Les rats

Having read James Herbert's The Rats, Lair and Domain years ago, my mind was screaming with the possibilities of seeing these great novels on the silverscreen! So when i saw this title at my local videostore on DVD, i knew the odds were high of the film being very well be corny.. but i wanted to live out my dream, even though the film never actually states that it is based on Herbert's writings in any way.

I was setup for a let-down, but as i watched and watched, this film was actually above B- Grade! To tell you the truth, it is a really top notch flick that i wish had been based off, or had something to do with Herbert's books!!!

I dont know any of the actors, but their performances were pretty solid, and to tell you the truth, the movie fit the horror bill quite well.

I dont want to spoil anything for you, but i for one am glad that i got to this one before the actual 1982 Herbert novel adaptation entitled simply Rats (aka: 'Night Eyes', 'The Rats' or Deadly Eyes'), which im too frightened to watch after reading shocking reviews. I simply dont want to spoil the books.

If you happen to see the title around someplace and are a fan of Herbert's excellent novels, then go for it, i say! For something that i was expecting very little of, its certainly worth a look.

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.

I'll be truthful, when I first picked up this movie in the library, I though I would cry myself to sleep because of how horrible it might be, but I digress, it was pretty good. There were some scares; some scenes were you just cringe because its rats but I liked it. It boils down to New York run amok by rats, but these are no ordinary rats, they are, in fact, parasitic disease-spreading rodents that broke out of an abandoned genetics lab.

The movie had some pretty sly humor and the characters were very well played out. The whole concept of rats invading a luxury department store and finding mounds of rat crap all over the place, using a dark light, was the funnies thing I have ever seen in a rodent movie. Some interesting scenes involving massive hordes and tunnels of rats got me pretty uncomfortable, some, like the pool scene, were suggestive considering massive blood loss of kids.

The movie had some pretty snappy comebacks and a humorous relationship between the sophisticated luxury department store owner and the suave discrete exterminator. Their relationship, at points, is hard to look at because of campy level it's on but nonetheless a very good relationship. I liked how the Health Department is trying everything to cover everything up and…..its just a funny, scary movie.

Of course, there is a limit of how much corniness and silliness a movie can have. But despite that factor, this isn't that bad of a movie, the rats are more of a vermin that his movie and I think that any horror fan should at least try this movie. I like it, not loved it, but like it, and I hope other will.

I'm normally very cautious about renting films whose quality is dubious, especially if they are direct to videos. But I've been doing research lately and, based on positive imdb reviews, decided to check out The Rats (not to be confused with Killer Rats). I must say that this is a movie done with great taste and quality. The story was well thought out and the dialogue wasn't at all cheesy. It also doesn't hurt to have a beautiful leading actress. Good job to FOX for making a great DVD! Recommended is you want a fun but not over the top creature fx.

I had the pleasure to work on this film as the Second Unit Director (I shot all the rat stuff), but never got a chance to see the final product until tonight ,Sept 19 /02. It was fun. It's not The Godfather but i found it well edited and the folks at Core Digital did an excellent job with the water sequence and the rat multiplying. Carls death was great. It just reminded me that the stunt co-ordinator of the film Anton (Ty) Tyakodi was killed in a helicopter accident a couple weeks after we finished shooting. I'll miss him. John, learn how to move the camera and get off the long lenses once in a while. Too bad it was up against Survivor Thailand, no one probably saw it. Thanks to Eric and Robert for the chance to work on it.