La malédiction des rats

Food of the Gods 2 (1989)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Bert I. Gordon was a somewhat decent director who has gained a huge cult following over the years due to his drive-in fluff like The Cyclops, Earth vs. The Spider, The Amazing Colossal Man, Attack of the Puppet People and Village of the Giants with a young Ron Howard. All of these dealt with people and/or animals growing to a huge size and attacking us smaller people. In 1976 Gordon made a comeback with the cult classic The Food of the Gods, which turned out to be one of the biggest disasters of his career yet it was bad enough to be laughable at times. They should have left bad enough alone but thirteen years later we got Food of the Gods 2, which is also known as Gnaw. While Gordon didn't direct this sequel his stamp of approval must be all over it.

The story is pretty sweet and simple. Dr. Neil Hamilton (Paul Coufos) is called to his former teachers house because she has a huge secret to tell him. The teacher did an experiment on a small child using growth hormones and somehow the child grew to a gigantic size. The teacher asks her favorite student to do some more experiments to see if something can be created to reduce the size of the child who is not only still growing but his attitude is getting violent.

Back on the college campus, PETA members are throwing a fit because the school is doing experiments on live animals. Dr. Hamilton was always against this but since there's a child involved his tries the grown hormone on a rat, which does start to grow but before the doctor can put a stop to it, the rat escapes and heads off to the sewer. Even worse, at least a dozen other rats broke loose and ate the formula so dead bodies start popping up all over the place. Faces are eaten off, arms ripped out and the floors are drenched with blood but the doctor must find a way to stop it all.

Director Damian Lee does a very smart job with this film and avoids the mistake of the original. The original was a flat out bomb because the director took the material way too serious but thankfully Lee doesn't do that and instead delivers a rather comical horror spoof that takes shots at everything from Gordon to PETA to even Jaws. The story is very stupid and not believable but this is a horror film so logic really shouldn't be taken into consideration. This certainly isn't a good movie either but if you've got nothing better to do and it's three in the morning then you should find yourself laughing.

Since the story isn't important that means there must be something worth watching and that's the animal attacks that are downright hilarious. The scenes are actually very well handled but each of them are still held back by a low budget and that's where the over the top factor comes into play. Often times we get close up's of a doll rat attacking someone with a quick edit to the aftermath, which is usually red stuff pumping out of a missing arm or a face that's had the eyes eaten out. Another hilarious scene happens when a couple are trying to have sex and the guy leaves to use the bathroom but to only run into a mouse. All of the attacks are rather violent in a comic book way and the director certainly had enough in the budget to throw around the red stuff, which is what horror fans want.

Outside the gore the next important thing is the humor that is scattered throughout the film. The best moments occur with a Clint Eastwood wannabe character who is a rat catcher. He's shows up on the scene, riffle in hand and a cigar in his mouth. This is clearly a spoof of Eastwood's Sergio Leone westerns and is cleverly done. Another wonderful moment happens during the climax when the rats overtake the college and a new pool, which they are showing off. The rats swimming around attacking the human swimmers is something that has to be seen to believe. Another idea of the comic nature is during a sex scene where a guy has taken the growth formula and a certain part of his grows a bit too big during sex. I'll let you use your imagination on this one.

Food of the Gods 2 is in no way shape or form a "classic" film but it isn't trying to be. The film has a stupid story with some bad actors but thankfully the director knew this and pushed everything over the line and he actually delivered a rather entertaining film. After hating the original I thought this was would be horrid but I was pleasantly surprised in the end. If you're not a fan of those "animal attack" films or the films of Gordon then you probably won't like this either. However, if you appreciate films like The Cyclops and Attack of the 50 Foot Woman then you should get the comic nature of this movie.

I have mixed feelings about the original "Food of the Gods". It's amazing, but easy to hate at the same time. This one is just good eighties fun and with buckets of blood. It's like "Demons", but with giant wet rats in a swimming pool instead of a movie theater. Poor synchronized swimmers!! The animal rights activists are pretty realistic, I should know. Oh yeah, the effects, both the real rats on mini sets, and the rat costumes, look fantastic.

