Death Valley High are gearing up to release their full-length album CVLT [AS FVK] on November 4th through Minus Head Records, melding traditional goth magic and modern alternative majesty – co-mingling new wave/dance beats, cinematic rock instrumentation and gritty, sensual, macabre-pop hooks.
Pre-order your copy of CVLT [AS FVK] now via Bandcamp. Amazon and iTunes pre-orders are coming soon. Check out their single “Warm Bodies” below while you read vocalist Reyka Osburn’s list of top 5 “bat” movies.
Death Valley High Vocalist Reyka Osburn Names Best “Bat Movies”
As popular as our winged mammal companions are in popular culture, one would think a compilation of good bat movies would be easy enough to draw up. Especially for someone with multiple BATTOOS. This was alarmingly more of a challenge than I had anticipated. Where is The Godfather of Chiroptera movies? Would I find it?
Jeepers Creepers (2001)
This movie is about a demon that comes around once a year to “feed” on human body parts. In so doing, it acquires the respective body part into its own physical makeup. It doesn’t show it but I suppose it eats bats too since he can take to flight on such glorious bat wings. Part shock and part shlock, this makes my best of list.
Fright Night (1985)
Vampires don’t always equal bats, but when they do… The bat should always be this bad ass. You’ll have to wait for the final scenes to catch all the glorious “bat presence” but the movie is so campy, you’ll have a great time getting there.
Bats (1999)
Not critically acclaimed by any means, this modern take on 50s horror has to be one of the best out there. Not the “JAWS” of bats, like one would hope but the CG bats are pretty fabulous, and the practical faux bats are a hot mess fabulous. They missed the mark by not going full on camp, like “Piranha” with this one. But if you love bats, and b-movies, you should love what’s going on here.
Batman Begins (2005)
The use of bats and bat symbolism in this film make it what it is. What more could be said about the most believable Batman movie ever made? The mere fact that our protagonist hero calls on real bats, from his own cave, to save him at a crucial moment; should be enough to make this #1 on the bat film list! This should really be filed under the whole Nolan trilogy.
Thirst (aka Bakjwi or “Bat” in English) (2009)
Aside from the main protagonist showing off one significant bat-like characteristic, there is no bat in this Korean Horror film. It was titled “Bat” to invoke the foreboding of a horror film, and is not surprisingly about vampire lust. Although there is no showcase of the fine winged animal, this film introspectively fulfills all sides of a vampire’s, and possibly even of a bat’s, psyche.
Honorary mentions:
Ogon Batto (aka Fantomas aka Golden Bat) (1966) – A Japanese, and possibly first ever, superhero hero movie.
The Devil Bat (1940) – Bela Lugosi stars in another mad-scientist experiment gone wrong… Or is it right?
Nightwing (1979) – A Hopi reservation gets a vampire bat problem… It takes itself a little too serious at times, but I appreciate a nod to Natives in this one.
