Chosen Survivors (1974) User Reviews

A great story idea ruined.....

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 22 December 2012]

"Chosen Survivors" is a rare film. It has a GREAT story idea but it's completely undone by bad writing. It's a shame, as the main plot is fantastic.

A small group of people find themselves sedated and brought to a shelter more than 1700 feet underground. It seems that the dreaded nuclear apocalypse has arrived and the government has picked a few people to secure in various bunkers under the earth in order to propagate the human race. Much of the film concerns how these folks adapt to their new lives--or, rather, how some of them cannot cope. I loved the film up to this point and felt it was a brilliant study of human nature. Then, abruptly, the film took a detour to Stupidville! That's because without warning, insane vampire bats invade the bunker. I say insane because these bats in real life are NOT killers--but here in the film they are worse than killer bees, piranhas and Cobras combined!!! Bats just don't behave that way and then too much of a once-interesting story is spent focusing on how to survive with these murderous beasts flapping about....which is a shame, as the film has a wonderful twist that is lost in the process. A great example of a wonderful story idea that is ultimately ruined.

Chosen Survivors (1974) **

[JoeKarlosi · 5/10 · 19 September 2007]

This is a movie I've wanted to see for over 30 years now; I first read about it in horror magazines when it first came out, but it soon turned into a lost film that went completely out of circulation. It has now been made available by Fox as part of their Midnite Movies Collection, and I'm a little disappointed to say I wasn't missing all that much. It's not a "bad" genre film and it's got a good premise, but it's still rather ordinary in the way it's executed. A group of people are selected by computer, sedated, and then sent down 1,758 feet into an underground bomb shelter to see if they might sustain life in the event of a nuclear war. It was another of those perfect experiments hatched by the government, except they overlooked the fact that this project was built down within caves, so now swarms of hungry vampire bats manage to find their way into the bunker and chomp on these frantic chosen survivors. There's more talk going on than anything else, but when the bat attacks do occur, they're pretty satisfying, even if sometimes the special optical effects amount to little more than a flurry of dark splotches.

I got a kick out of seeing former Our Gang child actor Jackie Cooper as the main loudmouth of the bunch who at one point goes on a bender and becomes your basic arrogant pain in the ass character. Other '70s regulars among this cast are Richard Jaeckel (GRIZZLY) Bradford Dillman (BUG), and Lincoln Kilpatrick (THE OMEGA MAN). I thought I recognized director Sutton Roley's name from somewhere, and later I found out that's because he directed some LOST IN SPACE episodes and was primarily a TV show director. I'm not sorry I saw this, but it sure was some tepid tea. ** out of ****

Bats behaving badly .............

[merklekranz · 6/10 · 25 July 2012]

"Chosen Survivors" poses quite a few ethical questions, while taking extreme liberties with the reputation of vampire bats. The film has an almost fatal failing in that it introduces a dozen characters all at once. This of course means that character development is totally inadequate. We really know nothing about those unfortunate individuals who succumb to the blood sucking winged annoyances. On the positive side, many of the futuristic sets are intriguing, there are some unexpected twists, and the use of actual as well as animated bats lends realism. The movie occasionally grinds to a halt with meaningless small talk, but overall has definite entertainment value. - MERK

Would love to find a copy of film

[Roadkill1962 · 24 November 2004]

Like the other person that reviewed the film, I was young (12) when I saw the film but I have thought about it many times since.

In fact, I was able to finally track down the title. I cannot say the movie was great but the premise was interesting and, for a 12 year old, plenty of frights. I must have checked over 100 sites to try and find the name of this film. Several scenes were memorable such as when the were being attacked in the control room and then when they were trying to escape by climbing out, since the elevator no longer was operable. If anyone has a copy of the film, I would appreciate being contacted so I can share it with my children.

Chosen Schmucks!

