Customer Reviews

Killer Rats

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Rented the movie and it's a interesting movie but it was good and not good at the same time. Some parts seemed like it could be better even for a 'B' movie. Though one of the things that bothered me was that some of the rats seemed to be done with cheap CG and didn't seem to all that great like with other movies that use CG for live action. The acting on the other hand wasn't that bad but I think it could have been better and the writing seemed a bit weak. Although with the audio it seemed like that it was a on a bit of a low side cause I had to try to figure out what sound on the TV to have it on and turning it up a bit to hear. As for a horror movie, it don't stack up well with the other horror movies out there and the gore seems to be up there a bit even for a TV movie. Overall I give Killer Rats 2.5 stars out of 5.

I first saw this on the Scifi channel.It was an ok film.It has some flaws,but the acting was decent.The special effects were good,not great.Almost all the actors we no die,except the 2 main ones of course.When a teen reporter goes under cover at a building were they help teens with there problems,she finds out that there are killer rats everywere and they are starting to kill some of the patients.The momma rat is about the size of a large T.V.Anyway,now the reporter has to escape and get the patients to safety.The rats killed all of the falcuty and only 5 of the teenaged patients.In the end the reporter and her boyfriend escape along with the survivers.A good movie to rent and watch on a Friday night.There are some really creepy moments and gory scenes,like when the momma rat is dragging the girls head across the floor leaving a trail of blood.I would recomend you to rent this not buy.

didn't expect much when watching this movie and it turned out to be really good, a great low budget movie! there's so many bad creature movies out there now days but this one definitely sticks out among the crowd. body count is plenty high with plenty of blood and guts and the giant rat is pretty cool. plenty of non stop action and the acting is all well done. have to recommend this film for the fans of the nature amok category for sure, check her out

The storie about an abandon experiment on rats that have overgrown is very good,.the execution in the case of this movie is not quite good,.the CG effect of the rats is too fake looking, I'm sure some rats were actually real,. the rehab place is full with young people who will have scary and bloody encounters with the oversized rats,.An insane janitor is the rats protector,..acting is good,.too bad sexiness didn't compensate for the bad especial effects,.my favorite rats movie is still "Grave Yard Shift",.But Killer Rats is not the worst out there.

OMG,I love this movie!It is great.Defintley the best killer rat film.I saw it on Sci fi,and now im defintley going to buy the DVD.Sure this movie is cheap and has bad effects,but what do you expect!It is scary and gory and thats all you need from a film like this.The people who give this movie bad reviews cant enjoy a cheap horror movie.I guess they were expecting an academy award winning masterpeice.Dont listen to them,this movie is great!Its about a young teen reporter(Sarah Downing) who goes undercover as a patient to an insane assulym.There she meets some other weird teens and makes a friend.That night her friend is killed by the rats.When the reporter finds out she is missing she starts investigating.She finds out the place is crawling with mutated rats that scientists had experimented on a long time ago.The janitor has a secret connection with the rats and the mama rat has grown huge by "feeding off his thoughts".The reporter complains to the staff,so they hire two exterminators.Unfortunatly both are killed and the rats still run free.The rats start killing the staff and the patients one by one,and the survivors try to escape.This movie is really cool.There is tons of gore.The body count at the end is high(13 I think).Anyway its a great movie.See It!!!!

KILLER RATS is one of those rare modern movies that captures much of the essence of the fifties and sixties "killer monster" movies. Director Tibor Takacs manages to instill some real creepy moments as we are engrossed in this tale of mutant rats. Sara Downing plays a reporter who goes "undercover" to investigate the goings on a HMO type facility. She meets the esteemed doctor (Ron Perlman) and the obedient staff and soon senses something amiss. Meanwhile, her boyfriend reporter (Michael Hagerty) tries to convince her to get out after a series of mysterious disappearances. Michael Zelniker plays the maintenance man who has a mysterious connection with the rats; Bailey Chase plays a drug addict who is a handsome action movie star; and Denise Dowse plays Rose, the bitchy roommate of Sara. The CGI generated rats of course don't look real, but they are scary nonetheless. The movie has an eerie atmospheric pacing and I forgive the numerous plot loopholes because it's a scary movie! If you like this kind of thriller, you won't be disappointed.

Killer Rats has more substance than most killer beastie movies although it leaves me a little confused as to the set layout.
Sewer workers find a blocked-off doorway. One leaves to find a new way around while the other breaks open the seal. He pokes his head in the wall and is promptly yanked in. The other worker returns. She gets a look at something in the hole and runs. She gets caught.
We then see a troubled blond woman, Samantha, get delivered to a private sanitarium. There she is forced to fit in. We meet some of the other characters, including the ruthless head doctor, and discover that the rats are free in the building.
All is not quite as it seems. Samantha is actually an undercover reporter trying to report of possibly deteriorating conditions after privatization. People start disappearing and Samantha may have seen something but she was medicated at the time.
The movie gets pretty intense as the rats get bolder and we learn more about their relationship with some of the facility's staff. There is one scene of a disturbed girl who had seen her lover killed by the rats. She knows they are after her and that she has no way of escaping the padded room where she is on suicide watch. As the rats arrive, she manages to bite a wrist sufficiently to commit suicide.
The movie's effect vary somewhat throughout the film. One scene shows rats scurrying toward a door and they look like toys being pulled on strings. the big main rat sometimes looks very real and at other times it looks two-dimensional. But one thing is constant, the rats have glowing red eyes that emit malevolence in every scene.
I will not spoil the twists and surprises but I was somewhat confused during some of the action scenes as to what was basement and what was sewer. I was not sure why the characters could not find a way out. But it's a good film with plenty of atmosphere and some good solid framework.

