Ratas

I wasn't expecting much from a b-movie about killer rats when I first watched this years ago on the sci-fi channel. I only bothered because I heard Ron Perlman was in it, so I hoped he'd be the main character. Even though he wasn't, that's the only reason I gave this one a generous 4 stars.

Tabloid reporter Samantha (Sara Dowling) goes undercover and admits herself as a patient in Brookdale, a mental institution for drug addicted rich kids and washed-up actors. Her goal is to investigate rumors of experiments conducted by Dr. Winslow (Ron Perlman), but little does she know is that Winslow's research involved experimentation on rats, resulting in them becoming vicious, mutant killers with a taste for human flesh, including a dog sized one. And the insane caretaker, Ernst (Michael Zelniker), inexplicably shares some kind of psychic link with the rodents and is secretly helping them by feeding them human victims and cleaning up the bloody messes afterwards.

The entire cast is made up mostly of unremarkable extras and c listers who can hardly act at all and just play helpless victims with minimal screentime. Ron Perlman is the most notable cast member, and this movie might have been a little better if he wasn't relegated to a supporting role where he gets killed in the third act.

The institution staff are either apathetic or totally incompetent. There are people disappearing left and right and they either don't notice or just don't give a hoot. Nobody even hears the victims screaming from inside the facility as they're eaten alive. Worst of all, Ernst drives off with an exterminator's van and impersonates Dr. Winslow right under their noses.

The effects were horrible, even for a sci-fi original b-movie. The rats were a mixture of real ones with not-so-scary glowing red eyes, and CGI rats that were so poorly rendered and textured, they looked ridiculously fake, especially the big one. This reduced much of the fear factor for me.

Overall, this was just another run-of-the-mill sci-fi original killer animal movie with nothing particularly enjoyable or worth watching twice for most monster movie fans.

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.

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.

At a mental health institution, the rats from a forgotten experiment (how anyone can forget an experiment I'll never understand, talk about a swiss cheese memory) have begun to mutate (of course) and eat the patients (guess the kitchen was out of head cheese) just as an undercover reporter checks in to do an inside story on the clinic (timing is everything, the proverbial hickory clock must not have struck one yet and the mouse is still running up it).

Okay, I have to be honest, this movie was lame. The special effects were horrible. The mother rat looked like some cheesy Halloween house decoration you'd leave out on your porch to wipe your feet on. The rat spawns had such fake glowing red eyes you'd think they'd be blind (but then again they all had their tails and there were way more than three of them). There was even a "Willard" type character who had a telepathic bond with the rodents (all he must have heard was "Brains! Brains! Must have fresh brains!" because the rats decapitated their victims). Although if you're actually into B- horror flicks you may love this movie and think it's the Mouse King of the genre.

Ron Perlman plays the head of the institution and the head of the forgotten experiment. It's a bad movie but he at least is, as always, good. Want to know more? Remember the remarks I made earlier about head cheese and decapitations?

Definitely a rental and definitely have a drink.

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.