Mjeteconer Just perfect...

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Console best movie i've ever seen.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

MartinHafer "Chosen Survivors" is a rare film. It has a GREAT story idea but it's completely undone by bad writing. It's a shame, as the main plot is fantastic.A small group of people find themselves sedated and brought to a shelter more than 1700 feet underground. It seems that the dreaded nuclear apocalypse has arrived and the government has picked a few people to secure in various bunkers under the earth in order to propagate the human race. Much of the film concerns how these folks adapt to their new lives--or, rather, how some of them cannot cope. I loved the film up to this point and felt it was a brilliant study of human nature. Then, abruptly, the film took a detour to Stupidville! That's because without warning, insane vampire bats invade the bunker. I say insane because these bats in real life are NOT killers--but here in the film they are worse than killer bees, piranhas and Cobras combined!!! Bats just don't behave that way and then too much of a once-interesting story is spent focusing on how to survive with these murderous beasts flapping about....which is a shame, as the film has a wonderful twist that is lost in the process. A great example of a wonderful story idea that is ultimately ruined.

Scarecrow-88 Selected intellectual minds, and important folks deemed special for forwarding the human race once a thermonuclear war is to rage across the globe, find themselves fighting for their very lives underground in their fancy governmentally (supposedly)secure bomb shelter well equipped with all the resources they could possibly need as vampire bats, which rest within a cavernous area secret to them, enter and attack when the group is most vulnerable. With a female assigned, via taped recording, guiding their day to day activities, offering a planned regimen for them to survive on, the group find themselves at odds with Raymond Couzins, a loudmouth who often stirs up bad vibes with his constant talk of conspiracy theories, and drunken insults. Yet, perhaps there is some truth to what he's saying as Dr. Peter Macomber(Bradford Dillman)holds a secret which will only add to the worsening mental state of the group as a whole. Realizing that they were merely part of an experiment on how a group could function together in an isolated situation, had such a catastrophic event taken place, the group hope that a signal had reached Washington, for Couzins, in a bumbling mishap that damages important electrical equipment resulting in the death of a member, leaves them with few alternatives left. Major Gordon Ellis(Richard Jaeckel)comes up with a method that could be quite dangerous..someone could climb an elevator shaft 17oo feet which could open a door to the outside providing a chance for contacting help. Macomber, despite the group's hostile feelings towards he and his government which put them in their difficult crisis, comes up with an idea on how to kill the bats, through electrocution by suckering them with blood as bait.I must say that this was a pleasant form of entertainment. Sure, the special effects are rather inferior to today's modern technical improvements, but they didn't seem to bother me all that much because I found the cast so much fun to watch, and the premise was quite enjoyable. It's essentially mixes the always-reliable "animals attack" premise with the theme of nuclear war and how mankind could deal with such a thing. Perfectly capping these elements with a government conspiracy plot yielding terrified characters in search of an exit. Perfectly 70's carrying the sensibilities of the time, with a cast of familiar faces. I thought Dillman has a startlingly good scene where he admits to who he really is and the hoax that has put them all in grave danger..I think Dillman realistically displays the emotional weight his character is bearing in both coming clean with his confession while showing that he believed that the experiment was for the betterment of mankind. I thoroughly enjoyed Cooper as the antagonist, and Jaeckel is a delight as the sincere army man, burdened with keeping the underground shelter under operation despite a series of set-backs that make that nearly impossible. I also loved this confrontation between the accusing Couzins claiming Ellis was perhaps behind a conspiracy to keep them in the shelter..Jaeckel and Cooper produce some fireworks. Some performances are overwrought, as often was the case for Made-for-television movies with character actors, but I think the situation stressing and depressing those caught between a rock and a hard place, warranted such heightened emotions. I think Woody's elevator shaft climb was quite suspenseful..it sure had me biting my nails. I do think the story provides some food for thought, and is a perfect time capsule of what was on the minds of the country at that time.

Vomitron_G The world as we know it, is about to end. Total Thermonuclear Destruction: 4 billion casualties, 168 survivors, 12 hi-tech underground facilities spread across the USA at a depth of 1.758ft, one located in the New Mexico desert inhabited by 11 unsuspecting citizens on government command with their sole purpose… the survival of the human race. But our group of chosen survivors will soon have something else to worry about than the lethal radiation levels above their heads: Desmodus Rotundus, commonly known as the vampire bat.CHOSEN SURVIVORS is one nifty 70's post-nuke paranoia-thriller. The opening-scene already looks promising: 11 sedated citizens are flown in by helicopter over the ominous desert landscape, accompanied on the tunes of a tense brass score. In slow-motion they are shoved into an elevator and when it starts to go all the way down, the opening-credits come on and slow-motion shots of the elevator rattling and shaking continue. Great stuff! Once inside the facility, the survivors learn about their faith.The characters are all well drawn-out, each of them having an expertise in a certain field (science, sports, writing,…). They'll all have to get along and work together in order to survive, but needless to say tensions arise and conflicts occur. All that is pretty entertaining already, but the real fun starts when they discover a vampire bat inside the facility. They realize that a whole horde of hungry killer-bats is lurking inside the caves surrounding the facility. And paranoia turns into survival. Psychologically, the characters are also well thought-out. Naturally, there's one guy you love to hate that eventually does something very stupid, but even his character changes throughout the movie. So, all-in-all CHOSEN SURVIVORS is pretty unpredictable when it comes to who'll survive and who won't, if any.The set-design, of course, looks dated but nevertheless was a well-constructed concept for those days. The bat attacks are staged in a decent fashion. Good thing is that they actually used a lot of real bats in certain scenes, instead of going for the obvious fake ones. The blue-screen effects are obvious in certain scenes, but always effective. Aside from the survival-horror-element with the bats, CHOSEN SURVIVORS is a bit more in the sci-fi/thriller vein of other 70's paranoia/conspiracy movies like, for instance, CAPRICORN ONE. Only this time with nobody being hunted down, but the whole group being trapped deep below ground. As to be expected, the facility isn't all that big (limited budget, limited sets), but the location is put to good use.With the look and feel being obsolete, CHOSEN SURVIVORS actually could inspire a decent remake, in my opinion. Just replace the global nuclear devastation angle with that of the ever-so-popular killer-virus one, put the whole concept in capable hands with a decent budget for a skilled crew and up-to-date special effects supported by a good cast, et voilà, we should have a remake that's far more decent than the uninspired crap they keep cranking out nowadays. No need to change the script even, because it already contains a decent twist around the middle part, which in today's suspense cinema has become a must. Actually, they might want to make the bats virus-infected this time, because how in this film they manage to kill off adults in a couple of minutes with a dozen bites or so, is beyond me. Other than this shortcoming, the script successfully blends genres. A typical 70's accomplishment on the one hand, and ahead of its time on the other. Check this one out. It's a gem.

p-purcell A group of people are selected to take part in an experiment to see how mankind would fare after a nuclear holocaust and are placed without there consent in a bunker thousands of feet below ground. They disturb a group of bats living in the cave systems around them and they begin to attack the trapped humans. This is a great premise for this film but i found it so slow moving with far to many talking scenes. In the whole first hour only two people die of the bat attack and only one of them do we see die on screen. The remaining film concerns one of the group trying to climb to safety who falls to his death and releases the bats to attack one final time killing all but 5 of the group in one big attack scene. All in all a good premise for a film but not as good as it could have been.