Lubię nietoperze (1985), or in english I Like Bats, has been “re-discovered” thanks to critic and filmmaker Kier-La Janisse. Lubię nietoperze is profiled in Janisse’s masterful study House Of Psychotic Women and has been included by Janisse in the Blu-Ray boxed set House Of Psychotic Women: Rarities Collection from Severin Films as well. In Janisse’s video introduction to Lubię nietoperze, Janisse emphasizes the fundamental differences between the Eastern European myth of the vampire and the Western European vampire mythos that has dominated the horror movie genre around the world. What Lubię nietoperze does is to take the Polish lore of the vampire and interject it into the narrative mold of Western vampire myth.
Aesthetically, director Grzegorz Warchoł imbues his film Lubię nietoperze with a visual stylization that seems derived from Tony Scott’s The Hunger (1982). Though both films are shot in color, their palettes suggest a two-tone color scheme that is based on the film noir horror features produced by Val Lewton in the forties. This pair of vampire films also shares a fetishization of eighties excess in terms of fashion. The similarities between Lubię nietoperze and The Hunger do not extend any further than this. Where Scott’s film explores the philosophical ramifications of human mortality via the myth of the vampire, Warchoł uses the same myth to explore political and individual identities.
The protagonist’s search for romantic connection and acceptance in Lubię nietoperze is symbolic of the political clash between the Solidarność and the old regime of the Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza as Soviet influence began to dissipate. Janisse has located this symbolism in the use of partitions in the frame that separate the protagonist Izabella (Katarzyna Walter) from her doctor and would-be lover Prof. Jung (Marek Barbasiewicz). In a more immediate sense these same visual partitions are meant to represent Jung’s denial of Izabella’s vampirism (a denial that keeps her from being human).
The fact that sex as an act of love and communion is what transforms Izabella from a vampire and into a human woman is paramount to Lubię nietoperze. This transformation can only be realized when Jung accepts Izabella for what she is. While this change brings emotional fulfillment to Izabella it also strips her of some of her individuality and mythological powers. In this way Lubię nietoperze can be read as a precursor to Anna Biller’s film The Love Witch (2016). These films share a theme of feminine agency that is articulated in supernatural terms specific to the horror genre whose end results are more akin to those of the melodrama. When one considers that, as Janisse’s points out, the Polish vampire is a far more versatile figure than its western counter part the genre bending of Lubię nietoperze makes perfect sense.
As heavy as this all sounds, rest assured that the tone of Lubię nietoperze is light and playful. Even when the action of the narrative itself isn’t embracing its full comedic potential Warchoł’s direction will begin to satirize the vampire films of the west. Though not explicitly deconstructionist, Lubię nietoperze is nonetheless post-modern in its design.
