The Devil Bat

A chemist (Bela Lugosi) uses a giant mutated bat to exact revenge on his employers.

The Devil Bat is a surprisingly entertaining thriller.

Lugosi is in fine form as a deranged doctor with a penchant for growing super-large bats. He plays the role straight and doesn’t veer over the top, instead anchoring the film with an at least somewhat relatable villain.

The supporting cast is weaker, with Dave O’Brien playing Lugosi’s chief antagonist, a nosy newspaper reporter. O’Brien barely registers, but that’s okay because this is Lugosi’s movie.

The Devil Bat’s biggest strength is it’s willingness to acknowledge its own deficiencies. The giant bat effects are laughably bad, so much so that they almost ruin the film, but then we get a scene where O’Brien’s character’s photographer buddy tries to stage a photo of the titular creature using the same shoddy effects the film uses! This is pure genius, as the audience is now laughing with the filmmakers, instead of at them, a trend that continues in the film’s finale.

While it’s no masterpiece, the ending avoids the tired cliché of Lugosi’s villain doing himself in. Instead, the hero indirectly murders the villain, which again seems like somewhat of a wink to the audience from the filmmaker’s as a way of acknowledging the script’s absurdity.