Rats

this movie was horrific and vulgar!!!! to torture any animal and find it entertaining is inhumane and what is wrong with this planet!!! and to group domesticated, pet rats in the same category is just wrong! it teaches people to hate ALL rats regardless!!! this movie should be banned!!!! In one scene of this movie the scientists were talking about poison resistance with the rats and actually had the nerve to show pet rats not wild ones!!!! there is a huge difference! and people that sick dogs on the poor animals so they can rip them apart is absolutely appalling!! and then the scene where these idiots get paid to go out and kill rats and bash their heads in while the animal is screaming is beyond inhumane!!! this movie was uncalled for and really taught little except intolerance of living, breathing creatures!!

Since the synopsis acknowledged that rats are very misunderstood creatures, I figured this film would attempt to right the many misconceptions about these animals, and educate viewers about their intelligence, community structures, and relationships to humans. Instead this movie glorified all kinds of disgusting torture of these innocent creatures. Absolutely sickening. Rats are sentient, highly intelligent creatures; they take care of their sick and elderly. I had a pet rat, and his intelligence and affection rivaled that of any dog. Why people hate them, I have no idea. Because they want to survive? What if someone was constantly trying to exterminate you for simply trying to keep yourself and your family alive? Vile and barbaric 'documentary' promoting ignorance and animal torture.

Shame on you, Spurlock.

So, this just popped up on Netflix, I was pretty excited thinking this was the Rat film I had been waiting for by the same people who did Black Fish. If you haven't seen Black Fish please do! Now, this film was not the one I had been waiting for at all. Made by Discovery channel I thought it would still be insightful about the animal, instead it's a film glorifying the fear of an animal that already has a horrid reputation in the world. They made the rat into nothing short of a Hollywood monster that's the reason for all the bad in the world. It's plainly disgusting. A simple ploy to make more people afraid of the small mammal and seek out to kill more of them. Discovery channel has turned into nothing short of fear mongering bully.

The cinematography is great. Lots of interesting footage, always something to be watching. But don't be mislead into thinking you're actually going to learn something about rats besides fear mongering we've all heard before. Seriously, they lay on the "mood" HARD. Constant droning and thumping horror movie music playing throughout, stock rat noises playing whenever there's one on screen, flashing still images of a rat's open mouth and "attacking" you. That sort of thing.

I love rats, but that's not why I dislike this movie. I'm not illusioned to the reality of them and I was really looking forward to viewing this documentary. I was hoping for a movie going through the history of rats and the relationships we've had with them as humans, the history of disease, as pets, their biology. I guess overall, I was hoping for something with substance and would leave me with new and interesting information on these largely misunderstood animals. Instead you get a movie that is exactly the opposite of that: encouraging fears and assumptions.

I'm not saying don't be careful of wild rats, but adding a horror score and "shock stills" is completely unnecessary and juvenile. Imagine doing this about say, a documentary about great white sharks or wolves. This helps nothing and only encourages us to be afraid.

I wouldn't mind a rat horror flick, but don't dress it up as substance.

This is by far the best documentary I have seen covering every aspect of vermin infestation. The only thing missing was the issue regarding the groundbreaking debut of Gambian pouched rat all across US.