Rats - Mörderische Brut

Rats starts out promisingly enough, with a suicidal woman being admitted to a secure institution for psychological treatment, only to discover that the staff are hiding the fact that patients are mysteriously going missing; given the title of the film, it comes as no surprise to find that killer rats are to blame for the bizarre disappearances. What does comes as a bit of a surprise, however, are quite how awful the special effects are in this film, and how much they ruin the whole experience.

Director Tibor Takacs' is best known for his 1987 teen-friendly horror The Gate, which delivered plenty of fun chills and thrills and some pretty good effects, proving that the man knew how to construct a decent film. On Rats, however, I suspect that he caught a glimpse of his digital effects mid-shoot, and, on seeing how excruciatingly poor they were, just gave up trying (either that, or The Gate was a fluke).

The barely-above-video-game quality CGI rats are so unconvincingly combined with Takacs' live footage, that I actually felt embarrassed for all those involved with the film (especially Ron Perlman)—a shame, because, had the effects been much better, this could have been quite an enjoyable piece of schlock horror: the cast don't do too badly with the hokey material, the cinematography is good, and there is a bit of welcome gore in the form of some gnawed carcasses and severed heads.

Since Rats, Tibor Takacs' has directed several other creature features (Ice Spiders, Mega Snake, Kraken: Tentacles of the Deep) all of which I have yet to check out; for his sake (and mine) I hope that the monsters in those movies are a tad more believable than his dreadfully shonky rodents.

3.5 out of 10, rounded up to 4 for IMDb.

The tear jerking drama brought so much water to my eyes.

Mystery was so sharp, I could shave my beard with it.

Action was so intense. I had to watch this movie while being strapped by my arms, chest and feet to the seat.

Horror was so scary that I had to watch this with ten rolls of toilet paper.

The special effects were so believable that I couldn't tell if I was right there.

Music soundtrack brought so much emotion...once the film started, I was immediately hooked.

If any movie ever deserves an Oscar statue...Killer Rats would be it...for the title alone.

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It was entertaining...anything more, you would have to be stupid...anything less you are expecting a movie script which I wrote.

Not to say that is very much. Just that hearing about it I was expecting irredeemable horse-poop, but was surprised that it was at least watchable. The acting was better than average especially from Ron Perlman, who is good value, the music is appropriately eerie and the bathtub scene is very creepy. However, the rats do incredibly fake especially the giant rat and the "scary" eyes and they aren't all that menacing. The script reeks of cheese, while there are few characters that I found all that likable, the camera work and editing are very choppy and the story is predictable and dully paced. The ending is also very confusing and felt rushed as well.

Overall, not as bad as I thought it would be but mostly very lame with fake effects and a fair amount of dullness and cheese. Some decent acting, one creepy scene and eerie music aren't really enough to save it. 4/10 Bethany Cox

When i saw the Tibor Takács name on the back of the DVD for rental i hoped that this would be a really good low budget horror. It's not all that bad, but it has many flaws.

The plot is not that great or very credible to suspend your disbelief. It never really explains things that you hope there would be detailed explanations for. The bad thing that most viewers will notice however is the bad CGI effects. Most of the "rats" are CGI rats and they look very fake, similar to the earlier days of CGI in movies.

Another bad thing is the sound quality was not up to par. Sure, it's in Stereo Surround but i constantly kept needing to turn the volume up to hear half the dialogue clearly.

Overall, an average horror film worth watching one time. With a better script and bigger effects budget it could have been so much more.\

I'll give it 5 stars out of 10 for an average rating.

A bunch of scary glowing rats go out for some food and terrorise a nearby mental institution. Apparently, they're so bloodthirsty because they all want to suck up to their master, a gigantic superrat who makes them perform Satanic rituals and chant Barry Manilow songs. There isn't much to say about this movie, you've seen it all before. It's mostly boredom, but there are in fact two scary moments, namely the bathtub scene where suddenly a giant CGI rat comes out of a CGI nowhere and some other rat licking up blood, which is goddamn creepy. Don't do that, rat. Generally this thing just isn't entertaining. If you want a good killer rat movie, well I can be of no assistance.