[zardoz-13 · 5/10 · 11 June 2013]

The message in "Chosen Survivors" is don't trust the government. Ten people find themselves stuffed into a "Dr. Strangelove" sanctuary over 17-hundred feet beneath the surface of the Earth. They have been chosen based on a number of characteristics that make them ideal specimens for survival. Above, the Earth smolders in the wake of a global, thermonuclear war. Unfortunately, when the government constructed the tactility, they overlooked a new species of vampire bat in a nearby cavern in New Mexico, and this species invades the place and starts killing people. Our heroes don't have anything with which to protect themselves. Moreover, they don't band together, and one of them, Raymond Couzins (Jackie Cooper of "Superman"), goes berserk after he gets drunk and sabotages the works. A great ensemble cast struggles to make lemonade out of this lemon. Alex Cord, Richard Jaeckel, Diana Muldaur, and Bradford Dillman give it their best, but the screenplay by "House of the Damned" scribe Harry Spalding and freshman scenarist Joe Reb Moffly lacks charisma. Lenser Gabriel Torres' cinematography and composer Fred Karlin's score contribute to the suspense that director Sutton Roley generates. The action turns a momentous turn about an hour into the narrative that is fairly mind-blowing. Everything is spun about 45 degrees. Meantime, a problem occurs, and the chief scientist, Peter Macomber (Bradford Dillman) tries to send a message. Sadly, the message doesn't make it back to surface. When it isn't suspenseful, this exercise in Nihilism isn't very uplifting. The satire is a bit heavy-handed. The production values were strong, and the underground facility looked convincing in a slick, shiny, sci-fi way.

A Deeply Disturbing Z-Grade Film About Nuclear War

[texasarcane · 7/10 · 6 August 2016]

One of the biggest challenges to movie makers is conveying the horror of nuclear war in post-atomic film. The reality is that shelter life isn't that glamorous if depicted realistically. The threats present aren't very dramatic and in most cases stealthy and lacking in suspense. The madness of nuclear war has to be communicated instead through contrivances, like atomic mutations or pervasive inescapable radiation like in ON THE BEACH. These things are not realistic but somehow they can often transmit the bleak and terrifying plight of the survivors.

CHOSEN SURVIVORS uses vampire bats to contrast with the serene tranquility of the expensive government shelter the characters take refuge in. No matter how safe they may think they will be, it turns out that the bats are determined to intrude in their sanitary environment and prey on them where they believed they were safe.

It's very effective for a low budget film. It is well acted and well directed and has an interesting score that complements the story. There are times you really feel claustrophobic and at the mercy of the bats who can penetrate even what they think are secure places.

The color scheme was pretty good considering it was accomplished before CGI filters existed for post-production and the special effects are pretty convincing as well. The somber blue shades over everything in the darkness combined with the lively shadows of the bats is very well done. The sequences of bats attacking is extremely well choreographed with the human actors.

This movie is a rare sci-fi gem with a bleak apocalyptic ending that is common for this genre of cinema but somehow satisfying. The movie stopped a little short of being a classic but is well worth viewing.

Could have been worse

[drystyx · 3/10 · 8 December 2012]

The premise for this movie is 11 people in an underground shelter, specially chosen for being doctors, athletes, artists, and the like, are to represent the survival of the human race in a nuclear holocaust.

It's made in 1974, so we can expect the worst.

However, it isn't the absolute worst.

Naturally, then, as today, one wonders if this being an "initial" project, if it isn't a test. The man in charge seems very convincing that it isn't a test.

Meanwhile, vampire bats flood the shelter, and they have to be dealt with.

One good thing is that not too much detail is spent on how the shelter is self sustaining. That's good foresight, as such details are not only going to change every three years, but also because no matter what the details are, most viewers who think themselves experts will whine about such details being inferior. In such a case, there will never be a majority consensus, except to pout about what is used. The best one can hope for is a plurality, and even then it will usually be a plurality of ignorance.

That's the best thing going for this movie.

One thing viewers will note is that women scream and panic in movies from about 1960-1975 or so, to the point of silliness.

However, lets not forget that "panic of characters in death struggles" is not nearly as silly as the 1975-2000 period in which no one panics, and actors calmly smile at death.

Fortunately, we have pre-1960 and post-2000 films which usually present a believable balance.

The characters aren't so bad, but they are very formula for the seventies.

The events are predictable at first, then it looks like they might have some fresh material in the middle, but then the end is complete Hollywood. The last 10 minutes is so cliché filled that one wonders if it was meant as a joke. And that means "cliche filled for 1974" as well as today.

The Batty Bomb Shelter.

[hitchcockthelegend · 7/10 · 7 October 2011]

Chosen Survivors is directed by Sutton Roley and written by H.B. Cross. It stars Jackie Cooper, Alex Cord, Richard Jaeckel, Bradford Dillman, Barbara Babcock, Diana Muldaur and Lincoln Kilpatrick. Music is by Fred Karlin and cinematography by Gabriel Torres.

