In the dead of night they come - Swift - Silent - Savage

The day belongs to man. The night is theirs.

What do you fear most - the dark... or something that waits in the dark?

The bats of hell let loose upon the earth...


In this chiller, a trio of heroes must enter a black Southwestern cave and destroy an entire colony of plague-bearing bats, vampire bats. The story is based on a novel by Martin Cruz Smith.


Nightwing is a 1979 American horror film directed by Arthur Hiller. The screenplay by Martin Cruz Smith, Steve Shagan, and Bud Shrake is based on the 1977 novel of the same title by Smith. Its tagline is "Day belongs to man, but night is theirs!" It was one of many so-called Jaws rip-offs that were popular in the late '70s and early '80s, including Orca: The Killer Whale (1977), Tentacles (1977), The Pack (1977), Piranha (1978), Alligator (1980) and Great White (1980). It also was Hiller's only horror film.

The movie failed critically and financially. Vincent Canby of the New York Times called the film "not very horrifying" and thought "it looks as if it had been put together from a child's instruction book." He added, "The screenplay . . . is terrible and the special effects third-rate." [2]
Time Out New York said the film "never really takes off" and added, "Hiller's direction simply plods to a corny and unsatisfactory ending after getting bogged down in subplots concerning whale-oil prospectors, Indian religious mumbo-jumbo, and inter-tribal rivalries." [3]
Channel 4 observed, "Quite why Hiller was selected to direct this suspense shocker is the most interesting thing about the project. A film-maker who has made a speciality of showing reverence for platitudes has no jurisdiction over a piece of schlock nonsense about bat-killers in the Arizona desert."


Very few directors make more than a film every coupla years. Arthur Hiller had THE IN-LAWS and NIGHTWING both open in June 1979. Each is a classic in their own way.


Release Date: June 29, 1979


Distrib: Columbia Pictures


Boxoffice: $6,345,000