Ratos

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.

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.

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

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 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.