It's the eve of nuclear war and a government computer has selected a specialist group of people to live 1,758 feet underground in a nuclear proof, purpose built housing facility. The purpose is that these people can start to repopulate the Earth in five years time. However, something isn't quite right about this set-up and things take a distinctive turn for the worse when it's revealed that a colony of vampire bats have also made the facility their home.

It's far better than any plot synopsis suggests. True, it's very 70s, both in characters (clothing/delivery of dialogue/hair), and the effects used, but it also captures the zeitgeist of paranoia running at the time. Fear of nuclear war and the government hangs heavy, while the group dynamic under a stress situation makes for a tellingly oppressive mood. The whole thing has a bleakness about it, and that's before the vampire bats turn up hungry for what is apparently the only source of blood left available to them. The downbeat feel is further enforced by Karlin's music score, which often sounds like the synthesiser strains favoured by John Carpenter for some of his well revered culters. There's the expected bad turn of events with some of the characters, I mean it would be a dull film if everyone just got on all hunky dory, while there's a wicked twist that propels the narrative to another level of enjoyment for the viewer.

Competently acted by the cast, and effectively put together by Roley, Chosen Survivors is a neat horror/sci-fi hybrid. Not without some cheese and gaps in plotting for sure, but very effective and recommended on proviso you aren't looking to be cheered up! 7/10

Slow Moving Disaster filck....

[p-purcell · 5/10 · 18 June 2006]

A group of people are selected to take part in an experiment to see how mankind would fare after a nuclear holocaust and are placed without there consent in a bunker thousands of feet below ground. They disturb a group of bats living in the cave systems around them and they begin to attack the trapped humans. This is a great premise for this film but i found it so slow moving with far to many talking scenes. In the whole first hour only two people die of the bat attack and only one of them do we see die on screen. The remaining film concerns one of the group trying to climb to safety who falls to his death and releases the bats to attack one final time killing all but 5 of the group in one big attack scene. All in all a good premise for a film but not as good as it could have been.

Chosen Survivors

[Scarecrow-88 · 7/10 · 30 April 2008]

Selected intellectual minds, and important folks deemed special for forwarding the human race once a thermonuclear war is to rage across the globe, find themselves fighting for their very lives underground in their fancy governmentally (supposedly)secure bomb shelter well equipped with all the resources they could possibly need as vampire bats, which rest within a cavernous area secret to them, enter and attack when the group is most vulnerable. With a female assigned, via taped recording, guiding their day to day activities, offering a planned regimen for them to survive on, the group find themselves at odds with Raymond Couzins, a loudmouth who often stirs up bad vibes with his constant talk of conspiracy theories, and drunken insults. Yet, perhaps there is some truth to what he's saying as Dr. Peter Macomber(Bradford Dillman)holds a secret which will only add to the worsening mental state of the group as a whole. Realizing that they were merely part of an experiment on how a group could function together in an isolated situation, had such a catastrophic event taken place, the group hope that a signal had reached Washington, for Couzins, in a bumbling mishap that damages important electrical equipment resulting in the death of a member, leaves them with few alternatives left. Major Gordon Ellis(Richard Jaeckel)comes up with a method that could be quite dangerous..someone could climb an elevator shaft 17oo feet which could open a door to the outside providing a chance for contacting help. Macomber, despite the group's hostile feelings towards he and his government which put them in their difficult crisis, comes up with an idea on how to kill the bats, through electrocution by suckering them with blood as bait.

I must say that this was a pleasant form of entertainment. Sure, the special effects are rather inferior to today's modern technical improvements, but they didn't seem to bother me all that much because I found the cast so much fun to watch, and the premise was quite enjoyable. It's essentially mixes the always-reliable "animals attack" premise with the theme of nuclear war and how mankind could deal with such a thing. Perfectly capping these elements with a government conspiracy plot yielding terrified characters in search of an exit. Perfectly 70's carrying the sensibilities of the time, with a cast of familiar faces. I thought Dillman has a startlingly good scene where he admits to who he really is and the hoax that has put them all in grave danger..I think Dillman realistically displays the emotional weight his character is bearing in both coming clean with his confession while showing that he believed that the experiment was for the betterment of mankind. I thoroughly enjoyed Cooper as the antagonist, and Jaeckel is a delight as the sincere army man, burdened with keeping the underground shelter under operation despite a series of set-backs that make that nearly impossible. I also loved this confrontation between the accusing Couzins claiming Ellis was perhaps behind a conspiracy to keep them in the shelter..Jaeckel and Cooper produce some fireworks. Some performances are overwrought, as often was the case for Made-for-television movies with character actors, but I think the situation stressing and depressing those caught between a rock and a hard place, warranted such heightened emotions. I think Woody's elevator shaft climb was quite suspenseful..it sure had me biting my nails. I do think the story provides some food for thought, and is a perfect time capsule of what was on the minds of the country at that time.

