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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.

In Manhattan, in a dilapidated building on Mulberry Street, the super Ross (Tim House) has trouble to repair the decayed systems to improve the lives of the tenants. The former boxer Clutch (Nick Damici) is a leader in the building and is anxiously waiting for the return of his beloved daughter Casey (Kim Blair) from a hospital for veterans after serving overseas. He prepares a surprising homecoming party for Casey with his gay neighbor Coco (Ron Brice). Clutch feels an attraction for her neighbor, the single mother and waitress Kay (Bo Corre), and her teenager son Otto (Javier Picayo) respects him like a father. Clutch is also close to Frank (Larry Medish), who is very sick, and his friend Charlie (Larry Fleischman). Meanwhile there is a rat attack in a subway station, followed by two others in different stations, and forcing the Major to showdown the public transport system. Sooner the victims bitten by rats turn into flesh eater mutants, attacking the other human beings and there is an outbreak that puts Manhattan in quarantine. The inhabitants have to fight to survive the attack of the ratlike creatures and Clutch gives his best effort trying to protect Casey and his friends.

"Mulberry Street" is an effective low-budget horror movie that really works. The characters are human, realistic and very well developed, creating an empathy with the viewer; the plot is simple but explains the origin of the outbreak; and the attack of the horde of mutants is gruesome and claustrophobic, recalling 1968 "Night of the Living Dead" and "REC". There is no final redemption in the non-commercial end, and for me it is another plus in this good film. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Infecção em Nova York" ("Infection in New York")

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!

This is a low budget movie. Now there are low-budget and low-budget. This is very well made out of "only" 60K (apparently) USD. If you can stand the idea of people turning into murderous rat-beings, then you would probably like this flick. It has a quite realistic feel to it, and the fact that everything is shot using a hand camera makes it quite documentary in style. The fact that a large part of the film follows the tenants of a NY building surrounded by these "rat-beings" makes it also quite claustrophobic. Good acting as well, all around - where the actors really build a relationship to each other and the audience.

A very well used 60K and if you like horror movies, the chance is that you'll not want to miss this one.

I'm not one for loving cheesy films a whole lot. Sure I can dig Troll 2 for it's insane cheese, or even Blood Freak and it's Turkey Murderer. I guess I'm a fan of the genre, but I can tell you I won't be paying more than 5 bucks for any of them. So whenever I hear of a movie like Mulberry Street, I tend to just shrug and see what good can come out of it. Mulberry Street is a rare breed, it takes a corny premise...Rats infecting people to become killer Rat People, but the movie works, surprisingly well. I'm not gonna get into specifics, because this movie especially, is one you where you shouldn't pay attention to details. If you let it fly, Mulberry Street brings you on a consistently entertaining ride. And with this being a low-budget film, movies of this caliber should only be applauded. If you're looking for a apocalyptic/zombie/vampire/mutant flick, look no further, Mulberry Street is easily good enough to satisfy your Rat Bastard needs.