While trying to find a way to reverse rapid hormonal growth, university professor Dr. Neil Hamilton (Paul Coufos) accidentally creates a pack of giant man-eating rodents that escape into the sewers under the campus, emerging to attack students and staff.

As unbelievable as it might seem, someone (well, director Damian Lee, to be more precise) actually went and made a sequel to Bert I. Gordon's cruddy '70s eco-horror Food of the Gods; almost as hard to believe is that FOTG2 proves far more enjoyable than the dismal original. Lee is far from a great film-maker, as anyone who has seen Abraxas, Guardian of the Universe (1990) can testify, but he loads his film with enough demented lunacy—including some welcome OTT gore and a little female nudity—to ensure that it easily surpasses Gordon's film in terms of sheer entertainment value.

Admittedly, it takes a while for Lee to get into the swing of things, but once he does, he lets loose with a series of wonderfully daft scenes: we get a cheesy science montage with a naff synth rock soundtrack; there's a ridiculous dream sequence in which hero Dr. Hamilton injects himself with an experimental hormone, and then grows while having sex with student Mary Anne (actress Kimberly Dickson kindly ticking the nudity box); a rat exterminator with a flamethrower does an impersonation of Clint Eastwood; a guy gets his ass mauled by a rat while taking a leak; the rodents chase a maintenance man on an electric cart through tunnels at high speed; an unscrupulous scientist is infected with dog cancer and melts; and in the magnificent finale, the rats attack a synchronised swimming contest before being massacred by machine gun.

As if that wasn't enough for fans of B-movie silliness, there's also fun to be had from numerous cameos by the boom mic and a special FX guy, armed with a pair of syringes loaded with goop, who surreptitiously sneaks into shot during the melting scene.

This movie stinks but I'd like to bring up a scene that comes to mind. The climactic set piece involves giant rats terrorizing a synchronized swimming display commemorating the grand opening of the college swimming pool (that was a mouthful!). The rats come out, people start freaking out and all hell breaks loose. At some point, an armed guard (or a cop, I can't remember) loses his gun and one of the spectators picks it up and starts firing blindly into the crowd, trying to hit the rats but hitting people instead. This scene stands out because it leaves you slack-jawed with disbelief at just how ridiculous this movie can get. The rest of the movie itself is just plain stupid. I don't recommend this movie but I wont give it a complete zero. Rating 1/2* out of *****.

Years ago, I stumbled onto this by mistake while channel surfing one night. I never watched The Food of the Gods in 1976, but from what I heard, it has no connection to this film.

At a Canadian university, a bunch of lab rats injected with a growth serum created by Dr. Neil Hamilton (Paul Coufos) are set loose by a group of animal rights activists, escape into the sewer, and soon grow to the size of dogs and develop a taste for human flesh as they begin to prey upon people on the campus. But, in a plot that somewhat rips off Jaws, the greedy Dean White refuses to close down the college because of the opening of their new sports complex, although how he manages to keep all the deaths under wraps is anyones guess. So now it's up to Hamilton to track down and wipe out the rodents.

For the most part, the special effects are predictably trashy. The rats are portrayed by a combination of unconvincing puppets, and real rats placed in front of miniature sets, like sewer tunnels and a swimming pool. They use the same effects to make Bobby look huge in the beginning, and it's not very impressive either. Worst of all was his totally fake, giant rubber hand being slapped over his caretakers face in the finale.

There's bad acting everywhere. The cast are made up of c-listers who put no effort into their roles, unless their screaming in agony as their eaten alive by the rats. This was Paul Coufos most "notable" role and he's a terrible leading man here. It's all so corny, there's barely any horror impact at all.

There are some really campy and unintentionally hilarious moments in the film's most surreal scenes. We hear Bobby swearing at and threatening Hamilton in the beginning, Hamilton having a REALLY messed up dream, and Delhurst melting into a puddle of green goo. Plus, there was a pretty cool scene where an exterminator barbecues one of the rats with a flamethrower.

Don't bother with this one unless you're just looking for some cheap enjoyment watching people get eaten by mutant animals.