'The Rats' is a pretty entertaining killer rodent movie.
**SPOILERS**
Teenager Samantha (Sara Downing) is admitted into Brookdale Institute, a psychiatric hospital. It has been plagued by strange disappearances nearby that the police haven't been able to solve. The head doctor at the institute, Dr. Winslow (Ron Perlman) takes an immediate interest in her, and assigns her to a controlling roommate (Eileen Grubba). At first, she really doesn't know what to expect, but she quickly makes a friend in the facility, Naomi (Tarri Markel). The next day, she is missing, and Dr. Winslow suggests a cover up among the staff. Samantha doesn't believe it, and launches a hidden investigation into Naomi's disappearance and finds that the place is infested with rats. After two more inmates are found dead, Samantha believes more than that a cover-up exists. She begins drilling the staff to do something about the rat problem, and they finally hire an exterminator, (John Paul Young) who also falls victim to the rats. After several freak-outs from the other residents, Samantha resolves herself to find out what the staff at the hospital is trying to hide. She discovers that the janitor (Michael Zelniker) of the hospital is controlling the rats telepathically as the result of an accident from an experiment Dr. Winslow had conducted before the hospital was used as a psychiatric hospital.
The Good News: For once, we finally get a horror film set inside a creepy location: an insane asylum. Granted, the idea has been done before, but nit with killer rats as the culprits. This was a great idea and should've been done a lot sooner. The location allows for the usual character stereotypes in these films: the caring doctor; the clue-less staff; the heroine; and the typical first victim who knows what's really going on. I've seen so many films where they try to step away from these stereotypes that, in a small way, it's refreshing to see those brought back into a film. That was a real nice surprise to see this old cliché brought back into a modern film. Even though the rats may be fake, I was glad that the blood and gore wasn't. The blood was realistic, and we even got to see some eaten-away carcasses. There were several of those, so it wasn't just one. The mother rat was very vicious and attacked everyone in sight, just the way a killer creature should be. The best quality is that something is always happening, so it doesn't move too fast for its own good and loose you in very confusing scenes. It did keep your interest, something all good movies know how to do and do well.
The Bad News: The rats are so obviously computer generated that it looses at the terror in the script. The film does have some really suspenseful moments, but the badly designed rats nearly ruin it. It damages a film when we see this really great scene where the rats overwhelm their victim, yet the person is seen to be covered in fake rats that don't match up to the on-screen mayhem. It was very frustrating to see those kinds of scenes. I was really getting into the movie and then they had to show the fake rats in a scene where they are clearly not in the same shot in the movie. That was a real killer to have to watch that kind of scene. The ending was also very confusing. It featured the same kind of ending that all these movies seem to have. If you've seen one of these kinds of movies, you'll know the ending. It wasn't a very creative ending compared to the rest of the film.
The Final Verdict: Keeping in mind that the rats are so obviously fake, this is still a pretty entertaining movie. The other 'Rats,' where they take over Manhattan, was only slightly better than this one, though both are recommended to killer rodent movie fans.
Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, and mild violence on the rats
**SPOILERS**
Teenager Samantha (Sara Downing) is admitted into Brookdale Institute, a psychiatric hospital. It has been plagued by strange disappearances nearby that the police haven't been able to solve. The head doctor at the institute, Dr. Winslow (Ron Perlman) takes an immediate interest in her, and assigns her to a controlling roommate (Eileen Grubba). At first, she really doesn't know what to expect, but she quickly makes a friend in the facility, Naomi (Tarri Markel). The next day, she is missing, and Dr. Winslow suggests a cover up among the staff. Samantha doesn't believe it, and launches a hidden investigation into Naomi's disappearance and finds that the place is infested with rats. After two more inmates are found dead, Samantha believes more than that a cover-up exists. She begins drilling the staff to do something about the rat problem, and they finally hire an exterminator, (John Paul Young) who also falls victim to the rats. After several freak-outs from the other residents, Samantha resolves herself to find out what the staff at the hospital is trying to hide. She discovers that the janitor (Michael Zelniker) of the hospital is controlling the rats telepathically as the result of an accident from an experiment Dr. Winslow had conducted before the hospital was used as a psychiatric hospital.
The Good News: For once, we finally get a horror film set inside a creepy location: an insane asylum. Granted, the idea has been done before, but nit with killer rats as the culprits. This was a great idea and should've been done a lot sooner. The location allows for the usual character stereotypes in these films: the caring doctor; the clue-less staff; the heroine; and the typical first victim who knows what's really going on. I've seen so many films where they try to step away from these stereotypes that, in a small way, it's refreshing to see those brought back into a film. That was a real nice surprise to see this old cliché brought back into a modern film. Even though the rats may be fake, I was glad that the blood and gore wasn't. The blood was realistic, and we even got to see some eaten-away carcasses. There were several of those, so it wasn't just one. The mother rat was very vicious and attacked everyone in sight, just the way a killer creature should be. The best quality is that something is always happening, so it doesn't move too fast for its own good and loose you in very confusing scenes. It did keep your interest, something all good movies know how to do and do well.
The Bad News: The rats are so obviously computer generated that it looses at the terror in the script. The film does have some really suspenseful moments, but the badly designed rats nearly ruin it. It damages a film when we see this really great scene where the rats overwhelm their victim, yet the person is seen to be covered in fake rats that don't match up to the on-screen mayhem. It was very frustrating to see those kinds of scenes. I was really getting into the movie and then they had to show the fake rats in a scene where they are clearly not in the same shot in the movie. That was a real killer to have to watch that kind of scene. The ending was also very confusing. It featured the same kind of ending that all these movies seem to have. If you've seen one of these kinds of movies, you'll know the ending. It wasn't a very creative ending compared to the rest of the film.
The Final Verdict: Keeping in mind that the rats are so obviously fake, this is still a pretty entertaining movie. The other 'Rats,' where they take over Manhattan, was only slightly better than this one, though both are recommended to killer rodent movie fans.
Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, and mild violence on the rats