User reviews

In Manhattan, when a client is bitten by a rat in the dressing room of the Garsons Department Store and contracts Weil's disease, the manager Susan Costello (Mädchen Amick) is assigned to hire and give all the necessary support to the best exterminator in New York, Jack Carver (Vincent Spano). The efficient Jack and his assistant Ty (Shawn Michael Howard) find a colony of mutant rats and try to convince the health department administrator and former partner of Jack, Ray Jarrett (David Wolos-Fonteno), how serious the infestation is. But the politician Ray is interested in covering the problem to protect economical interests of powerful groups.

The theme of "The Rats" is absolutely unpleasant, but the way the story is approached in this movie is surprisingly entertaining. The chemistry between Mädchen Amick and Vincent Spano contributes to make this film work. I do not know if there is any veracity in the scary statistic of nine rats per dweller in New York, but if it is true, the reality is scarier than this film. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Ratos em Nova Iorque" ("Rats in New York")

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.

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!

Where I live, this film is available under the title "The Rats" and is very obviously a TV movie - no listing of production companies during the opening credits as well as fade-outs every fifteen minutes or so. Nonetheless, this is a very efficient nature-run-amok horror film, with much stronger gore than I was expecting. Madchen Amick plays Susan Costello, a department store manager who comes to discover that rats are all over the place. She calls in a discreet exterminator (Vincent Spano) to take care of the problem, only to learn that the rats are practically taking over the town, and have voracious appetites to boot. The TV production values prevent anything truly disturbing from happening, but the filmmakers seem to know what they're doing and have some fun with the premise. All in all, a good rent - unless it hits your TV screens first.

While I was watching this I swore I would see a doctor if it was rated more than 3 on IMDb, and indeed it was rated 5.1! At least only around 900 people had rated it but anyway. I must say this movie is really bad even for a horror film. I chose it because it looked funny, and I thought that there would be some fun with all the cute rats. But as usual as in these movies it is all about different stuff than rats. There are lots of scenes that seem to have nothing to do with the plot but are just there for some weird reason. Anyway, the scenes with the rats are not bad, especially because not all of it is CGI, so the effects are actually quite good and credible.

(28%) An honestly not all that bad TV killer rat horror flick that has nothing to really offer but a mildly entertaining, all be it forgettable sit. The cast of unknowns do a decent job and unlike something like Sharknado this doesn't feel the need to add lots of pointless cameos from stars at the lower end of their career. How scary you find this film depends upon your own opinion of how you happen to find rats, but there's not really anything here to get under one's skin as it's all a bit clean and safe. Overall this never drops down too low in the quality department to overly feel like a waste of time, but this still doesn't really need to be seen by anyone bar those slightly drunk during the wee hours of the night.

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.

So according to this movie, rats outnumber humans in NYC nine to one. I accidentally got caught up in this predictable piece of cheese while flipping channels, error. Avoid this if you can. I don't think it's a good sign for a movie when you find yourself pulling for the rats - hoping they eat all the actors ...and the cameraman. Though I will hand it to them, they made me not want to ride a subway ever again. And while I'm sure a 3am viewing of this film would be more creepy-crawly, even the 2pm version was enough to make y'squirm. But why? Why do we need this movie. I guess there's an answer: 30 years ago, they brought in cats to handle the rat problem in my neighborhood (true story), and after this film, I feel I owe the then-mayor a thank-you note. Maybe I'll track him down.

This film has only just come out to rent (December 2002), here in the UK, and I am so glad I rented it. Normally, most certificate 12 horror films are usually awful, but this may well be the only exception to the rule.

Despite only having two well-known stars, in Vincent Spano and Madchen Amick, the film crafts an amazingly gripping and shocking atmosphere - something that is rare for TV movies - that will scare the pants off of you.

The best part is the sheer intensity of the rats, which are surprisingly made up of CGI and animatronic effects. Although looking at the film, they actually appear incredibly realistic, to the point that you really feel for the two leads when they are under attack. The rats are really malevolent, and will freak you out in a big way, especially when they bare their teeth, and start to attack the humans.

What is a superbly creepy horror flick, was only let down by the fact that it wasn't filmed in widescreen, but that is a very minor problem. I would highly recommend this film, as it delivers some excellent scares, and a good standard of acting, not normally found in TV films. The standout moments, are the ending, and the rat attack in the swimming pool, near the start of the film.