The 70's! The bats!

[BandSAboutMovies · 5/10 · 25 June 2018]

Hours before a nuclear attack, couples that have been matched by computer are taken to an underground shelter so they can eventually repopulate the Earth. A great plan, if it wasn't for the vampire bats!

Starring Jackie Cooper (Superman), Richard Jaeckel (Grizzly), Bradford Dillman (The Swarm), Star Trek: TNG's Diana Muldaur, Lincoln Kilpatrick (who has an amazing scene where he tries to find a way out by climbing up and out) and more, this post-apocalyptic film is very 70s. There's a lot of talking, not much action and plenty of in-fighting.

Can what's left of humanity get along long enough to make some post-bomb babies? Will the bats bite their butts? Will you be offended when a rape scene turns into a seduction because this is the 70's? These questions and more will all be answered.

Big Brother; the post-nuclear apocalypse edition.

[Coventry · 9/10 · 21 October 2007]

One of the most successful (and equally irritating) TV-formats of recent years is Big Brother, in which a bunch of people, complete strangers to each other, are put together in an isolated location and become forced to get along and accomplish ordeals together. Apparently this concept isn't so new or innovating at all, as the obscure (although less obscure now, with its recent release on DVD) and still criminally underrated 70's gem "Chosen Survivors" thrives on a similar premise. Only this movie is at least a gazillion times better than any Big Brother edition you ever saw, because it has genuine suspense, a formidable cast of characters, plot twists you actually don't see coming and – not to forget – thousands of bloodthirsty bats! Now, THAT is what they should do in the TV-series of Big Brother: unleash an army of aggressive and rabid bats on the attention-horny participants, ha! Ayway, "Chosen Survivors" opens with atmospheric images of the New Mexican desert and army helicopters approaching a secret underground lair. Eleven eminent persons, who achieved great things is different fields (sports, science, literature, business…) awake to hear they are the chosen survivors. On the earth's surface, a nuclear war has wiped out all humanity and they are to remain underground until it is safe again to re-populate the planet. But of course, the survivors don't get along as they should, some them behave overly hostile and suspicious and the hi-tech government designed lair isn't exactly bat-proof. The film offers a splendid combination of terrific character drawing, for psychological tension, and actual nail-bitingly tense situation with the bat attacks and the quest for freedom. H.B. Cross' script is excellent and Sutton Roley, usually a director of TV series episodes, does an amazing job providing the film with a genuine apocalyptic feeling. The acting performances are top-notch, with notably exceptional roles for Jackie Cooper as the arrogant Mr. Couzins and Bradford Dillman as the calm behavior analyst. Highly recommended Sci-Fi gem.

Well above average 70's TV movie, but...

[mcgrew · 7/10 · 5 February 2018]

This was a movie that had one too many bad-things.

We start with a group of strangers (reminding one of TZ's "five characters in search of an exit," in all the right ways) tossed into a it's-the-end-of-the-world survival pod. Add in one maintenance man (the always reliable Richard Jaekel), and one... well, traitor (Bradford Dillman in strangely fitting glasses, for some reason). And pretty much everybody falls to pieces with the knowledge of what's happened to everyone they know.

That's a great story. Add in the possibility that this is some sort of macabre psychological experiment, but that no matter what, nobody can leave.

That's a greater story. Add in... vampire bats?!? Suddenly a human story is converted into a piranhas-are-out-to-get-me scream-fest. And suddenly ridiculous. Now we're just waiting for someone to be killed, screaming, by swarms of vampire bats, while some try to find a way out, and are killed, screaming.

This could have been a fantastic movie (along the lines of another 'survivor' tv-movie, the superb "Sole Survivor" (1970), or the equally superb "Groundstar Conspiracy" (1972)), but somebody decided "there needs to be an immediate danger", and that it should be vampire bats. Too bad.

I waited 34 years to see this...

