Rats: Night of Terror (1986)

An Exercise In Nonsense

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

This like many Italian post nuclear films of the 1980's is much the same. The characters were bland, but a lot more sympathetic than those in the Final Executioner. They were supposed to be a warrior group, but acted more like wusses - my four pet kitties would take on the rats with more bravery. One, of the character's performance was so hammy, I thought "Are you totally serious?"Diana "I Want To Die!, as if she was giving an overly theatrical performance, rather than acting with a bit of commonsense. Lady, seriously, come on! The male characters really weren't much braver in terms of their fighting ability. Having said that, I liked Kurt, Taurus and Chocolate

Bruno Mattei is notorious for making a Dawn of the Dead ripoff, Hell of the Living Dead. Rats is certainly one of his more original works, and although it's definitely low budget, it's funny as hell and entertaining the whole way through.A nuclear war has destroyed much of the planet, and humans live underground. A motorcycle gang risks going above to see if they can reside in the post-apocalyptic environment of what was once a city, only to find a rather unfriendly species lurking in the shadows... millions of rats, hungry rats.There are some parts of the movie that are offensive and gory. There is racism; the main character, a black woman, has been named Chocolate, and when flour falls on her from a shelf, she states, "I'm whiter than all of you!" On some versions of this film this phrase was replaced with something else. There is a graphic suicide, and the rats eating the victims is very disturbing, although low-budget, to watch.The acting, for a low-budget film, was amazing, surprisingly. The soundtrack was catchy and at times creepy, and the plot, although similar to Deadly Eyes (1982), is very original. Strangely the many rats used in the film are actually guinea pigs with fake tails and painted faces, likely because guinea pigs don't bite as much and are very friendly and docile creatures.If you want to see a cheesy, gory horror movie, look no further! Rats: Night of Terror is definitely not a well-made horror film but it is comedic, and really worth it!

In a post-apocalyptic setting, a gang of nomads enter an abandoned building only to discover it inhabited by rodents with an insatiable appetite for human flesh. What starts out looking like another tired 'new gladiators' instalment soon emerges as a claustrophobic ten little Indian tale where the characters must battle both one another and the omnipresence of vengeful rats on the warpath. The fearless leader Kurt combats challenges from within, as the incessantly irritable Duke persistently tries to undermine his control over the group, all the while Kurt and his fellow actors are pelted with rats by off camera stage crew.Curiously reminiscent of a stage production, the characters will often gather together in shot and deliver their lines in succession before a distant noise startles them into collective panic. The dialogue is stilted but suits the wooden acting, a weakness that can't be attributed to the dubbing. Full frontal nudity earns the film its R rating, briefly assuming the mantle until the infamous sleeping bag scene (ouch). Amid the dissent and panic, one of the characters (earlier defined as the cerebral thinker and oracle of all knowledge) delivers an epitaph that could apply equally to both the deceased characters he laments, and the film itself when he utters the immortal line "they had such a terrible finish". At least it's finished for them; the audience will have to endure.Make-up effects are confronting at times, though they do often fall short of realism, opting instead for shock value as witnessed by the asinine decapitation scene which resembles an accident in a mannequin factory. And as usual, the poor old rats (no doubt selected for their rare thespian talents), end up being kicked, gassed, barbecued, shot and one even knocked out by a beer tankard. At least they have the last laugh.

From the badly written introduction at the start of the film we learn the nukes have dropped and everyone has hidden underground. Rebels decide to go back to the living on the surface.Basically what you've got is a very Italian looking gang with bikes and clapped out cars who find a town with food and fresh water. It turns out the town is infested with rats. So far you've got the makings of a really entertaining movie.Unfortunately, the rats don't seem that keen on getting involved. They know this is an Italian production and that Italian movies couldn't give a damn about the animals involved so they are wisely cowering from the actors, or at best completely indifferent. This is most noticeable in the scene when they are trying to get up some stairs and the rats are trying to get away from them. You can shout that the rats are after you as much as you like, the viewer can see this isn't the case. The cardboard cut out rats used to represent a swarm are just funny and it's clear that rats are being thrown at the actors periodically. Unless you're completely callous you'll be rooting for the rats to at least survive the movie and completely ignoring the threadbare plot.I think they should have just made a few giant rat heads and used those, it would have looked rubbish but it would have at least allowed them to simulate some kind of danger. I love bad movies in general but I didn't find this one at all funny really, it's just another Italian movie that looks promising but goes nowhere and drags on and on.At least they put some effort into the ending, silly though it was.