SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Scott LeBrun This adaptation of the Martin Cruz Smith novel (scripted by Steve Shagan, Bud Shrake, and Smith himself) is actually pretty faithful to the source material. Ultimately, it's not quite as satisfying as Smiths' story, where the characters were given more depth. But it's still a striking and interesting (if not great) film, an unusual mix of animal horror, human drama, and Indian mysticism. The actors in all of the major roles are pretty good, and director Arthur Hiller - a man known more for mainstream comedies and dramas such as "Love Story" - does his best working within a different genre. It's true that the film doesn't have very much suspense, but the animal attacks are NOT that badly done, despite the presence of some chintzy effects. At the very least, what "Nightwing" has to recommend it is beautiful New Mexico scenery and a solid score by Henry Mancini.Nick Mancuso stars as Maskai policeman Youngman Duran, faced with sudden and mysterious deaths of animals and humans alike. An Englishman named Phillip Payne (David Warner) knows the score: the culprits are vampire bats, and he's the man to take care of the problem. Apparently eradicating this species is his life's work (one would think that animal rights activists would take exception to such a pursuit), because he believes that they embody evil. Yeah, I know, pretty thin for a motivation. Making life difficult for Duran is local mover and shaker Walker Chee (Stephen Macht), a man who's made it *his* mission to acclimate himself to the white man's world, and who's giving an assist to a mining company.Overall, this isn't bad, even if lacking in style. It's fundamentally a decent story that's capably told. Mancuso is engaging in the lead, and Warner delivers his lines with total conviction, no matter how silly his character may be; the film benefits from his presence. The lovely Kathryn Harrold is appealing as Youngman's white love interest Anne Dillon, George Clutesi (who was in another Indian themed horror film from the same year, "Prophecy") is memorable in the small part of old priest Abner, and the great Strother Martin, in one of his final film roles, is a joy to watch as always as the bigoted trading post operator Selwyn. Among the supporting cast are character players Ben Piazza, Donald Hotton, Charles Hallahan, Alice Hirson, and Pat Corley."Nightwing" is definitely worth a look for the curious.Seven out of 10.

lastliberal Two tribes on the reservation. One, the Maski, is protected by Deputy Youngman Duran (Nick Mancuso), and the other by Walker Chee (Stephen Macht). the problem is that Chee wants to mine for oil on Duran's part of the reservation in an area that is holy ground.High Priest Abner Tasupi (George Clutesi) has a solution and he opens the gates between life and death. It cost him his life - or did it, since he is not in his grave.Enter Phillip Payne (David Warner) with the answer to why animals are dying. He is a vampire hunter - vampire bats, that is. Can he destroy the bats before bubonic plague covers the area? Duran's girlfriend Anne (Kathryn Harrold) leads a group of Quakers on a camping and fishing trip when the bats decide they are tired of animals. The bats coming out of the night sky were really scary creatures. The Quaker men were somewhat unchristian in their efforts to survive, leaving two women to die, but they got theirs. The bat attack on the Quakers was so good, I watched it twice before moving on.Swine flu gets mentioned as a possible cause of death of seven priests, but it was plague. It is suspected that the priests stole Abner's body and got the plague from him.In the end, the bats were consumed the way they always are, with a little Indian magic, of course. Abner still won as the eternal fires will prevent mining.Mancuso, Warner, and Nacht gave good performances, and it was interesting to hear about bats through the ages.