[microx96002 · 5/10 · 26 January 2008]

and was it worth the wait? The answer is no, all the time I thought I was missing something, I wasn't! Just think your average 1970's TV movie of the week ( but this one got released to theaters), with your average TV movie cast i.e. Jackie Cooper,Richard Jaeckel etc. All capable actors, but even capable actors need a script. This one didn't have much of a plot, and the effects even by 1970's standards were not very good. I don't want to give away much of the story, but I've seen better, more realistic bats in 1940's Universal Dracula movies! Except for the occasional close up of a real bat, they are all badly animated. So, if you're into cheesy 70's sci-fi this one's OK to rent, however I'd think twice about shelling out $12-$15 for it. The black and white B-movie Earth Dies Screaming (that accompanied it on DVD)is more entertaining, in a 1960's Black and white B Movie sort of way!

A little gem that deserves DVD treatment

[Russ1010lv · 23 February 2002]

This is one film that, even though I have not seen it in years, deserves a DVD release. It was, when I saw it as a teenager, one of the scariest movies I had ever scene, and the ending sequence with the bat attack still brings back some shivers. I taught a Science Fiction class in a NJ high school and I had a budget for films - - I found this movie as a projection movie at a local distributor. After carefully discussing the plot with the class, and the graphic scenes, my class viewed the film and enjoyed it thoroughly as a message movie and a horror film. With more and more archive titles coming out on DVD, perhaps soon this "little gem" will be released. For those who have not seen this film, have patience - - - even though I have never seen it on Sci-Fi Channel or TBS or such - - this is a tidy little thriller that really delivers the goods!

If only the bats would have been giant mutated bats

[kaefab · 3/10 · 8 February 2018]

Wow i was expecting better from this movie, but i guess too much after seeing foods of the god.

I was able to watch the movie on youtube, its not bad but the bats are regular bats nothing more and the movie is slow moving so nothing much happens.

Underrated Horror.

[AaronCapenBanner · 7/10 · 4 September 2013]

A diverse group of people are flown to an underground bunker, where they are informed that they are the sole survivors of a nuclear war that has broken out. They are naturally shocked and upset by this, but try to learn more about the war and new surroundings, when another horror happens...the survivors discover that their underground cavern is filled with vampire bats, who are not content to leave them in peace.

Obscure film deserves to be better known, since it is well acted by its stars(Jackie Cooper, Diana Muldaur, Alex Cord, Bradford Dillman, among others) and has an intelligent script that contains quite a few surprises for the viewer. Ultimately downbeat drama, but compelling,and would have been at home on either "The Twilight Zone" or "The Outer Limits". Is on DVD at least, and worth seeing.

CHOSEN SURVIVORS

[TCurtis9192 · 5/10 · 26 October 2019]

"CHOSEN SURVIVORS" (1974, Roley) is about an eclectic mix of personalities who, without warning, are dropped deep underground by the government to survive the nuclear destruction of the planet. Unfortunately the shelter is regularly invaded by blood-thirsty bats.

It's a pretty good film, definitely a good idea, but something about it prevented me from having a great time. The characters and plot don't quite gel very well. Decent enough gore for a TV film.

It reminded me of John Carpenter's "THE THING" (1982) at times.

Desmodus Rotundus: Horde of Torment

[Vomitron_G · 7/10 · 23 April 2008]

The world as we know it, is about to end. Total Thermonuclear Destruction: 4 billion casualties, 168 survivors, 12 hi-tech underground facilities spread across the USA at a depth of 1.758ft, one located in the New Mexico desert inhabited by 11 unsuspecting citizens on government command with their sole purpose… the survival of the human race. But our group of chosen survivors will soon have something else to worry about than the lethal radiation levels above their heads: Desmodus Rotundus, commonly known as the vampire bat.

CHOSEN SURVIVORS is one nifty 70's post-nuke paranoia-thriller. The opening-scene already looks promising: 11 sedated citizens are flown in by helicopter over the ominous desert landscape, accompanied on the tunes of a tense brass score. In slow-motion they are shoved into an elevator and when it starts to go all the way down, the opening-credits come on and slow-motion shots of the elevator rattling and shaking continue. Great stuff! Once inside the facility, the survivors learn about their faith.

