Villain(s)  Giant mutant bat

Actor(s):  Bela Lugosi, Suzanne Kaaren, Dave O'Brien, Guy Usher as Henry Morton

Brief Description  The Devil Bat (1940) is an American sci-fi horror film directed by Jean Yarbrough and starring horror icon Bela Lugosi. Released on December 13, 1940, it holds a significant place in cinema history as the very first horror film produced by Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC), a famous low-budget "Poverty Row" studio. The movie runs for 68 minutes and follows a classic "mad scientist" vengeance plot involving mutated, oversized bats trained to kill on command.

Plot:
The story is set in the small town of Heathville, where Dr. Paul Carruthers (Bela Lugosi) operates as a kindly neighborhood doctor and a brilliant research chemist for a highly successful cosmetics company owned by families Heath and Morton. Though his formulas have generated millions of dollars for his employers, Henry Morton and Martin Heath, Carruthers is offered a measly $5,000 bonus for his contributions. Embittered and feeling deeply cheated out of his fair share of the wealth, Carruthers secretly plots a gruesome revenge.

In his secret basement laboratory, Carruthers uses electrical equipment to mutate ordinary bats into giant, bloodthirsty beasts. He systematically designs a dual-component assassination method: He creates a highly pungent, experimental aftershave lotion and tricks his employers and their family members into testing it on their necks. He conditions his giant "Devil Bats" to violently hate and attack anyone wearing that specific scent. Under the cover of night, Carruthers releases the bats, resulting in the brutal deaths of one of the owners and two of his sons. To investigate the bizarre string of local murders, the Chicago Register sends fast-talking reporter Johnny Layton (Dave O'Brien) and his clumsy, comic-relief photographer "One Shot" McGuire (Donald Kerr) to Heathville.

As Layton begins solving the mystery, he falls for Martin Heath's daughter, Mary (Suzanne Kaaren). In a suspenseful finale, Layton pieces together the connection between the victims and the experimental lotion. To catch the killer red-handed, Layton applies the aftershave to himself but manages to douse Dr. Carruthers in the lotion as well, causing the scientist's own mutated creation to turn on him and attack him.

The "Poverty Row" Blueprint: PRC was a young studio looking to capitalize on a lull in horror production from major studios. The Devil Bat established the studio's style of shooting films quickly and cheaply while providing plenty of pulp horror. The electrical laboratory equipment used by Lugosi's character in the film was originally constructed by legendary special effects prop builder Ken Strickfaden for Universal's Frankenstein (1931). While reviewers note that the giant bat special effects are visibly cheap and laughably dated by modern standards, Lugosi's understated, menacing performance is widely praised for anchoring the thriller and keeping it highly entertaining.