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Fangs

2002, Movie, PG-13, 94 mins

Fangs: Review

This two-for-one film, which maligns bats and human beings equally, is both a payback pictures and a sci-fi thriller. College professor Arthur Fuller (Mark Taylor) believes his experimental genetic engineering project is under control, until his assistants discover a mutilated corpse on school grounds and find that their bats are missing. The Scottsville police naturally assume that Fuller's altered bats bit the hand that fed them. Former big-city detective Ally Parks (Tracy Nelson) is assigned to the bizarre mystery, but as soon as she starts getting somewhere her superior, Chief Taylor (Michael Gregory), and his crony, Carl Hart (Corbin Bernsen), shut down the investigation to avert a panic. According to town veterinarian, John Winslow (Whip Hubley), ignoring the problem isn't an option: The mischievous creatures aren't harmless bloodsuckers but ravenous carnivores on a tear. Even after a corpulent guard becomes snack food, real estate developer Hart insists on proceeding with Scottsville's Apple Blossom Festival. The detective and the small town animal medic must put aside their professional antagonism to protect the town. Although they spot a pattern to the bats' feeding time, Parks and Winslow don't realize that someone is controlling them with a signaling device. Someone is manipulating the mini-monsters to eliminate those responsible for farm foreclosures. Naturally, corrupt Chief Taylor is next on the bill of fare. Greedy Hart also looks like a candidate for the bats' blue plate special. Armed with little more than courage and aluminum cans that disrupt the bats' sonar, Parks and Winslow hunt for the bat-master, who'd rather die than stop punishing the town's fat cats. A tossed-together genre screamer that melds high-tech effects with low-grade camp, this film benefits greatly from the fact that Hubley and Nelson play well off each other. leave a comment --Robert Pardi