Here, a swarm of toothy vampire bats prey upon a helpless Indian community in the American Southwest.

Local Maski tribal sheriff Duran (Mancuso) teams up with biochemical scientist Payne (Warner) to try and avert a national disaster by seeking out the winged bloodsucking colony and eliminating them.

They find the little buggers holed up high in a desert canyon, but can they pull off a mass extermination before it's too late?

Overly talkative and often lazily paced, this never really takes flight and is sabotaged by a muddled subplot involving the supernatural.

Lead Mancuso tries his best, and David Warner (from 1976's The Omen) lends a classy touch.

But they can't save this sinking pile of guano.

Based on the novel Nightwing by author Martin Cruz Smith, this adaptation is slow going - the only scene of mention being a briefly inspired bat attack on unsuspecting campers in the night desert.