When I rented Robert Kurtzman's The Rage, I relatively knew what I was getting into. The DVD box art and description on the back detailed the plot summary that seemed as familiar to someone like me that watches horror films as a favorite pair of slippers.
A mad scientist infects subjects with a virus that will induce rage. The human experiments go mad and morph into zombie flesh eating monsters. The contamination soon spreads outside of the laboratory when a bunch of vultures start to eat away at the rotting remains of one of the infected turning them into ravenous creatures in search of human prey.
These vultures take the spotlight for a good third of the film as they much and terrorize a group of partiers that are traveling in their RV through a dense forest. Unfortunately, it is also the weakest part of the film thanks to special effects that sometimes look CGI, sometimes look Frank Oz Muppets and sometimes look like a Ray Harryhausen nightmare. As these winged beasts of prey peck, prod and puncture their victims, you will be more prone to snicker than to scare.
When the birds are finally given a peaceful break, the remaining members of the troop find themselves in the abandoned farmhouse/laboratory where these creatures were resurrected. Unlucky for them, there are creatures around every corner (including a midget rage-induced man that I christened Mini-Rage as I poured myself another whiskey) and their survival looks about as bleak as Britney Spears' child custody case.
By the time The Rage finally came to a conclusion, I had sore cheekbones from the amount of times I yawned during the production. The premise was nothing new. The make-up effects looked like they just borrowed the rejects from The Hills Have Eyes 2 and the special effects in total were just plain awful in scenes. Although the film started off very promising with the battle between the scientist and his experiments, the segment was soon overshadowed by the ridiculousness of the dialogue the sixth-rate actors were given to work with. Too bad, for the film had all the elements to make it a better than average DVD pick up. The gore was definitely there with severed heads, intestines and ripped off limbs all being park of the directors Things-To-Do Checklist. But all the gore in the world couldn't save the film from falling into the pitfalls of providing us nothing new or interesting that would have us give the film a higher recommendation.
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