Mulberry St

Mulberry Street was the next stop on my ride through Horrorfest. This is not only the entry that I've been most looking forward to, but the movie that made me want to go to any of the Horrorfest movies at all. And I'm happy to say that it fully lived up to my expectations.

Before I begin the review, I will be hyping this movie. In short and up front, I loved it and it scared me. If you don't think it will scare you from what you may have read about it until now, then see it on my words. Or read the whole review, which will (once again) hype it up, and hopefully you'll still enjoy it as much as I did. Moving along...

The movie takes place in Manhattan, and people are being attacked by rats. First small incidents here and there take place, then those who have been bitten begin to degenerate into a rat-like form (It's a little mix of 28 Days Later, Dawn of the Dead, and... well, Rat Creatures.) 6 tenants of an old apartment complex that has been marked for demolition (as part of an urban renewal program) try to make it through the onslaught of rat people that now prowl the streets, walls, and every ware in between. I know, sounds like a cross between a B-Movie, Willard, and a Sci-Fi Channel Original Movie, but it's actually really good.

To begin with, the characters are excellent, for several reasons. They aren't super-hot teens or stereotypes or anything you'd normally find in a horror movie. They're just regular people, the kind you'd find in, well, the more average part of the big city. They are acted like regular people, don't have any outstanding abilities (ones a former boxer, his daughter is coming back from a vet center after fighting in Iraq (a small subplot of the film is her attempting to get to the apartment complex during all the chaos), and that's about it). And finally, these people don't act like morons or anything. They act like you or me would act in situations like that. Plus, the character development is great. You really start to care for these people (especially the two old guys sharing an upstairs apartment. Love those two), and you want them to make it.

The atmosphere is great. Part of the time it's rather claustrophobic, with the tiny apartments crammed with space, or the restaurants and bars that are shoved into spaces that are half the size of regular shops. Downtown New York City buildings, essentially. The lighting is real and not too bright, and helps build tension. The creatures (or mutated people, or whatever you want to call them) look pretty scary, but you never get a really good look at them (I'll chalk that up to the limited budget of this film. Which is another thing, this film had a tiny budget, and that it pulled off so much is pretty amazing). The music is just right, and climaxes at just the right points.

Finally, this film is scary. I mean really scary. I haven't been genuinely freaked about by a film in a ling time (I mean, I love the Saw movies, but I find them interesting rather than scary. And 1408 had me shaking, but nothing heavy. Hell, August Underground and Cannibal Holocaust were just learning experiments, nothing more). It had some jump scares, but it kept getting freaky even after the jump. It stuck with you, and your were nervous when nothing was happening. It's good stuff when a movie pulls that off. I really haven't been this freaked out by a movie since The Shining (albeit I only first saw The Shining only a couple years ago, but still...)

Not to say there weren't some parts that could've been better. The ending (literally, the last minutes) was a bit open-ended, and not satisfying enough. The quality of the film could have been better, as it seemed pretty grainy at parts (I'm not sure how this film was shot, and I'm sure it once again had to do with budget limitations or the like). And... well, I can't really think of anything else. I've heard some negative remarks about the camera-work (in the moments of action and heavy movement, it goes to a more hand-held, shaky variety. Kinda stays this way throughout the second half of the movie, really), but I don't think it was nearly as bad as people say. It's a little jarring and annoying the first time it's used, but you get used to it. and soon you don't even notice the difference.

So, in conclusion, I love this film. It was about as good as low-budget horror films can get. Not only do I believe that this is the best film of Horrorfest (I've only seen Unearthed and Tooth and Nail so far, but the others have some big shoes to fill), I believe that it's one of the best horror movies I've seen in a few years. Being on the limited run that it is, it won't get the wide audience that it deserves, but if you get a chance to watch it, watch it. You will enjoy it, and it will scare you.

New York City has a rat problem it seems. The little furry pests are crawling all over the place and you better hope they don't bite a chunk out of you because, when that happens, you start growing hair out of strange places and want to eat human flesh! "Mulberry Street" is an apocalypse movie which takes "28 Days Later" and filters it through a post 9-11 New York. It begins at a rundown tenement building on the titular street where we are introduced to several of those who live there including Clutch, a retired boxer, a bartender named Kay (living with her teenage son) and Coco who is Clutch's best friend. Meanwhile, Clutch's daughter Casey arrives in New York City after serving in the Middle East and begins making her way home. Unfortunately, there have been several reports of rats biting humans, a nasty virus spreading through the city and people suddenly turning on one another. This results in the subways being shut down and Casey is forced to make her way home on foot. Are all these events connected? You bet!

