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I stumbled across "The Rats" in a local video store. Since I was in

the mood for low budget B horror, I took a chance and rented it.

What a wonderful surprise.

Superficially, the film's premise seems to be one of the many

overdone, tired plots we've seen so often. Instead, the viewer is

treated to a well made, well acted film. It is suspenseful and

benefits from good special effects for the rats (animatronics and

CGI, apparently).

The basic storyline concerns a colony of bioengineered rats that

were inadvertently allowed to escape from a defunct lab in New

York City. Years pass and the rats become a massive horde of

aggressive, disease-spreading vermin. After the Health

Department decides to ignore the problem, it is left to an

exterminator (Spano) and a department store operations manager

(Amick) to investigate the problem and deal with it.

Fans of B movie horror should definitely give this a chance. It is far

better than the title or basic premise would suggest.

I had the pleasure to work on this film as the Second Unit Director (I shot all the rat stuff), but never got a chance to see the final product until tonight ,Sept 19 /02. It was fun. It's not The Godfather but i found it well edited and the folks at Core Digital did an excellent job with the water sequence and the rat multiplying. Carls death was great. It just reminded me that the stunt co-ordinator of the film Anton (Ty) Tyakodi was killed in a helicopter accident a couple weeks after we finished shooting. I'll miss him. John, learn how to move the camera and get off the long lenses once in a while. Too bad it was up against Survivor Thailand, no one probably saw it. Thanks to Eric and Robert for the chance to work on it.

It's amazing what you can achieve if you dispose over a bit of professionalism. Even the most routine straight-to-cable production can be worth watching if the acting and directing is a little decent. It was the Fox Network that hired John Lafia (Man's Best Friend) to do the directing and the still yummy Mädchen Amick for the female lead. Vincent Spano (Alive) and Daveigh Chase (The Ring) complete the above average cast. The premise of a giant rat-plague threatening a big city isn't exactly new, but still this film succeeds in bringing a bit of tension and entertainment. Mostly thanks to the excellent underground shooting locations (basements, sewers, subways…) 'the Rats' looks icky and a bit unsettling. The rats naturally are slightly mutated by lab-tests and therefore a lot more aggressive and more difficult to annihilate. The grotesque finale in which a swimming pool is used as a rat-fountain is very over-the-top, yet brightly and well elaborated. Mädchen Amick is a seriously underrated actress and I hope she'll receive some new, bigger acting offers real soon. Vincent Spano is pretty good as well and he clearly enjoys sharing rat-trivia with the viewer. I don't know if all what he said is true (for every inhabitant in NY there are 9 rats?? You can get Weil's disease from a rat-bite??) but it was interesting nevertheless. Recommended!

Not for the weak hearted. Legions of vermin infest a Manhattan department store and causes concern for the city as they escape their underground world. Some very good computer generated effects: watching rats fill up an empty swimming pool will make you squirm. An above average made-for-TV movie and worth watching...if you can stand watching violent rats in rage. The cast includes: Madchen Amick, Vincent Spano, Shawn Michael Howard and Daveigh Chase. Creepy.

Having read James Herbert's The Rats, Lair and Domain years ago, my mind was screaming with the possibilities of seeing these great novels on the silverscreen! So when i saw this title at my local videostore on DVD, i knew the odds were high of the film being very well be corny.. but i wanted to live out my dream, even though the film never actually states that it is based on Herbert's writings in any way.

I was setup for a let-down, but as i watched and watched, this film was actually above B- Grade! To tell you the truth, it is a really top notch flick that i wish had been based off, or had something to do with Herbert's books!!!

I dont know any of the actors, but their performances were pretty solid, and to tell you the truth, the movie fit the horror bill quite well.

I dont want to spoil anything for you, but i for one am glad that i got to this one before the actual 1982 Herbert novel adaptation entitled simply Rats (aka: 'Night Eyes', 'The Rats' or Deadly Eyes'), which im too frightened to watch after reading shocking reviews. I simply dont want to spoil the books.

If you happen to see the title around someplace and are a fan of Herbert's excellent novels, then go for it, i say! For something that i was expecting very little of, its certainly worth a look.