Plot: What’s it about?
An upscale Manhattan department store has just been rocked by some tragic news, a rat was seen by a customer. But this bulimic, but cute customer wasn’t just a witness to the rodent’s presence, instead she was bitten by the damn thing. And if her story holds true, this was no normal rat either, but a bigger, faster, and smarter kind of rodent. Of course, this sparks an outrage and the store turns the situation over to Susan (Madchen Amick), the public relations expert. She realizes the importance of having the rodent problem handled, so he brings in an expert of her own, rat master Jack Carver (Vincent Spano). He does some snooping around the store and discovers the entire store is coated in urine and fecal matter, though most of it can only be seen with his special rat detection equipment. Carver suspects a large rat population resides somewhere close to the store, but even in his wildest dreams, he never would have expected the mass rat mania that dwells beneath the store. A new breed of genetically enhanced rats is taking hold under New York’s streets, with more speed, strength, and intelligence than any other kind of rodent. Carver is determined to put these super rats back in their place, but with thousands of them to slaughter, can even a rodent expert handle this infestation?
I’ve seen creature features about ants, snakes, frogs, bears, crocodiles, and all sorts of other critters, even cockroaches managed to score their own flick. And I’ve sat down and watched them all, so of course, I was looking forward to Fox’s release of The Rats. This was first shown on television, but it has a more graphic approach than most made for television productions, to be sure. I don’t mean to make The Rats sound like a splatterfest, but it does has some decent moments of graphic violence. Then again, when the bad guys have little sharp teeth and gnaw people to death, I guess its hard to avoid using some measure of blood. And these rats get around, with acrobatic jumps, chiseling chews through all kinds of objects, insane battles between themselves, and of course, rampant teething on human flesh. Some of these nature-runs-amok movies shortchange us on the animal antics, but The Rats delivers on its promises, as we see a non-stop barrage of rats in their prime. You won’t be scared by the little buggers however, in fact you’ll be cheering for them before long, especially after a few minutes of the rat expert’s jive. This is a corny, low budget movie that assumes wild times with rats can overcome the other flaws and its damn right about that, so be sure to check out The Rats.
This movie has a cast of human performers, but as the title suggests, the real stars here are those furry little bastards, the rats. As this was a television production, we can assume it wasn’t gifted with a large budget and if it was, the investors need to find out where the hell the funding is, because it wasn’t spent on the special effects. But the cheese laden creature work isn’t all bad news however, as bad monsters actually add to the fun of these kind of movies, so long as they’re properly handled, that is. In The Rats, a parade of real rats is marched in front of the camera, but they’re spelled by a menagerie of fictional rodents. The flat out fake ones look decent, but we’re still talking about prosthetic rats here, so don’t expect to be fooled. Even so, those look more realistic than the low end computer effects, which should cause instant fits of laughter, the prime example of how much fun this flick can be. As far as humans, the cast includes such names as Madchen Amick (Sleepwalkers, Tv’s Twin Peaks), Vincent Spano (Texas Rangers, Indian Summer), and Shawn Michael Howard (Men of Honor, Sunset Park).
Video: How does it look?
The Rats is presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen. I assumed Fox would deliver a nice presentation here, but they have outdone themselves here with a transfer so pristine, even the filthy rats look clean. Ok, maybe I’m going overboard a little, but this is a terrific treatment and it has minimal defects to discuss. The print is in great condition, but I do think the image is soft in places, which lessens visible detail, of course. This presents a problem in some of the darker scenes, when we need that added detail to take in all the visuals. Even so, this never proves to be a serious issue, as black levels remain solid and detail is more than acceptable. I had no complaints with colors either, which leaves me to give this treatment a high score.
Audio: How does it sound?
The audio here is well handled, thanks to a Dolby Digital 5.0 option that makes the most of the material’s potential. I wouldn’t stack this mix up against a reference level soundtrack, but for a low budget movie about killer rats, you couldn’t want much more. All the chomps, gnaws, and squeaks come through in grand fashion, with lots of surround presence to make you feel like you’re surrounded by little furry creatures. The most active scenes are whenever the rats launch into battle, but even normal sequences have a nice, solid presence. No hiccups with the dialogue either, with vocals having a clean, crisp overall sound. This disc also includes a 2.0 surround option, as well as English and Spanish subtitles.
Supplements: What are the extras?
The sole supplement here is an eight minute featurette, in which we learn the finer points of making a movie with tons of rats. This is a brisk, enjoyable piece that refrains from the usual fluff and just shows some cool footage of the rats in action.