Les rats

In Manhattan, when a client is bitten by a rat in the dressing room of the Garsons Department Store and contracts Weil's disease, the manager Susan Costello (Mädchen Amick) is assigned to hire and give all the necessary support to the best exterminator in New York, Jack Carver (Vincent Spano). The efficient Jack and his assistant Ty (Shawn Michael Howard) find a colony of mutant rats and try to convince the health department administrator and former partner of Jack, Ray Jarrett (David Wolos-Fonteno), how serious the infestation is. But the politician Ray is interested in covering the problem to protect economical interests of powerful groups.

The theme of "The Rats" is absolutely unpleasant, but the way the story is approached in this movie is surprisingly entertaining. The chemistry between Mädchen Amick and Vincent Spano contributes to make this film work. I do not know if there is any veracity in the scary statistic of nine rats per dweller in New York, but if it is true, the reality is scarier than this film. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Ratos em Nova Iorque" ("Rats in New York")

I stumbled across "The Rats" in a local video store. Since I was in

the mood for low budget B horror, I took a chance and rented it.

What a wonderful surprise.

Superficially, the film's premise seems to be one of the many

overdone, tired plots we've seen so often. Instead, the viewer is

treated to a well made, well acted film. It is suspenseful and

benefits from good special effects for the rats (animatronics and

CGI, apparently).

The basic storyline concerns a colony of bioengineered rats that

were inadvertently allowed to escape from a defunct lab in New

York City. Years pass and the rats become a massive horde of

aggressive, disease-spreading vermin. After the Health

Department decides to ignore the problem, it is left to an

exterminator (Spano) and a department store operations manager

(Amick) to investigate the problem and deal with it.

Fans of B movie horror should definitely give this a chance. It is far

better than the title or basic premise would suggest.

Not for the weak hearted. Legions of vermin infest a Manhattan department store and causes concern for the city as they escape their underground world. Some very good computer generated effects: watching rats fill up an empty swimming pool will make you squirm. An above average made-for-TV movie and worth watching...if you can stand watching violent rats in rage. The cast includes: Madchen Amick, Vincent Spano, Shawn Michael Howard and Daveigh Chase. Creepy.

After a rat incident at a swanky NY department store, the store's chief of security (Madchen Amick) brings in a top exterminator (Vincent Spano) to solve the problem. Upon investigating the situation, the ugly truth is found. In fact, things are far worse than anyone could possibly imagine.

THE RATS is a decent "killer rat" movie that mixes both real and CGI rodents. The real rats are great, while the digital versions -used mostly for swarming attacks- are a bit dubious. Ms. Amick and Mr. Spano are believable enough in their sleuthing roles. Although the reason behind the sudden mass infestation is absurd, as is the means of their eradication, rat lovers should get a kick out of it.

The finale is a definite gut-buster...

Where I live, this film is available under the title "The Rats" and is very obviously a TV movie - no listing of production companies during the opening credits as well as fade-outs every fifteen minutes or so. Nonetheless, this is a very efficient nature-run-amok horror film, with much stronger gore than I was expecting. Madchen Amick plays Susan Costello, a department store manager who comes to discover that rats are all over the place. She calls in a discreet exterminator (Vincent Spano) to take care of the problem, only to learn that the rats are practically taking over the town, and have voracious appetites to boot. The TV production values prevent anything truly disturbing from happening, but the filmmakers seem to know what they're doing and have some fun with the premise. All in all, a good rent - unless it hits your TV screens first.