I've been a fan of Tibor Tacaks since I was a little kid and "The Gate" made me afraid to get off the bed during the night, and at the same time launched the career of Steve Dorff. He went on to direct such classics as "Gate 2" and "I, Madman". Even now, as I reminisce, the ice in my glass popped and I nearly had a heart attack. I can thank Tibor for that scare as well. He even directed the original Sabrina, the Teenage Witch movie and a few (the better and darker) episodes of the show.

On to "Killer Rats"... The title says it all. I had only to see it on the shelf ("Oh, heavens, another killer rat tale.") and then see the director ("All, right! Finally a killer rat tale we can enjoy.") Not since Peter Weller donned a catcher's uniform and demolished his Brownstone with a baseball bat with bear traps attached in "Of Unknown Origin" have I been treated to such a screen masterpiece. I've seen and read them all, guys, I have no shame. "Deadly Eyes" and "The Rats," both loosely based on the James Herbert book (to which he penned two sequels, I know from experience). "The Junkyard" by Barry Porter (The best book of them all, a middle school nightmare factory of rats killing kids in a junkyard. King wishes he dreamed this one up, my twelve-year-old hands shook for an hour after finishing this one.) and "The Visitor" by Chauncey G. Parker, III, the basis for the best rat movie of them all, "Of Unknown Origin," also of interest to Shannon Tweed fans. Disregard Mario Bava's schlockfest "Rats," which contained one good scene that was given away by the VHS box cover. Disregard "Willard" and "Ben" and that horrible Michael Jackson song. Disregard Bert I. Gordon's "Food of the Gods" and its cheap dollhouse sets and gerbils passing for rats, or the inferior sequel "...Part 2" about mutant rats in a lab, wherein the cutest rat dies in a heartwrenching finale... (yeah, right) but I digress.

"Killer Rats", if made in the late '80's or early '90's, would have passed the special effects margin. Remember the great claymation Takacs treated us to in the "Gate" movies and "Madman"? He uses something similar here, in '03, to create the rats. They are cartoonish and clean against a dirty background. The story is about a girl reporter who sneaks (?) into a mental institution and discovers a rat problem that is out of control. She tries to break out with her boyfriend's help, but there are many unforeseen difficulties. Could the experiment be controlled by a doctor who has a telepathic link with a great big cheesy looking mama rat with a taste for blood and a lack of compassion for human life? Could it BE?!! Ron Perlman has a typically over the top role as the director of the hospital, the only name in the whole flick, but we don't care do we, my brothers?

How could we?

Tacaks gave us a killer rat film with a title that didn't try to be artsy, a film that took us back to the dark corners of our childhood for 90 minutes. We can allow cheesy effects and we can allow intentionally (benefit of the doubt) bad acting. We can allow these things because Tacaks is the man who gave the world Steve Dorff and Christa Denton and the Sun Volt rocket that saved the world. Pretend you're young Douglas in a warped Ray Bradbury tale and take the mental trip back to the eighties and slide "Killer Rats" in the DVD player (that we wish we had back then) and think, "If I was in the seventh grade this would have scared my pants off."

It would have. Buy it and see.

Thanks again Tibor.

Killer RatsTHIS IS A GOOD MOVIE TO SEE AND I'M SHOULD YOU WOULD WANT TO BUY THIS FOR THE NEXT HOLLOWEEN PARTY.

D.R.B.

DONALD BUTLER

This movie is proof that I will watch any [thing]they have at the movie store. But, a one liner ironically describes what you will be thinking while and after you watch this plane crash: "This is definately....not good for my sobriety."

A girl is an undercover reporter that moves into a mental ward trying to see if they hurt the mentally ill people, little does she know that the head Psychiatrist and some....dude? Are performing horrible atrocities on rats.

The guy, which I think is the janitor becomes mentally bonded with the big momma rat, saying she "feeds off his thoughts" ... Well anyway the rats become physcho, yes physco they got red eyes and love blood. When your watching the film you wonder if the producers just went over the film with a red highlighter or something, dotting the eyes of the rats. But watch out kiddies, there is a big huge alpha rat thing, which when he comes on screen looks like a cgi smear as it jumps and attacks ... and old women. This whole movie seems aimless, you dont know if they are trying to appeal to 80's horror movie fans with the minimal blood and gore they show or PETA members when they preach about animal cruelty, which is the main motive for why the rats went nuts. Oh yes and another one liner "Time...for a little 1on1 therapy!", ...

The highlight of this film would have to be the crazy girl chewing her arm off for no reason other than she is nuts. Even though the idea of killer rats is far from cliche, Lets be for real here; I mean honestly, who is scared of someone mutating rats into physco rats? Not me, thus takeing away a scary movies lasting appeal giving it nothing to generate fear off of. The climax is as entertaining and anti-clamtic as Archie Bunker takeing a big joe.

But dont fret because a whole lot of monster rats came out a of trash can at the end, leaveing this horrible movie open for what sees to be a even worse sequel.

A sterling example that rat horror movies can't be any good.