Paul Andrews Nightwing is set in the New Mexico desert on a reservation where the Maski Indian people live, Deputy Duran (Nick Mancuso) is called out to investigate a dead horse which has been bitten to death & it's blood drank but rich businessman Walker Chee (Stephen Macht) wants it kept quiet since he's trying to sell the land which is rich in oil. Walker is contacted by Phillip Payne (David Warner) an expert in tracking & killing Vampire bats who claims that Vampire bats are nesting in a cave on the reservation & they are spreading the bubonic plague unless they are killed which he is willing to do. Phillip teams up with Duran in an attempt to stop the plague from spreading & wiping out most of America...Directed by Arthur Hiller this is pretty poor fare from start to finish. The dull script by Steve Shagan, Bud Shrake & Martin Cruz Smith was based on his novel of the same name takes itself extremely seriously & I though it was a bit of a mess if I'm honest. At times it comes across as a drama more than a horror film as it tries to deal with various clichéd issues like the businessman who wants things kept quiet so as not to blow his big money deal, the differences between the Indian people & modern civilisation, superstition, prejudice & a Deputy who has to save the day. For a start lets get one thing settled straight away, this is not a film about killer bats in the way you would expect, no this is about the potential devastation the bubonic plague carried & spread by them could inflict on America. There are only two bat attack scenes in the entire film so don't expect a high body count or lots of gore. Then there's the fact that the film never really decides what it trying to do, it seems split between the rationalisation of the modern world & supernatural ancient Indian spirits & legends. Nightwing never quite makes itself clear whether there is anything supernatural going on or whether it's just Duran's interpretation of the situation, personally I think it's an uneasy juxtaposition which doesn't work at all & just confuses an already poor film. Then there's the fact it's pretty darn slow, not that much actually happens in it & it's just plain boring. The character's & dialogue are poor & the ending is pretty bad as well.Director Hiller doesn't do anything to make this more watchable, he directs at a leaden pace & at times seems to forget this is meant to be a horror film about bats. However considering the rubbish puppets & special effects provided by the worst special make-up effects man ever Carlo Rambaldi it's not surprising Hill didn't show them too much, the bat puppets are truly terrible & there's simply no other word for it. Forget about any gore as there isn't any apart from a couple of bat bites.Technically the film is alright with some decent cinematography but when a films just this bad it doesn't really matter how nice it looks. There's no style here, there's no scares or tension or atmosphere & I'm still not sure what sort of film this is meant to be or who it's meant to appeal to. The acting isn't great, it's nice to see David Warner in genre film but I'm not sure about his character, I mean are there really people in the world who do nothing but track & kill Vampire bats for a living? Otherwise everyone here is pretty damned forgettable.Nightwing is crap, that's just my opinion for what it's worth & it does seem to have good reviews on the IMDb so maybe in the minority although personally I don't think so. Very little here to recommend, watch The Bat People (1974) again instead as it provides far more fun & entertainment than Nightwing does.

zmaturin "Nightwing" is two movies crammed together into one. Or story begins at an Indian Reservation where two factions are butting heads over the future of the tribe. One set of characters wants to preserve the ancient rituals and religion of the community, while others want to build new schools and hospitals to bring the tribe up to date with the rest of the country (One thing all the characters have in common, though, is their terrible haircuts). The controversy is centered over a mine where oil has been discovered- should they allow the oil to be tapped to provide precious funds to the struggling Native Americans, or should it lay undisturbed, as it holds some sort of relevance to the Indian priests in the area?All this seems to be fodder for a satisfying drama, but suddenly Englishman David Warner shows up and warns everybody of a vampire bat invasion (Although Warner is a stranger to the vicinity, he can relate to it's people because he too has a terrible haircut. Warner would go on to sport even worse hair in "Quest of the Delta Knights"). So now we've got a standard nature-gone-wild thriller in the middle of our technology-vs.-tradition drama. The two stories are tied together thusly: Apparently an old Indian mystic named Uncle Abner has summoned the bats to stop the oil drilling. Actually, he claims his plan is to kill everyone in the world, but he might a little overzealous. What do you expect of a mystic named Uncle Abner?Anyway, the bats go around infecting people with Bubonic Plague, and we're treated to some hilarious bat attack scenes. One stand-out sequence has the bats attacking some goofy campers. One nerdy guy panics and locks himself in his van. Another panicky nerd climbs under the van for safety just as nerd # 1 starts to drive away- splat! David Warner eventually locates the bats in scenes that were later copied frame-for-frame by the Lou Diamond Phillips' stinker "Bats". It turns out that their hideout is in the same cave where the oil is- D'oh! David's plan is to kill them with cyanide gas, but he fumbles around, drops it in the oil, and ends up hanging from a rope for a couple of hours, so the beefy sheriff with the worst hair cut of all saves the day by lighting the oil on fire. This kills the bats and also somehow renders the oil source unusable for the developers, which begs the question: Why didn't Uncle Abner just light it on fire himself instead of going through the trouble of summoning killer bats?The movie ends with the mountain looking like an L. Ron Hubbard book cover and the initial conflict isn't really resolved, so I envision a sequel in which the ambitious Native American's build a casino which is invaded by vampire prairie dogs.