunt. Poor
Herman is destroyed, but there is another killing. And this time the victim is
Georgiana (
Stella Adams),
Dr. Von Niemann's housekeeper, who failed to serve the physician his late-night coffee.
~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide