Rats : Night of Terror

Release Year : 1984

AKA : Blood Kill, Les Rats de Manhattan, Rats - Notte di Terrore, Rats

Directed By : Bruno Mattei

Written By : Claudio Fragasso, Bruno Mattei

Starring : Geretta Geretta, Massimo Vanni, Ottaviano Dell'Aqua, Jean-Christophe Bretigniere

Related Links : IMDB

It's the year 225AB - after the bomb. Humanity has devastated the earth with nuclear holocaust. Many people now live underground, but disatisfied with the regime there, some have sought life on the surface once more. Heavily armed nomadic scavengers on motorbikes, they seek fun, drunkeness and a new future. Instead, they find man eating rats in this post apocalyptic movie from Bruno Mattei.

Mattei is a past master at knocking out movies on a low budget, some good and some bad, and this one certainly doesn't dissappoint. From a humble beginning which looks like it may turn into a cheap Mad Max clone, it actually develops into an interesting and atmospheric horror as our nomadic survivors struggle to avoid ending up as dinner for the rapacious rodents. Who can blame the rats for being mad though? Not only did we nuke them many years back, now we harass them with brooms and shotguns whilst they are minding their own business. Any critter has a right to be annoyed.

Special effects look good, the corpses and death scenes done well, and despite the low budget this exceeds many of its higher budgeted contemporaries on the gore score. Everything builds up nicely as well, from the finding of a huge store of food, to corpses popping up, to the rats starting to chow down. Church organ style music creates a really spooky air, and many people will find squirming hordes of rats an unnerving enough prospect as it is. There are a few effects let downs though. The big twist at the end, although effective, looks like it was crafted from an old mohair rug someone on set had lying around.

There's hordes of brilliant dialogue in here too. The leader of the group on his followers discovering a body "We must explore this shitty place!". A woman, sounding on the verge of orgasm, at finding some plants "In the cellar...We found strange and wonderful things!". Man getting annoyed by his friends humping "If you must copulate why don't you go outside and do it!". You get the idea, loads of fun lines that will raise a chuckle or two.

It's enjoyable, it's creepy, and it's done on a shoestring. Nuclear war and rampant ravenous rodents have never been so much fun. Well worth laying sinking your incisors into.