It Lives By Night (1974)

- The Bat People

"That's me: Jack-of-all-thoughts and master of none.", 11 September 2014

After being bitten by a bat, people near Dr John Beck begin dying in weird and horrible ways. Dr Beck believes he may be going through some sort of weird bat-like transformation and may be responsible for the murders. The local police sergeant is convinced he has something to do with the deaths. Dr Beck's wife is just confused, but believes her husband can't be responsible. What's going on?

It looks like I'm a bigger fan of It Lives By Night than most of the other IMDb users. It's undoubtedly got its problems, but I find it fairly effective. I enjoy real life husband and wife Stewart Moss and Marianne McAndrew. As you might expect, they're believable together. I was especially impressed with Moss. He does a good job of showing the fear and panic of a person in his situation. Michael Pataki as Sgt Ward is also good. He's annoyingly dogged in his pursuit of Beck. While there are plenty of scenes of fluff or filler, there still a feeling of unease about most of the movie that creates an effective atmosphere. The special effects are, while not the greatest, certainly memorable. I love the scene where Beck's hand changes from human to something more bat-like. And, finally, I really like the ending. I'm not going to give it away, but it's not what I was expecting.

Not only do I like It Lives By Night on its own, but it makes for a terrific episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000. MST3K does a great job of highlighting the movies weaknesses. For example, if Dr Beck is an expert on caves, why is he even on a cave tour led by a minimum wage park ranger? Very funny stuff!

5/10