The characters are all well drawn-out, each of them having an expertise in a certain field (science, sports, writing,…). They'll all have to get along and work together in order to survive, but needless to say tensions arise and conflicts occur. All that is pretty entertaining already, but the real fun starts when they discover a vampire bat inside the facility. They realize that a whole horde of hungry killer-bats is lurking inside the caves surrounding the facility. And paranoia turns into survival. Psychologically, the characters are also well thought-out. Naturally, there's one guy you love to hate that eventually does something very stupid, but even his character changes throughout the movie. So, all-in-all CHOSEN SURVIVORS is pretty unpredictable when it comes to who'll survive and who won't, if any.

The set-design, of course, looks dated but nevertheless was a well-constructed concept for those days. The bat attacks are staged in a decent fashion. Good thing is that they actually used a lot of real bats in certain scenes, instead of going for the obvious fake ones. The blue-screen effects are obvious in certain scenes, but always effective. Aside from the survival-horror-element with the bats, CHOSEN SURVIVORS is a bit more in the sci-fi/thriller vein of other 70's paranoia/conspiracy movies like, for instance, CAPRICORN ONE. Only this time with nobody being hunted down, but the whole group being trapped deep below ground. As to be expected, the facility isn't all that big (limited budget, limited sets), but the location is put to good use.

With the look and feel being obsolete, CHOSEN SURVIVORS actually could inspire a decent remake, in my opinion. Just replace the global nuclear devastation angle with that of the ever-so-popular killer-virus one, put the whole concept in capable hands with a decent budget for a skilled crew and up-to-date special effects supported by a good cast, et voilà, we should have a remake that's far more decent than the uninspired crap they keep cranking out nowadays. No need to change the script even, because it already contains a decent twist around the middle part, which in today's suspense cinema has become a must. Actually, they might want to make the bats virus-infected this time, because how in this film they manage to kill off adults in a couple of minutes with a dozen bites or so, is beyond me. Other than this shortcoming, the script successfully blends genres. A typical 70's accomplishment on the one hand, and ahead of its time on the other. Check this one out. It's a gem.

I've had enough of these *expletive* bats in this *expletive* cave!

[Hey_Sweden · 6/10 · 23 February 2015]

A diverse group of characters - including a behavioural scientist (Bradford Dillman), an Olympic athlete (Lincoln Kilpatrick), a novelist (Alex Cord), a doctor (Barbara Babcock), and a corporate honcho (Jackie Cooper) are whisked away by the government. Armageddon is at hand, and these people are taken to a specially designed shelter buried almost two miles below the Earth. They're all stressed out as it is, but the main problem is yet to come. It seems that the government, which modified existing caves, just couldn't create a shelter that was vampire bat proof.

"Chosen Survivors" has the feel of a TV movie, and in fact the director, Sutton Roley, worked mostly in that medium. Nothing about it is particularly stylish, although it does have decent atmosphere, especially in scenes where the lights go out. Shock and squirm moments are variable: when real bats are used, things are fine, but the special effects are simply *terrible* when it comes to creating mass bat attacks. (The movie *is* gorier than the typical TV movie, to be sure.) The screenplay by Harry Spalding and Joe Reb Moffly has some rather thin characters and silly dialogue, making it all the more impressive that some of the actors would come off as well as they do. The music score by Fred Karlin is pretty good.

Of course, this does fall into the clichés of the genre, particularly when it comes to characters. One of our "chosen survivors" is a loudmouth Jerk (the Jackie Cooper role) who does a lot of complaining. Also, we get one poor woman, Kristina Lerner (Cristina Moreno) who's obliged to do most of the screaming and panicking. The cast does the best it can with the material; the quietly effective Kilpatrick and the excellent Richard Jaeckel come off the best.

At the very least, "Chosen Survivors" can boast one very well executed set piece, when one person tries to step to the heroic challenge and scale the massive elevator shaft to send a signal to potential rescuers. It's here that Roley is able to generate the most genuine tension.

This is very much of its time, but still offers a reasonable amount of entertainment for undemanding B movie lovers.

Six out of 10.

A very creepy and effective little 70's B sci-fi/horror flick

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 15 January 2006]

How's this for a really inspired and effective handy-dandy sci-fi/horror combo premise: Let's take your basic randomly selected motley assortment of everyday folks gathered together in a deep, isolated, self-contained underground nuclear fall-out shelter so they can survive an impending end-of-the-world holocaust tale and embellish on this standard situation with a borrowing from the then hip killer-animals-run-amuck trend by having a horde of vicious, relentless, chattering vampire bats with a taste for human blood attack the understandably terrified bunch at regular bloodcurdling intervals. Sounds like a pretty desperately reaching "high concept" effort, right? Well, that brusque blow-off assumption is wrong. Dead wrong.

