Customer Reviews

Fangs

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

A professor at a college in a small town is working with bats. He has bred them to be stronger and meaner. Then they get out and kill him. A local cop, once of the LAPD, and the local vet/animal control officer, worry about the loose bats and soon have their fears confirmed as the bats begin to attack others.

The hunt for the bats goes on while the body count rises. The town's apple festival is in jeopardy but it won't be shut down because of the necessary income it brings in. But our heroes start to notice a pattern in the attacks and learn more about how to disrupt or scare bats. In the end, we learn the truth of what is going on and see the final stand between heroes and bats.

A pretty typical story that follows the Jaws formula but adds a new twist on the animals' behavior. This is not just nature lashing out. Animal attacks, politics, and greed all come together in this story. Check it out.

FANGS is not what you would expect; instead of a gory "mutated bat goes mad" movie, you get a breezy romantic comedy featuring Whip Hubley and Tracy Nelson working their way through an awkward relationship. Corbin Bernsen is around as the nasty villain; Michael Gregory (long ago from "General Hospital") is around for nasty co-villain; the real culprit is identifiable, and the bats are poorly effected creatures. But there's a lot of laughs and some fun comic scenarios to merit it a view; not at all a terrible movie, enjoyable, but nothing to scare Bram Stoker fans.
Merry Christmas!

"Fangs" is a borderline movie,attempting to be a horror movie,but trying its hand at comedy at the same time. The mousy detective and the handsome animal control officer (with a ditzy teenaged daughter) try to solve the mystery of killer bats and save the Apple Blossom Festival. Corbin Bernsen stars as a sleazy real estate developer.

"Fangs" has its funny moments. The bats look toothless,and it isn't gory. In trying comedy and horror,it fails (spectacularly) at both.

There is a scene in the movie in which a teenager reports that a police officer could not issue a speeding ticket because the teenager had too many aluminum cans on his dashboard, thus rendering the officer's radar ineffective. This news gives the films heroes, officer Ally Parks (Tracy Nelson) and veterinarian John Winslow (Whip Hubley), a brilliant idea. If they cut up lots of aluminum cans, they can use them to jam the bats' radar and save lots of lives.

A purist might wonder what good jamming radar does when bats rely on sonar, and if you're such a purist, this film is not for you. On the other hand, if implausibilities such as this don't bother you too much, this film has something to offer, in large part because it's not Bats. "Fangs," by contrast, does not seem to take itself too seriously, is thoroughly derivative of other films in the heavily-mined animals-run-amok sub-genre (e.g., Slugs, Squirm, and Slither, and those are just the S titles), and has two lead actors who are fun to watch.

The bare-bones outline of "Fangs" is familiar enough. A small town finds itself terrorized by a particularly nasty form of a familiar creature, here bats that have been genetically modified. The powers that be, real-estate developer Carl Hart (Corbin Bernsen) and police chief Sam Taylor (Michael Gregory), naturally oppose any sensible effort to rid the town of its problem, so the young duo of Parks and Winslow must go it alone. Not surprisingly, they begin to develop a romantic interest. In short, there's nothing new here.

Still, "Fangs" is fun in its way, especially because the leads Hubley and Nelson are likable and their relationship fun. As long as you're not expecting anything on the order of classic films like Jaws or The Birds, "Fangs" is an enjoyable film to watch while sharing a bowl of popcorn with the family. (And this film is appropriate for the family. I am not certain, but I do not recall any profanity, and there certainly was no nudity. The violence is minimal, consisting almost entirely of people swatting away bats.)

FANGS is the sort of horror film that is horror only as one considers its genre. If it had had just a few more laughs, it might have qualified as an updated ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET SOME MONSTER OR OTHER. What director Kelly Sandefur has tried mightily to do is to splice some humor from the aforementioned A&C comedy horror genre with the slimy industrialist prototype right out of the mayor from JAWS. Sandefur's success is middling at best. Corbin Bernson is satisfyingly one-dimensional as the sleazebag real estate developer who is determined to keep his town's apple blossom festival from being cancelled by swarms of genetically engineered vampire bats, who, by the way, look exactly like the stringed rubber cutups they truly are. There is something to offend nearly everyone from the cloyingly annoying valley girl accent of Bernson's blonde daughter to the Barney Fife caricature of the film's entire cadre of deputies. Still, one is not supposed to watch this with a critical eye; one viewing a life is quite sufficient. For those who want to kill 90 minutes in harmless but not mindnumbing excess, there are worse fates than FANGS.

