Pretty Good

Admirable film.

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

My uncle took me and my cousins to see this movie when I was around 10 or 11 (1970's) and it's always stuck with me, although I couldn't remember the title. What I thought I remembered was a group of people in outer space (seems they're actually in an underground bomb shelter) and, oh yes, BATS. LOTS of vampire bats, to be specific! I almost was beginning to believe I had fabricated the entire thing in my mind, but I can so vividly remember the movie theater in Asbury Park, NJ and going with my uncle and cousins (he also took us to see Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Star Wars...). Loved going to the movies with him, needless to say, but this particular movie especially haunted my nightmares. So glad to finally discover the correct title and the IMDb reviews. Looks like the BluRay is going to be released THIS WEEK (Oct 4, 2016)! What amazing serendipity. Can't wait to revisit this horror (sci-fi?) flick from my youth. Interesting to read so many posts by others who had seen this as kids and who remembered it vividly.

The premise for this movie is 11 people in an underground shelter, specially chosen for being doctors, athletes, artists, and the like, are to represent the survival of the human race in a nuclear holocaust.It's made in 1974, so we can expect the worst.However, it isn't the absolute worst.Naturally, then, as today, one wonders if this being an "initial" project, if it isn't a test. The man in charge seems very convincing that it isn't a test.Meanwhile, vampire bats flood the shelter, and they have to be dealt with.One good thing is that not too much detail is spent on how the shelter is self sustaining. That's good foresight, as such details are not only going to change every three years, but also because no matter what the details are, most viewers who think themselves experts will whine about such details being inferior. In such a case, there will never be a majority consensus, except to pout about what is used. The best one can hope for is a plurality, and even then it will usually be a plurality of ignorance.That's the best thing going for this movie.One thing viewers will note is that women scream and panic in movies from about 1960-1975 or so, to the point of silliness.However, lets not forget that "panic of characters in death struggles" is not nearly as silly as the 1975-2000 period in which no one panics, and actors calmly smile at death.Fortunately, we have pre-1960 and post-2000 films which usually present a believable balance.The characters aren't so bad, but they are very formula for the seventies.The events are predictable at first, then it looks like they might have some fresh material in the middle, but then the end is complete Hollywood. The last 10 minutes is so cliché filled that one wonders if it was meant as a joke. And that means "cliche filled for 1974" as well as today.

Chosen Survivors is directed by Sutton Roley and written by H.B. Cross. It stars Jackie Cooper, Alex Cord, Richard Jaeckel, Bradford Dillman, Barbara Babcock, Diana Muldaur and Lincoln Kilpatrick. Music is by Fred Karlin and cinematography by Gabriel Torres.It's the eve of nuclear war and a government computer has selected a specialist group of people to live 1,758 feet underground in a nuclear proof, purpose built housing facility. The purpose is that these people can start to repopulate the Earth in five years time. However, something isn't quite right about this set-up and things take a distinctive turn for the worse when it's revealed that a colony of vampire bats have also made the facility their home.It's far better than any plot synopsis suggests. True, it's very 70s, both in characters (clothing/delivery of dialogue/hair), and the effects used, but it also captures the zeitgeist of paranoia running at the time. Fear of nuclear war and the government hangs heavy, while the group dynamic under a stress situation makes for a tellingly oppressive mood. The whole thing has a bleakness about it, and that's before the vampire bats turn up hungry for what is apparently the only source of blood left available to them. The downbeat feel is further enforced by Karlin's music score, which often sounds like the synthesiser strains favoured by John Carpenter for some of his well revered culters. There's the expected bad turn of events with some of the characters, I mean it would be a dull film if everyone just got on all hunky dory, while there's a wicked twist that propels the narrative to another level of enjoyment for the viewer.Competently acted by the cast, and effectively put together by Roley, Chosen Survivors is a neat horror/sci-fi hybrid. Not without some cheese and gaps in plotting for sure, but very effective and recommended on proviso you aren't looking to be cheered up! 7/10

My husband found Chosen Survivors on DVD on eBay. It is on a disk with another movie I never heard of, but it is finally available to all those people who have spent the last twenty five years looking for it. I don't know if there are any more copies out there, but if you start there, you might have some luck. I saw this once when it was first out - at a drive in, no less - and have wanted to see it again ever since. As I recall, the twists and turns are not the ones you would expect when you first watch it, but they are interesting. It will be interesting to see if it scares me as much watching it now as it did the first time, now that I know how it turns out. You can email me if you want and I will let you know where in ebay my husband found it.