The Bat... Thing

The Bat... Thing and His Kill
I don't know what to say about the bat-thing. It's too goofy-looking for its own good. In 2002, they wanted me to fill another display in the Haunted House in Wyandotte and I just didn't have any ideas. So I went back to one of my childhood favorites: bats. I figured if I could have a bat-thing carrying off some grisly victim, it would an effective as a shock. This wasn't exactly what I had in mind. It almost looks cuddly in some ways. Ok, that's taking it a bit far, but...it is kind of goofy.

The female prop he's carrying is a Gag Studios Sharkbait from the Wyandotte Jaycees stock of props in reasonable shape (or maybe it's Gag's Victim prop...they renamed Sharkbait and gored her up after a few years on the market.) She definitely had the right look as a victim of an attack, so I grabbed her before they started building. Unfortunately, she's the most effective thing in the scene.

I used green "Halloween bag hands" painted red for the claws. I even tried to use the thumbs at the top of the wing to emulate that finger bats have on the top of their wing. (I believe the end part of the wing consists of extended fingers.) The head is a mask filled with the ever-willing Great Stuff. I liked the bony look and the slanted eyes. The rest of the thing is a bunch of 3/8" OSB, 2x4s and extra wood that was generously padded by my upholstery-shop owning friend Arno. He also stapled the "fake fur" onto the body and wing tops. The ends of the wings are hinged and it's a good thing because I had to carry this thing through several narrow hallways into the middle of the haunted house. He barely fit in his spot because he was something like 6' long with his wings extended. Below you can see the support wood built out of furring strips for the prop.

An Angled View of the Left Side of the Prop

An Angled View of the Right Side of the Prop