Rats - Mörderische Brut

What do you expect? Sure, it's not "The Shining" for God's sake, but hey, it's decent entertainment, if you like cheap B-horror movies. If not, don't watch it, you sure won't like it. The acting is not all that bad, but the effects, like the huge rat, is really very comical. You have to realize that not a lot of money went in to making this one, and at times (most of the time) it shows. The plot of sneaking a reporter into a rehab hospital or whatever, to get a story is a little much, but the rats, hey they had a nice snack a couple of times in this one.

The tale concerns about the Brookdale asylum is a strange hospital for the insane, mad and criminals. Jennifer(Sara Dowling) an intrepid reporter for Philadelpia Enquirer newspaper and guised as a patient investigates about possible health rules infraction. But Brookdale hospital is infested with astonishing and super-intelligent killer rats created long time ago by Doctor Winslow(Ron Perlman). Nowadays an ex-patient(Michael Zilkene) is developing a symbiotic friendship with the large bugs. The inmates are attacked by the amazing rodents who are mobilizing to do battle with the human intruders. This is a terror-thriller quite exciting where large creatures roam for facing off the patients fears and developing a bloodthirsty and eerie hunger.

The rats, themselves, of course , are the real stars , as deliver the goods with genuine chills, terror and tension. The film provides lots of screams, blood and gore and with creepy atmosphere which becomes pretty sinister when the rats appear. This movie with thin characters and contrived plot, packs grisly murders and the filmmaker retains a fascination with the decapitated members. The rats are mostly made by computer generator FX, as usual, they're frightening astounding and quite convincing . The motion picture is regularly directed by Tibor Takacs. Born Budapest, Takacs has directed TV movies(Sabrina, the teenage witch,Outer limits, Earth, final conflict), Mark Dacascos vehicles(Deathline,Sanctuary,Sabotage) and giant monsters and bugs movies(Rats,MegaSnake, Ice spider, Mansquito,). Another films about the Rats sub-genre are the following: Food of gods(76, Bert I Gordon); Food of the godsII(1988, Damian Lee),Willard(1973, Daniel Mann with Bruce Davison), Willard(2003, Glen Morgan with Crispin Glover), The Rats (2002, John Lafia with Vincent Spano), among others.

A reporter goes undercover in a mental hospital where locking the doors is a foreign concept, and finds the place overrun with... KILLER RATS! As well as a crazy janitor who speaks to them.

I would have preferred more real rats and models than the pathetic CGI that was on display for most of the movie, more gore would have been nice too. Ron Perlman is here, but sadly not very much.

Nothing to see here.

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.

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