El hombre rata

Inspired by a song written by the Fall on their Totales Turns album, Ratman is a late era Italian horror thankfully devoid of haunted houses, but unthankfully full of boring stalk and slash sequences.

A scientist on some tropical island has successfully managed to get a rat to breed with a monkey, somehow, and produced a rat monkey capable of poisoning anything it scratches within seconds. This creature of course has escaped and is now chowing down on anything it can get it's teeth into.

This includes the bunch of fashion models led by Werner Pochtath (Days of Hell, Cat o Nine Tails), and his main model, Eva Grimaldi (Demons 5). After another model is stalked and killed and mistaken for Eva, her sister Janet Agren (Eaten Alive) goes looking for her, helped by legend David Warbreck (The Last Hunter, The Black Cat). And basically the film turns into Warbreck and Agren doing the old research on what's happening, and Eva trying to avoid being killed for the remainder of the film. Kind of like Tonino Ricci's Panic, also starring Warbreck and Agren.

Directed by Guilliamno Carnimeo (director of the great Case of the Bloody Iris and numerous Westerns I've never got round to watching) Ratman is full of cheese, but it's also full of boobs and gore, so really, where do your priorities lie? This one doesn't go down the old haunted house road as a lot films do from this era, but on the other hand it becomes quite slasher-tastic in the old 'folks trying to hide from a killer' routine. I have the hiccups. It's really annoying. Really annoying. My wife has a remedy for it but she's in bed.

Forget this film/ Do you have the hiccups? I hate the hiccups. Makes my stomach hurt from##jpepw;/ O cast/muppets

I though that Ratman was quite a good film to watch. It is about a maniac who butchers a fashion model on a Caribbean island and leaves the body to be eaten by rats. The model's sister suspects something isn't quite right with the police investigation and decides to go to find out by herself. With her friend, Fred, their investigation's lead them to an unknown part of the island where they discover a rat like man. The creature is killed by Fred, but the true horror of the rats nature is just about to start. This ended up being a good film to watch. There is quite a lot of strong gory violence and nudity in the film for viewers which may be a bit to much for some people.

This flick do has his pros and contras, to be honest I can understand it completely. Just face the reviews, only a few for a cult classic. That must say enough. The problem this flick had was the fact that it was being cut heavily even so that nudity and gore was left out. It did had a few releases and was even sold with the title Terror House.

I still don't know what to think about it because to be fair it is a bit boring at some places. Comes because there's no suspense in it. But I have seen it full uncut. It took until 2008 before it was finally released full uncut and sadly Nelson De La Rosa (the ratman) never experienced the final release, he passed away in 2006.

Maybe people hate it because the effects weren't the next big thing and there is not really that much of gore to spot. For me it's even goreless, it's more a trashy flick. It's just made for the geeks of bad taste. And it surely won't win an Oscar for acting but there's more than the flick itself. David Warbeck (Fred Williams) famous of a lot of classics (The Beyond (1981)) has the main lead here to help a model's sister to search for her sister. Girls do disappear due the ratman of course. Most notable and been cut out of a lot of DVD's is the ratman as a peeping tom watching Marilyn (Eva Grimaldi) taking a shower. It's as gratuitous as it can get and she goes all the way. people who know Eva know that you will see an extreme beautiful body. And that's what's it all about for a lot of pervs out there, to see the shower scene.

A bit of blood here and there, trashy in some way and a lot of Eva walking around and modelling never wearing a bra throughout The Ratman.

Gore 1/5 Nudity 1/5 Effects 1,5/5 Story 2/5 Comedy 0/5

Nelson De La Rosa is absolutely horrifying in his portrayal of a half human / half rat beast that preys on showering women with nice Italian boobs. This movie is a must-have for any true cultivist.

Imagine your flesh ripped by sharp claws on the end of little crazy straw arms, teeth gnawing at your face, blood pouring while your unsuspecting girlfriend showers in the adjacent room, unknowingly flashing bits of flesh... just enough to be torn to shreds.

Any fan of Nelson's should see this movie! You may know Nelson from some of his other popular characters such as The Little Dancing Man, Mahow Mahow, his role in The Island of Dr. Moreau, and various Dominican television shows... and more recently as the Red Sox good luck charm that broke the Bambino's Curse... for real.

See this movie.

Seriously fun little Italian sleazefest by former spaghetti western director Anthony Ascott. His "Sartana" films were filled with nifty little gimmicks, gizmos, devices, contraptions and bizarre cinematic flourishes that set the films apart from the pack. Here his little wind up gimmick is a despicable marvel of exploitation monster mania that must be witnessed to be believed. Watching the poor little rat man claw apart the half naked female supporting players is where the heart of the film lies. It delivers the goods, doesn't apologize about what it is & gets the job over with a bit of style in under 85 minutes. None of it is really scary but a lot will make your flesh crawl, and probably laugh.

One idea that keeps coming to mind is about how the film is a study in applied bad taste right down to the wince inducing use of a real life deformed person in a freakshow role. Such things cannot be enjoyed in good conscience without beer which is used in the presence of friends: It's a howler of a party movie and a guilty pleasure to be enjoyed at times when you just want to marvel at how absurd the human species can be. I don't defend this movie for a minute but I sure am in awe of it, which in some cases will have to do.

7/10