(Slight, generalized spoilers)
This film can't decide if it's going for psychodrama or boogie-man horror.
The script and Weller's performance are a cut above the usual B-movie fare, and do a surprisingly nice job of conveying Bart's increasing compulsion. Watching Weller's character tilt more and more toward obsession was memorable and unexpected. This film actually reminds me a bit of the Twilight Zone episode, "Nightmare At 20,000 Feet," in which an airplane passenger's behavior goes from normal to extreme. At the end of the film, I was subtly and cleverly left pondering whether Bart had gone permanently over the top or, with his ordeal over, was now free to resume his previously normal behavior.
That side of the man/rat equation is the good part. On the other side, The film tries too hard to make us scared of the rat. I really couldn't go along with Bart on his wild ride because of that one one fatal flaw: it's a rat. It's not a dragon; it's not a worldwide plague; it's not even some sort of space gremlin ripping apart an airplane wing: it's a rat. Sure, it's a big rat. It's a mean rat. It's a very uncharacteristically smart and resourceful rat. But it's still just a rodent. I was a bit skeptical whether his obsessive fears were justified. Unlike with the Twilight Zone script, I'm not confident that this was intentional.
This film can't decide if it's going for psychodrama or boogie-man horror.
The script and Weller's performance are a cut above the usual B-movie fare, and do a surprisingly nice job of conveying Bart's increasing compulsion. Watching Weller's character tilt more and more toward obsession was memorable and unexpected. This film actually reminds me a bit of the Twilight Zone episode, "Nightmare At 20,000 Feet," in which an airplane passenger's behavior goes from normal to extreme. At the end of the film, I was subtly and cleverly left pondering whether Bart had gone permanently over the top or, with his ordeal over, was now free to resume his previously normal behavior.
That side of the man/rat equation is the good part. On the other side, The film tries too hard to make us scared of the rat. I really couldn't go along with Bart on his wild ride because of that one one fatal flaw: it's a rat. It's not a dragon; it's not a worldwide plague; it's not even some sort of space gremlin ripping apart an airplane wing: it's a rat. Sure, it's a big rat. It's a mean rat. It's a very uncharacteristically smart and resourceful rat. But it's still just a rodent. I was a bit skeptical whether his obsessive fears were justified. Unlike with the Twilight Zone script, I'm not confident that this was intentional.