The Rats

The opening sequence involves a rat's eye view of things, an upscale department store dressing room, and some nudity as the first victim falls prey to a ferocious nibbler carrying a disease that puts her into a funk for the rest of the film. After that, it's a mystery of sorts as exterminator Vincent Spano, his partner, and a store manager (Madchen Amick) seek to find the nest and destroy the intruders. Naturally, these are not just any old rats, they're the result of experimentation, mutants that even the health department won't touch. These are four legged, furry, perfume loving psycho rats! I thought it was a hoot. I do love animals on a rampage, so I appreciated the idea of an army of rats with bad intentions (one even turns into a peeping Tom rat spy). I even loved the Mosh Pit of rats scene. Fun stuff. It's all pretty cheesy; they weren't trying to make the Citizen Kane of rat movies.

A horror movie that doesn't overuse cgi to deliver the scares because rats can be creepy all by themselves. But this film makes them even more frightening by having them be man eating lab rats. A lot of animal horror movies can be a hit or miss, but this is a awesome one.

I've watched this movie more than once. I've seen it on the big and I've bought and watched the DVD. This is an unusual rat story. The writer surely had an imagination. He got into my mind with the story. The film was well directed and the supervision of the filming was obviously very well done. It was well produced. It is amazing how well they used the man made rats to what they they did in the movie. As a movie buff, this is a must see and own.

A customer at a posh department store is bitten by a rat in a dressing room. As a result, the store fires its current exterminators and hires the best in the city.But the rat is only the start. The store has a big rat problem and it seems to originate outside the store. This is further proved when one of the store managers spots a rat in her home and her daughter is attacked at a recreation center.Slowly we follow the trail of the rats and unravel the mystery behind their origins and attacks.Decent acting and wonderful atmospheric settings help move the story along and keep the viewer neck prickling. Actual rat attacks are slight in number as the story and settings are used to create the rising fear of the rats.I really enjoyed this one except when "the best in the business" baited his trap before setting it for the climactic battle. His competence level had been so high throughout the movie that I found it hard to believe he would intentionally do things backwards. but other than that, this was a surprisingly well-done film.

Rats burping out of vent holes at the pool...priceless.. Wait....I think I see something crawling on the floor. Don't wait up.. May not make it out alive!

A rat-themed movie gets five stars from me when it delivers reasonably accurate depictions of rats and it also presents some new or funny approaches in the story. Only the end is wildly improbable, but is still worth a laugh. Watch the movie, and then think of it the next time you go shopping in a fancy department store, especially the first floor cosmetic and perfumery sections. The human actors do a credible job, and the story itself moves along in a sprightly way.

Came in perfect condition. I've been looking for a DVD copy of this since my VHS copy died 10 years ago.

