Drive-In Dust Offs: The Desert Vampires of NIGHTWING

Vampire bats, to be precise; 1979’s Nightwing is a thoughtful and entertaining addition to The Animal Killdom subgenre, The Eco-Horror one, and the Evil Non-Indigenous Interlopers. (Really, that’s its own thing across every genre.) Throw in Big Mining and you’re good to go. It isn’t scary, but it’s surprisingly involving. It’s studio-fed killer bats; what more do you need? 

Is it Jaws 6.0? Of course it wants to be; after it came out, any critters with teeth were given consideration for the big screen and small. After you’re done counting aquatics (your barracudas and octopi and such), terra firma offers up dogs, bears, spiders, and a shirtless Leslie Nielsen. Whether it’s the ozone or DDT, poisoned water or experiments, non-humans rose up in the ‘70s to bite, rip, and tear their way through a whole lot of celluloid. 

The film Nightwing is the most similar to come out the same year: John Frankenheimer’s Prophecy, which has mercury in the water turning Armand Assante into a Native American. To be completely different, Nightwing has asshole bats and Nick Mancuso as a Native American. Don’t ever accuse corporate horror of copying each others’ homework. (Prophecy won at the box office, by the way.) 

It’s a new day in the New Mexican desert, and Maskai Tribe Deputy Youngman Duran (Nick Mancuso) is heading out to a ranch to look at some dead stock; there he runs into Walker Chee (Stephen Macht), the chief of a neighboring tribe, present to offer his wealth and resources to help yet unwanted by Duran. (An old rivalry between greed and nobility rears its head.)

Multiple deep bites and the acrid smell of ammonia riddles all the horses and cattle, and no one knows from what or why. Duran goes to see his disgraced mentor and ex-priest of the tribe, Abner Tasupi (George Clutesi), who is planning to end the world that night through a curse; and he says he’s not just wiping out the white people, he’s planning a do-over for everybody. (This is the kind of Negative Nelly attitude that got him kicked out of the tribe in the first place.) 

Duran meets up with his girlfriend Anne (Kathryn Harrold), a white med student, and then heads back to check on Abner, who died in the night as he foretold. Duran thinks nothing of Abner’s curse; the livestock mutilations can’t be related, can they? 

Oh you’d best believe it; if David Warner shows up in your movie as a vampire bat expert/killer it ain’t for a cuppa, it’s to eradicate the vermin. (Yes, he has his version of Quint’s speech, and it’s short and unintentionally amusing.) 

As if that wasn’t enough, Duran has to contend with Big Oil, with help from slimy Walker, trying to muscle the land rights away from his tribe AND rescue Anne and a group of bible bangers from a (frankly incredible) bat attack. Will the bats win and get a sequel? Not bloody likely! 

Would I put Nightwing up against my beloved Grizzly and Kingdom of the Spiders? Also not bloody likely; there are too many variables that make those sparkle–from budget limitations to script to cast–that this one doesn’t have. There are no cracks for the quirk to get in.

But don’t cry for Nightwing; it’s in great company: Prophecy, of course, but also Empire of the Ants, Them!, Kill the Gophers, etc–giving genre fans plenty to smile about. What’s interesting is the patina of legitimacy that still hangs over the film today. Director Arthur Hiller (The In-Laws, same year) had never touched a horror film before and stayed clear since. Yes, it shows–he isn’t strong at building suspense or staging kills–but he’s an ace with actors; Strother Martin (Slap Shot) has a small but colorful part as a white storeowner on the reservation who settled in with an indigenous wife and family, Nick Mancuso (Billy’s voice in Black Christmas) steps into leading man boots with command, and as usual, talents like Kathryn Harrold are left to do little but scream (although she is given stuff to do in the finale). 

As for the leads, Mancuso is Italian-Canadian and Macht is Jewish; this was still a time when few indigenous actors were gainfully employed in speaking roles. They imbue their characters with dignity, but one can’t help but bemoan less opportunities for the underheard. As for David Warner, he always commands authority and his straightfaced performance is very entertaining. (Ask him why he hates bats. I dare you.) 

The script, by Steve Shagan, Bud Shrake, and author of the book Martin Cruz Smith, is smarter than some but has its focus on the drama instead of the horror. Here that helps because the horror elements take a backseat until the back half; the front has some heated discussions between Duran and Walker Chee regarding indigenous rights, if those will be respected off the reservation, and if preservation of your people requires selling one’s soul. These talks carry you through until the bats show up.

Carlo Rambaldi (E.T.) will show you that a bat can fly, with unseen string and fangs forced onto a victim’s neck. (Plus, optical bats that are drawn on. BY PEOPLE.) This is where Nightwing switches from terse drama to B-horror manna; the attack on the campsite is the centerpiece of the film for schlock fans–and there’s not a chance in hell that it wouldn’t be schlocky–and a joy to behold. After a bonfire sing-a-long of “Michael, Row the Boat Ashore”, Anne goes to the camper to radio her location to Duran. While she does, the bats start coming, and they’re hungry. 

A frenzy of colorful mayhem happens next, with folks like Charles Hallahan (The Thing) getting the short end of the call sheet and blood flowing (somewhat) freely. From there, the pace accelerates to its goofy and fun finale, and everyone heads for the exits a little bit wiser on bats and hopefully wiser on indigenous people. 

Here’s the thing with Nightwing: I could see this becoming a comfort movie; it’s mostly well acted, the effects are charming, and it’s nice to pop by a studio horror every once in a while to see where resources can be used. While I overall prefer my schlock to entertain because of its limitations, I don’t mind some that have a prettier shine. Especially studio-fed killer bats. 

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Nightwing is available on Blu-ray from Eureka Entertainment as part of a Double Feature with Shadow of the Hawk. [Editor's Note: Region, dependent, you can currently watch Nightwing free with ads on YouTube below]