Under episodic TV show vet Sutton Roley's taut, capable direction the admittedly threadbare story works surprisingly well, resulting in a genuinely scary, creepy and suspenseful nail-biter. The neatly varied cast helps a lot; they fill out their stock roles with commendable conviction. Former child actor Jackie Cooper portrays a cross, feet-of-clay rich jerk grumbler with stand-out sliminess. Constantly reliable B-pic perennials Richard Jaeckel (who later had a fatal run-in with a killer bear in "Grizzly" and got offed by a pack of wild dogs in "Day of the Animals") and Alex Cord (the latter bears a passing resemblance to tough guy thesp extraordinaire William Smith here) make for properly stalwart heroes. The always composed and elegant Diana Muldaur brings a welcome touch of class to the tense, grisly proceedings. Future "Hill Street Blues" regular Barbara Babcock is a lovely damsel in distress. A bespectacled Bradford Dillman (who went on to get stung to death by killer bees in "The Swarm" and had his face nibbled on by carnivorous fish in "Piranha") nerds it up nicely as a duplicitous dweeby scientist. Chronically unsung character actors Pedro Armendariz, Jr. and Lincoln Kilpatrick contribute solid performances as an eminently expendable decent dude and a gallant, rugged Olympic athlete, respectively. The sequence where Kilpatrick tries to climb out of the subterranean shelter on a rope is both gripping and nerve-wracking. The bat attacks are almost unbearably frightening and ferocious. The claustrophobic set design, Gabriel Torres' cramped, closed-in cinematography, Fred Karlin's jazzy, spooky score, the unremittingly eerie tone, and the bleakly ironic ending all add considerably to the gut-wrenching tension. And those nasty screeching bats are truly horrifying little suckers!

Agree it's a "hidden gem".

[Bono-10 · 7/10 · 6 October 2003]

Like several previous commentators I'd love this little gem to get an airing on TV. I saw it as a "supporting feature". In 1974 we were in the dying days of "double features" in the UK. I think the "main" feature that day was "Electra Glide in Blue". Anyway, I fondly recall this as a very effective thriller. It certainly conveyed claustrophobia and menace. It would be great to have an opportunity to re-appraise this film.

Scared the hell out of a couple of kids when it first came out

[foxion · 29 September 2001]

Is this movie really as gory as I remember it? My younger sister and I still talk about the time one of our older sisters dumped us off at the theater in order to get us out of the house while the parents were away. The movie playing that day was "Chosen Survivors". Yikes. If memory serves this one had plenty of blood on the walls and lots of bat attacks. Maybe there is more to this movie than blood and bats but that's all I can remember from it. I'd love to find this one on video to see how it has held up over the years.

I have been looking for the name of this movie for years!!!!!

[shptiludrplb · 6/10 · 29 March 2005]

I saw this movie when I was little and I never quite knew the name of it. I knew that it had survivor in the tile. This is the first website that actually had the movie listed. Pretty scary stuff as I remember it. The bats were pretty ferocious and I don't recall anyone making it. From the plot summary, I guess they did??? I would love to see it again though. I was even beginning to think that I never this movie never existed and I was confusing it with Aliens. This movie came out when special effects were not so prevalent and a lot of the horror was more mental than visual. I place this movie up there with "Gargoyles", and "Don't be afraid of the Dark". Those movies kept me up at night for weeks!!!

Bizarre and Batty Lost Film From the 70's

[crickwill · 6/10 · 21 September 2019]

This movie freaked me out and has never left my memory.At the tender age of 12, possibly 13, a school friend and I inadvertently went to this picture, thinking it was the upcoming disaster epic 'Earthquake' that we were both anxious to see.Both films were released at approximately the same time in '74 and I guess with the similar 'extermination factor' themes, we confused this for the other.No mind.However, what a dark, sordid little film this was for its time....I remember sitting there in a semi-stupor as the cast just got systematically waylaid by bats in loving detail.By that stage we knew we had checked into the wrong movie but I don't think we were prepared for the queasy, subterranean horrors this film portrayed.I definitely enjoyed it, as an introduction to the horror genre if nothing else.I think it played for around a week at the Embassy in Sydney then disappeared off the face of the earth, never to be heard of again or released in any format for decades, although one can more than likely get hold of it now somewhere...?