Rats: Night of Terror

Sunday, December 30, 2007

OK, this is a little more what I think I had in mind for our movie festival. This is one of them low budget, late 70s/early 80s italian horror/exploitation films I am so damn fond of, complete with graphic violence, bad writing, worse dubbing, and full frontal female nudity.

Well, this isn't a great one by any means. It's no Demons, that's for sure. Hell, it ain't even a Nightmare City in terms of quality. It's too fucking slow in the middle, not quite violent enough, and it lacks the requisite amount of accidental comedy.

Still, I'm gonna need to check out something else by this Bruno Mattei fellow, because I can sense that he has "the touch." There are enough moments here in Rats: Night of Terror that I suspect this guy makes good-bad sleazoid horror films, and hopefully not the boring or pervy kind.

I think Andy and I knew this wasn't going to a complete waste of time when the movie started with a text crawl. See, we figured this one was going to be a pretty simple horny teens running afoul of evil rats scenrio. Not content with that simple bullshit, Mattei and co. open by letting us know that this takes place in a post-apocalyptic world, 225 years A.B. (after the bomb). And instead of horny teens, it's a horny, post-apocalyptic roving motorcycle gang. Running afoul of evil rats. Nice.

So, like I said, no classic, but there are moments. Like when one unfortunate girl gets a rat up the pussy. Youch! And not only that, but then it comes out her mouth... that's the kind of extra effort I'm looking for in these kinds of shitty movies.

Then there is a completely ridiculous, hilarious twist ending that is so fucking silly that I think it reaches some kind of level of genius. You see, the opening text explains that most of earth's inhabitants live underground, and that they hate the ones that live above and consider them savages. So at the end, the 2 survivoring bikers are saved by a bunch of dudes in gas masks who gas all the rats to death. These obviously must be the people who live under the earth. Only when they take off the masks... OMG they are giant people sized rats!!!!!!

This sounds reatrded, and it is. But but but... I started wondering why the giant rats were killing the other rats instead of the humans. Then I remembered the opening text. These giant rats are the underground dwellers mentioned in the beginning, and it's the above ground rats that they hate and think are savages, not the humans.

That they actually set this ridiculous twist up in the opening I think earns some kind of special B-movie medal for Best Worst Thinking Outside the Box-type Extra Effort in a Horror Film award. Go for the gold!

In conclusion, this is not one I will likely watch again. But I'm thinking of checking out more by Bruno Mattei, maybe Hell of the Living Dead. I get the feeling he's got a classic awesome shitty movie somewhere in his filmography.