...hey, at least it wasn't "Bats." Unlike that movie, this one doesn't take itself too seriously.

I have to admit you have to be in the right mood to see this horror film. It's campy, it's low budget, has some bad acting, and it isn't going to win any awards in filmmaking, but I was mildly entertained for an hour and a half. One reason is that the movie tends to make fun of itself - a reviewer hit the nail on the head when they say it borders on "Abbot and Costello Meet [instert monster]." The movie's got some pretty decent comedy going for it, much of it involving the corporate villain's large lackey Luis...who for some reason gets killed off WAY too early! What the heck? He was the most redeeming part of the movie! He's in maybe 30% of the film but offers 75% of the laughs! I had a good laugh when he takes his dead guard dog to the vet:

Vet: "So I'll run some tests on him, then I'll call you."
Luis: "Ah don't worry, you can keep 'em. He's no use to me now."

I also have to give this movie kudos for the special affects. They weren't great, but the director didn't emphasis them so you didn't really notice it as much as some horror films do, and at least they looked like real bats. The only real faults on this movie I can give is that the storyline slows down near the end, and a couple of times when the corncob-o-meter went on overload. It's not for everyone's taste, but if you want to see a movie to laugh at or you're in the mood for a lighter type of horror movie, this might be your style. I'm tempted to give it two stars, but hey I'm in a good mood.

The best documentary of the vampire film genre ever made

Normally the box display on "B" horror movies is better than the film itself. I was expecting dark scenes. The movie has a plot and dialogue as predictable as "Amen" following a prayer. In spite of that, the perky performances keep the movie entertaining. It is a movie you can sit down and watch with your kids and not be embarrassed. Corbin Benson as the evil Realtor developer was the most horrific thing in the movie. There are tons of evil guys out there that need work. Yes it was a bit cheesy, but that is not bad.

FANGS is a pretty good little mutant-bats-attack movie. The tiny town of Scottsville is besieged by the fuzzy flappers, much to the chagrin of Mr. Hart (Corbin Bernsen from The Dentist 1 and 2), who sees the onslaught as a severe setback for his real estate empire. Whip Hubley is the local veterinarian, and Tracy Nelson plays the cop. Together, they attempt to deduce what is behind a string of grisly deaths. I like this hokey hunk of cheezy goo! Even w/ no nudity, only slight violence, and nary a cuss-word, FANGS manages to be entertaining. And the CGI bats are fairly life-like! FANGS even has Dennis Fimple (Creature Of Black Lake) as a farmer! If that's not enough, there's a twist ending to boot! Enjoy...

Fromn the get-go this movie stays boring and stale. This had to be a made for TV movie, i'll wet myself laughing if they claimed this was a motion picture.

A sceintist geniticly altered a bunch of bats and then they escape and attack when there called via remote. The ugly cop and her new dopey love interest & local animal control expert are on the case while his annoying and cant act for s*** daughter and boyfriend think there news reporters who keep follwing them around looking for an exclusive. All in a small and corrupted town.

This is obviosly a TV movie. It plays more like a pathetic soap opera with slight attempts at humor from time to time, while adding killer mutated bats into the mix. It is neither a horror, nor suspence. There is nothing frightining about the film except for the bad acting. It's a no wonder you wont have seen these actors before, nor will you in future. The effects of gore are laying a cows rib bones on the back of an actor and then hanging plastic bats over him then add some badly created CGI shadows to create an effect thats so bad it's not even laughable.

The movie is a waste of time. If you wanna see a Bat movie, then the actual title BATS was a better movie, but, it wasnt great either... but leaves this one for dead.

Rent it if you feel ill and have the need to puke at bad acting.