"Mulberry Street" begins slowly with the horrors kept in the background. A feeling of dread infects the first third of the movie; dark figures shamble around alleyways as the characters walk past, a man sits silently in Kay's bar sweating and acting strangely, rats scurry around nearby gutters and televisions begin reporting strange events. I actually quite liked this - it was nice to watch a horror movie where the characters were developed, allowing the audience to get to know them before the city fell into Hell. There aren't any stereotypes either which makes a nice change. The characters in this movie probably do exist somewhere in Manhattan; enabling you to care about whether they'll survive or not.

The movie was made for a very low budget and features a lot of shaky-cam, which is obviously used to hide some of the effects (although they were, in my opinion, pretty good - the rat people are appropriately gruesome and deformed) but it doesn't hurt the film. In addition, the visuals have a dark and very dirty look to them. For a movie which revolves around rats, this adds to the atmosphere and makes it appear more gritty and realistic.

I really enjoyed "Mulberry Street". The acting was great all round, the storyline was interesting and it was nice to see a movie of this type that didn't use zombies for once! The squealing noises made by the rat people as they flood through corridors and streets was suitably disturbing. If you enjoyed "28 Days Later" or are a horror fan in general then you should certainly check out "Mulberry Street". Jim Mickel is definitely a director to watch out for in the future. If he can produce something this entertaining with such a low budget, who knows what he'll be capable of with more money?

After having seen a few low budget zombie movies a while back, my love for the genre faded and nowadays knowing that a film is both low budget and a zombie movie is liable to put me off seeing it; the reason being that while these films often show great enthusiasm, they can be seriously lacking in creativity. Well you could of course argue that this is not a zombie film as the central monsters are strange rat creatures rather than the classic zombie monsters...but it's basically just the same difference, and arguing that this film is not a zombie film would be as futile as saying the 2002 zombie film '28 Days Later' is not a zombie film. Anyway, what we basically have here is just your average zombie outbreak idea and we focus on an apartment block on 'Mulberry Street'. It turns out that there's something funny going on with the rats under the apartment block and all hell breaks lose when a man is bitten and starts showing signs of...turning into a giant rat. The infection quickly spreads, leading to a fight for life for the survivors.

The film is very short at only eighty minutes and was obviously set on a limited budget; thus meaning that it doesn't have a great deal of scope and we basically just focus on the central characters. This makes for decent enough entertainment, but the film is lacking in several areas and a lot of it feels rather thin. We don't get any details about the actual virus; which isn't that disappointing when you consider the usual reasons behind a zombie outbreak (a virus, radiation from space etc), but since this film has dared to change the formula a little in having people turn into rats; it would be nice to have some sort of reasoning behind it. The film has plenty of action, gore and horror images; but the problem is how it's portrayed. Director Jim Mickle has unfortunately opted to go down the flashy MTv-style photography route, and the result is that it's very difficult to see what is going on, and this kind of kills the film in terms of entertainment value. However, Mulberry Street does at least have enough good points to make it a worthwhile viewing and zombie fans should find something to like.

Life in the Big Apple is "as usual" on a day like any other day, when out of the sewers emerges a massive viral contagion...rats are aggressively attacking people who, in turn, become infected and undergo a grotesque metamorphosis. They become, quite literally, rodent-people, and as such scuttle in shadows, gnaw through walls, and greedily consume human flesh. Holed-up in a low-income apartment building are a variety of characters(all of them better written and portrayed than usual for a film of meager origins). They fight for their lives as radio and TV broadcasts denote the epic scale of this grim and rapidly mounting situation.

MULBERRY STREET is a great example of the way younger film industry hopefuls are taking old ideas and throwing them back at you as something entirely original...in truth, we've seen all this before, but the presentation is so different that it rarely feels like the same old 'sturm und drang'. It's surprisingly character-driven for a contemporary horror film, and the ending which seems rather unresolved actually makes sense as this is the story of the film's primary characters facing a situation, rather than being about the situation itself. Imaginative, creepy, and in a few spots even emotionally affecting, this is one which is likely to please horror hounds and might even recruit a few(it's also one of the most "New York" movies to pop up in quite awhile).

I enjoyed this film, and I suspect it will be a springboard for many of the talented members of the cast and crew...I, for one, will be eager to see what they can do with some legitimate financial resources.

7.5/10

In Mulberry Street rats in the subway system begin biting people causing them to turn into wererats. The story follows a group of apartment dwellers who try their best to survive. What I really liked about this movie is the way the characters all seem like real people instead of the bland teens we are usually supposed to care about in horror.

The effects aren't great but the monsters do look more or less like humanoid rats and the action zips along and you barely notice. What you do notice though is some nice camera-work that really puts you in the middle of the action. You'll probably also appreciate the clever use of television and radio to fill in the story, this isn't a new idea but it's done pretty well.

Overall I really enjoyed this movie. I noticed in a couple of other reviews people mentioned that they felt something when a character died, that's so rare in horror these days and is the sign of a well made horror movie!