Bart Hughes (Peter Weller) is living the good life in New York City. Prestigious, high-paying job with ample opportunity for advancement? Check. Attractive and supportive spouse? Check. Nice, newly-renovated three-story brownstone? Check. Infestation by large-sized, uncommonly-intelligent, extremely-destructive rodent? Che... Uh... Well life can't always be perfect, can it?
With his wife (Shannon Tweed) and their young son out of town visiting her rich father, Bart has two whole weeks of peace and quiet to immerse himself in work in order to impress his boss (Lawrence Dane) and secure a promotion. One morning he notices his dishwasher has leaked and flooded out the kitchen. A closer look reveals a leaky hose that's been gnawed almost in half. Suspecting either a mouse or rat as the culprit, Bart turns to the building superintendent Clete (Louis Del Grande) for help. Clete tells him about all the various ways he can exterminate the pest ("You trap 'em, you poison 'em, you knock 'em on the head, you gas 'em or you shoot 'em.") but adds that rats are the only animal that can survive atomic bomb blasts. That's encouraging, huh? Bart puts out a bunch of old school wooden traps with cheese bait and goes about his day. Unfortunately, those traps end up easily demolished, and his later attempts to kill it using heavy-duty steel traps and poison also fail.
All the while, the "furry f#?!er" makes Bart's life a living hell. It pops out of a toilet, attacks him when he tries to sleep, kills a stray cat he brings in, leaves black hairs all over the place, eats his food, breaks vases and photos, chews through the electrical wiring, chews through the phone wiring, chews holes in the ceiling and walls, chews up feather pillows and essentially turns his once-immaculate home into a complete dump. It isn't long before Bart is studying articles like "The Rat: Lapdog of the Devil," flipping through photos of bite victims and learning everything there is to know about rats. His obsession with killing the four-legged intruder ends up potentially threatening his job, his marriage and even his sanity, until he decides he's had enough and goes after it with a spiked baseball bat.
Though flawed (it's essentially a one-idea film and grows repetitive and tedious at points), this isn't a bad movie. It's professionally made and directed and features good music, camera-work (including a neat shot inside the box springs of a mattress!) and special effects (a mixture of model rats and close-ups shots of real ones were used). Some of the writing is sharp, including a very amusing scene where Bart spoils a snobby dinner party by discussing some unpleasant facts about rats. Best of all though is Weller himself, who deserves a lot of credit for single-handedly holding the whole thing together, which is important considering his character is the only one of any interest whatsoever. It's also slightly more interesting than your usual 'animal attack' flick because it eschews the cliché every-man lead for a main character who's a not- particularly- likable dissatisfied yuppie control freak who cringes when one character sits on his pristine kitchen counter top. The makers appear to be using the rat metaphorically to represent all that threatens the uptight protagonist's affluent lifestyle by dethroning him as king in his own self-made castle.
As I was watching this, the final segment in George Romero's CREEPSHOW (1982) - which featured E.G. Marshall as a rich old jerk whose spotless apartment is invaded by an army of killer cockroaches - quickly sprung to mind. Both of these tales are black comedies and both feature an upper-class character that has it made being forced to confront how most of the rest of the world lives when their privileged bubble is invaded by an unwelcome intruder. What's interesting is that both stories have completely different resolutions. Not surprisingly, Romero, whose work is typically bleak, opts for the grim finale, while Cosmatos, who'd make the raise-your-flag-and-cheer-on-Stallone-as-he-blows-away-the-bad-guys RAMBO II soon after this, goes for the positive. In other words, by watching both you get to see the same basic story told from two very specific yet completely different perspectives; one condemning and punishing what they perceive to be classism and the other taking a more optimistic stance by suggesting that anyone is capable of positive change given the right catalyst.
With his wife (Shannon Tweed) and their young son out of town visiting her rich father, Bart has two whole weeks of peace and quiet to immerse himself in work in order to impress his boss (Lawrence Dane) and secure a promotion. One morning he notices his dishwasher has leaked and flooded out the kitchen. A closer look reveals a leaky hose that's been gnawed almost in half. Suspecting either a mouse or rat as the culprit, Bart turns to the building superintendent Clete (Louis Del Grande) for help. Clete tells him about all the various ways he can exterminate the pest ("You trap 'em, you poison 'em, you knock 'em on the head, you gas 'em or you shoot 'em.") but adds that rats are the only animal that can survive atomic bomb blasts. That's encouraging, huh? Bart puts out a bunch of old school wooden traps with cheese bait and goes about his day. Unfortunately, those traps end up easily demolished, and his later attempts to kill it using heavy-duty steel traps and poison also fail.
All the while, the "furry f#?!er" makes Bart's life a living hell. It pops out of a toilet, attacks him when he tries to sleep, kills a stray cat he brings in, leaves black hairs all over the place, eats his food, breaks vases and photos, chews through the electrical wiring, chews through the phone wiring, chews holes in the ceiling and walls, chews up feather pillows and essentially turns his once-immaculate home into a complete dump. It isn't long before Bart is studying articles like "The Rat: Lapdog of the Devil," flipping through photos of bite victims and learning everything there is to know about rats. His obsession with killing the four-legged intruder ends up potentially threatening his job, his marriage and even his sanity, until he decides he's had enough and goes after it with a spiked baseball bat.
Though flawed (it's essentially a one-idea film and grows repetitive and tedious at points), this isn't a bad movie. It's professionally made and directed and features good music, camera-work (including a neat shot inside the box springs of a mattress!) and special effects (a mixture of model rats and close-ups shots of real ones were used). Some of the writing is sharp, including a very amusing scene where Bart spoils a snobby dinner party by discussing some unpleasant facts about rats. Best of all though is Weller himself, who deserves a lot of credit for single-handedly holding the whole thing together, which is important considering his character is the only one of any interest whatsoever. It's also slightly more interesting than your usual 'animal attack' flick because it eschews the cliché every-man lead for a main character who's a not- particularly- likable dissatisfied yuppie control freak who cringes when one character sits on his pristine kitchen counter top. The makers appear to be using the rat metaphorically to represent all that threatens the uptight protagonist's affluent lifestyle by dethroning him as king in his own self-made castle.
As I was watching this, the final segment in George Romero's CREEPSHOW (1982) - which featured E.G. Marshall as a rich old jerk whose spotless apartment is invaded by an army of killer cockroaches - quickly sprung to mind. Both of these tales are black comedies and both feature an upper-class character that has it made being forced to confront how most of the rest of the world lives when their privileged bubble is invaded by an unwelcome intruder. What's interesting is that both stories have completely different resolutions. Not surprisingly, Romero, whose work is typically bleak, opts for the grim finale, while Cosmatos, who'd make the raise-your-flag-and-cheer-on-Stallone-as-he-blows-away-the-bad-guys RAMBO II soon after this, goes for the positive. In other words, by watching both you get to see the same basic story told from two very specific yet completely different perspectives; one condemning and punishing what they perceive to be classism and the other taking a more optimistic stance by suggesting that anyone is capable of positive change given the right catalyst.