This week I watched The Vampire Bat. Surprisingly enough, it has virtually no bats and is a thinly veiled criticism of Nazi Germany.
To start, the opening credits roll in front of a bat symbol that looks suspiciously like the Bacardi logo. This leads me to believe that everyone involved in the movie was drunk the whole time. It also makes me wonder why Bacardi uses a bat as it's logo. I mean, seriously, what do bats have to do with getting smashed off rum and crying in Gary's bath tube because you saw your ex, Lisa, at the Christmas party and she looked like her life with her new fiance was everything she ever wanted? Answer me that, Bacardi! Answer me!
Lisa, if you're reading this, I can change for you. Just please, answer my texts.
Anyways . . . the action takes place in sleepy 1930's Germany. You know . . . the peaceful, innocent Germany that everyone is always reminiscing about. Or at least those bald guys in prison reminisce about.
One of the first scenes starts with the town burgermeister. In between bites of a jalapeno McDouble, the burgermeister argues with the burgercouncil about the existence of vampires. They actually spend a lot of time debating this topic which kind of explains the original title Twelve Angry Burgermeisters.
One of the first scenes starts with the town burgermeister. In between bites of a jalapeno McDouble, the burgermeister argues with the burgercouncil about the existence of vampires. They actually spend a lot of time debating this topic which kind of explains the original title Twelve Angry Burgermeisters.
Good, now that we've all agreed that Wendy's square burger patties are total bullshit, what are we going to do about all these murders?
Of course, the burgermeister and various burgerchiefs all turn out to be complete buffoons, and instead of honing in on the real killer they decide to find an easy scapegoat in the village's token retarded kid.
Just look at him . . . probably plotting his next murder right now.
So, now we have a bunch of 1930's Germans focusing all their hate and anger towards the person in town who they view as different. They end up chasing the poor kid into a cave outside of town where he falls into a pit and dies. The social commentary here is pretty clear; Germany is batshit insane.
I will say, that's one of the things I really like about The Vampire Bat; it goes beyond just being a movie about a vampire. That's something I think all good horror movies do. They are about more than just a monster killing people. Godzilla is really about the atomic bomb. Dawn of the Dead is really about consumerism. Nightmare on Elm Street is about how fear makes us conjure up our own monsters. Freddie Vs. Jason was about squeezing those few last dollars out of two dead franchises.
In the end of the movie, we got a shocking twist. It turns out the friendly handicapped boy wasn't the killer! The Nazi scientist had been the bad guy the whole time! WHOA! Didn't see that one coming! So in the end, the Nazi scientist gets discovered, and the film ends the way all good Nazi stories do; in the basement with a double suicide.
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