Rats 2 - l'invasion finale

I caught this one on late late cable and it delivered what I expected. I mean, I expected a boring German low budget Horror movie. Well, it isn't exactly boring but it's not fast paced.

The movie starts with a hot blonde relaxing in a hot tub, when suddenly, a freaking rat attacks her. The rat jumps from nowhere and bham! the next scene features the opening credits.

Then, we move to a German village where it seems that war is taking place but we learn that it is a black market business of some sort that deals with weapons. When some helicopters were flying around I got confused not knowing what to expect.

Soon after the damn rats attack a small German village and that's when the fun really begins.

This is low budget but not low quality. It seems that the producers, director, and cast took this movie seriously and tried to make it a solid direct for t.v. horror drama or something like that.

The result is a decent, entertaining movie with some regular rather mediocre rat f/x.

I have a rat phobia so I enjoyed this movie a little more than I expected. So, if you see that this will air on cable, give it a try. It's not worth your time but if you have nothing better to do, it may be your option.

After the success of it's predecessor, "Ratten - sie werden dich kriegen!", it was almost obvious that a sequel has to follow. And the "success formula" was only altered slightly - the same actors (which are also acting the same), the same opponents (this time being genome manipulated to add more thrill), the same game with ancient fears. An unwillingly humorous twist is the location, which is supposed to be a small town somewhere near Frankfurt/Main but resembles more of a haunted village somewhere in Transsilvania with all the works (dark/grey scenery, fog, full moon, thunderstorm).

But although story and actors (with exception of the rats) are offering just the standards of a TV production, "Ratten 2" could have been much worser. At least, this movie will give you slight chills and nice entertainment - as long as there is no "real" horror movie running on another channel.

(6/10)

Scratch: 7 out of 10: Otherwise known by its slightly less catchy German moniker Ratten 2 - Sie kommen wieder! Scratch is a made for TV sequel about rats attacking a small village. As these things go this is well above average.

The movie starts off with Jaws style naked blonde in jeopardy rat attack (This being German television the violence and blood is low key but nudity is okay.) It quickly moves to a quaint German village complete with castles and fog. The mayor is having a wedding and his old army buddies are coming for the ceremony. Meanwhile a scientist in town is experimenting on rats. And no this doesn't go well.

The cast is likable (Complete with a tall Tom Hanks, a Scott Glenn look alike and Velma from Scooby Doo) and the rats are very well done. I'm not sure how much CGI was actually used but unlike American made for television movies (or for that matter some Hollywood films) there are no "god that is so fake" rat scenes. I also liked the solution to the rat problem that was both internally logical and delightfully over the top.

If the movie has one glaring fault it is in the dubbing. Done apparently on the cheap by the same people that dub Japanese cartoons (If you watch a lot of Asian films you will recognize some of the voices) the dubbing is jarring for the first twenty minutes or so. Midwestern accents out of Fargo compete with horrible slang and dialogue.

I'm not sure if the dubbing actually got better as the movie went along or if I just got used to it but it doesn't distract too much from the fun. A real treat for those that enjoy their creature features.