Bat cave

They Were Chosen To Live. But They Were Destined To Die! Chosen Survivors tells the tale of eleven citizens taken from their homes, chosen to be sent 1,758 feet underground in a bunker after a nuclear holocaust has wiped the planet clean of its inhabitants. The plan is to stay in this enormous bunker until it is safe to return to the surface. Five women and six men are the chosen few whose mission is to repopulate the earth after the disaster, that is if they can survive long enough to get out. What they don't know is that they are being tested for some psychological experiments by the government. After weeks and weeks of adjusting to their new underground home, they soon discover they are not the only inhabitants of the bunker and something lurks in the shadows.

The movie is way too slow as we get too many scenes of the group sitting around arguing, making it painfully boring watch and leaving the viewer begging for something to happen. At about the 45 minute mark we get the reveal of what is waiting to attack them in their seemingly safe subterranean refuge - bloodthirsty bats! The next 40 minutes is once again very uneventful until we get the pay-off ending when the bats attack in full force. The scenes involving the bats looked pretty good for the time and were frightening to someone like me who is afraid of bats. The blue lighting produced a strange glow that looked really cool, especially if you have all the lights off.

Directed by Sutton Roley, who directed many different TV shows, such as Airwolf, Charlie's Angels, Starsky and Hutch, Hawaii Five-O, and Kojak to name a few. The screenplay writer was H.B. Cross who only wrote two other films, Teenage Millionaire and Country Music Holiday. Fred Karlin was the composer. Chosen Survivors was was produced in Mexico and released in December of 1974.

MGM released this on DVD in a two pack with Earth Dies Screaming under the Midnite Movie collection with no extras.

The film makers had a good idea with some original themes, but it was poorly executed. The first problem is the 99 minute running time. It could have been cut down to 80 minutes. Also, there are just not enough scenes involving the bats, and way too many scenes where nothing happens. Recommend as a watch just for the bat scenes, you can fast-forward through the rest of the film.

Rating: D

Review by Jason