Lab experiments have created mutant rats. Actually, they look just like regular rats, except they're a little stronger and more aggressive. These rats start attacking people, then a department store executive (Madchen Amick) and a rat exterminator (Vincent Spano) unite to defeat the rats -- and fall in love along the way!Even for a made-for-TV movie, THE RATS's horror content is disappointinly tame. One man gets killed early in the film, then another man gets it 75 minutes into the film, and that's it. That's a pretty low body count.It's hard to count all the mistakes and cliches in this film. Here are some:* Vincent Spano sees rats leaving through a hole into the subway tunnels. He immeadiately rushes into the subway to try and see which way the train went, because he knows Madchen Amick is on the train. HUH? How did he know that she was on that particular train? Or even that the rats would attack it?* When the subway stops, a motorman tells the passengers that they should wait in the train while he inspects the tracks. So an Obnoxious Yuppie complains, "What, you're not gonna leave us in here alone, are you? I don't believe this!" HUH? Who wrote this dialogue? The train stops, you expect the motorman to inspect the problem. Does this Obnoxious Yuppie want the motorman to hold his hand?* When the rats enter the train, the Obnoxious Yuppies starts shooting a gun at the rats. So another man grabs him from behind to stop him. HUH? The yuppie was obnoxious, but he wasn't endangering anyone but the rats, from which everyone was trying to escape. Why would anyone stop him? My guess is that the screenwriter just wrote cliches (an obnoxious yuppie/gun nut must be stopped) without thinking about the context of his own script, or how his characters would behave in that situation.* The subway seems to have only one car, the front car. We never see what happens in the previous cars, and the firemen seem not to rescue anyone from any other car. That's weird.* Lots of opportunities for gore are wasted. A swarm of rats invade a swimming pool full of kids, causing a panicky escape. Good computer effects, but sadly, all the kids escape. C'mon, this is supposed to be a horror film! Let's see some of those brats go under in a pool of blood (as in THE GREAT ALLIGATOR.)* And NO ONE on the train is killed. Not even the Obnoxious Yuppie, who had Classic Horror Victim written all over him. Yeah, that was a surprise, but not a good surprise.* Madchen Amick mentions that the department store has an area (many rooms and floors) that was sealed off because the store stopped using it as a post for store detectives. HUH? Floor space is very expensive in New York City. If a store changes its use for an area, it doesn't seal off the area, it finds a new use for it.* Amick is a single career mom raising a smart and cute little girl. Been there, done that. Again and again.* Naturally, Amick and Spano initially get on each other's nerves, but then fall in love. It seems the movies are full of smart, professional career women who fall for gruff, blue collar macho guys. It happened in SPECIES and THE RELIC, to name two such horror films. I guess the conceit works because it plays into both male and female fantasies. Men fantasize about having macho, non-office jobs, and women fantasize about being successful career women who are swept off their feet by burly brutes.* Two men are covered by rats and quickly chewed to death. But then Madchen Amick falls into a pool full of THOUSANDS of rats, and sinks beneath them until she is completely immersed (much like Sigourney Weaver is immearsed into the alien in ALIEN RESURRECTION). But when Amick is eventually pulled out by Spano -- she is pratically unscathed! No bite marks! Just a few reddish smears which barely look like blood. HUH? How come a few DOZEN rats almost instantly chew two men to death, but THOUSANDS of rats barely graze Amick? I'm guessing the filmmaker didn't want to kill off Amick, but he still wanted that "cool scene" of seeing her immersed under THOUSANDS of rats, so he did both, and simply ignore that she should be dead -- or at least severly disfigured. This is another old horror cliche -- horror heroines are immune from monsters. Consider THE DARK, in which an alien instantly kills everyone he meets, until he meets star Cathy Lee Corsby. Then he merely carries her off, giving the hero time to save her.Still, I'm giving THE RATS a generous three stars.* Although THE RATS is shot in Canada, its "New York" settings are not as obviously Canadian as some other shot-in-Canada "New York" films. ISLAND OF THE DEAD did a worse job of recreating Wall Street in Toronto, and WES CRAVEN PRESENTS THEY was much worse than THE RATS in recreating New York's subways. THE RATS had a 39th Street Station, which does not exist in New York, but at least New York streets ARE numbered. But WES CRAVEN PRESENTS THEY actually had "Victoria Station" on a "New York" subway stop, a dead giveaway that the film was shot in some British influenced country (i.e., Canada).* As a TWIN PEAKS fan, I enjoyed seeing Madchen Amick in THE RATS.* And the computer effects were cool, albeit highly unrealistic. They actually had rats spouting volcano-like out of the sewers, flying into the air.A stupid film, and disappointly tame, but hard core horror fans (especially if they like Amick) should be satisifed if they get a used copy at a good price.

oh absolutely brilliant

scary,i,m glad these rats r only in the movie

Preislich gesehen, mache ich bei DVDs über Amazon immer ein Schnäppchen.Der Film läuft super und ist nach wie vor sehenswert.

good movie arrived on time thanks

Need a DVD from USA import to play this one.