Thoroughly nasty, with some neat gore effects, and will do for rats, what "Jaws" did for sharks, and "Arachnophobia" did for spiders! Brilliant! Definitely one of the best horror films in a while! A sleeper hit worth the rental fee!

I'm normally very cautious about renting films whose quality is dubious, especially if they are direct to videos. But I've been doing research lately and, based on positive imdb reviews, decided to check out The Rats (not to be confused with Killer Rats). I must say that this is a movie done with great taste and quality. The story was well thought out and the dialogue wasn't at all cheesy. It also doesn't hurt to have a beautiful leading actress. Good job to FOX for making a great DVD! Recommended is you want a fun but not over the top creature fx.

THE RATS is yet another monster flick detailing a rodent menace, following on from the likes of DEADLY EYES, the two WILLARDs, and plenty more movies made over the years. This has little to recommend it other than an interesting premise that at least has a halfway decent reason for the rat invasion which is taking place in an unfortunate borough of New York City.

What I was pleased about is that THE RATS avoids dodgy CGI for the most part, although it is here in places (that ridiculous climax has to be seen to be believed, for example). There are plenty of genuinely furry critters in sight, although as ever these hold no fear for me; I find them pretty cute in fact.

The weakest part of the production lies in the characterisation, which is non existent and presents stereotypes instead of real people throughout. There's the good-looking hero, the good-looking woman caught up at the centre of the chaos, her imperilled daughter, the boss who refuses to believe there's a problem, the incredulous police force. What follows is entirely predictable, with a little gore here and there to try to keep viewers interested. It's not very good, let's leave it at that.

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.

Stylish Susan Costello (Madchen Amick) is PR at Garvers Department Store in New York City. An unsuspecting customer is bitten by a rat in one of the dressing rooms and develops a serious disease. More sighting of rats at a nearby swimming center, and at Susan's apartment, suggest a plague of the rodents is brewing, and they appear to be overly aggressive too. Jack Carver (Vincent Spano) a suave professional rat exterminator and Susan together try to stem the plague of killer rodents, which extends to the Underground Railway, and finally ends at the swimming pool in a very suspenseful sequence, while the Health Department hope the whole thing will go away, and try to sweep it under the carpet. This is much better than the average thriller TV film thanks to some good special effects, and the general fear most folks have of Rats, especially feral ones in mass. In fact giant spiders ("The Haunting of Toby Jug" "Funnelweb"), rats, and snakes ("Lair of the White Worm" "Anaconda") all figure largely in horror literature. James Herbert wrote about London being invaded by rats in one of his first novels, (The Rats), but in this case the city is New York, and the rats have been mutated into something seriously aggressive, especially in huge numbers. Some possibly true and disturbing facts about the rodents in the city come to light in the script, which is reasonably sane for this type of movie. There are some well designed moments of horror - the janitor ends up in a very nasty situation being eaten alive. The cast have most unpleasant encounters with the little critters, making D. W. Griffith's putting Lillian Gish in a scene with a couple of rats ( in the days of the silent films ) seem like a summer picnic. She (Gish) managed to gain some publicity from the fact she allowed rats to crawl about her at the time. I'm not sure of the almost unknown cast of this feature gained as much notoriety, although perhaps they should considering the number of rats involved. However we are more skeptical today as digital effects can create the most awful situations without the actors being much impaired. Altogether the film will probably increase your phobia for Rats if you have one, and maybe start one if you haven't. Caution - don't watch the movie if you're squeamish.

When Ratatouille came out, parents flocked to pet stores to buy a rat at their kids' request. The problem was that nobody knew how to take care of them. Well at least society now has a more positive image of the rat, something that this little TV movie probably won't provoke.

I had a couple of pet rats myself, so I know personally about some things which movies never get right about them (and this goes for both sewer and pet rats). Biggest goof of all, Rats do not squeal or shriek every second of every minute of every day. The sounds they make on a daily basis are inaudible to the human ear. They only squeak when in distress, and in this movie, it is us humans who are in distress. The Rats offers purely visceral pleasure. If you are in desperate need of some goosebumps, or want to have a contest with two or three friends to see who gets squeamish first, this is the movie for you.

Personally I cannot say I didn't enjoy it, especially the climax. Directed by John Lafia, who made almost unwatchable sequel to the very watchable and memorable Child's Play, and starring Mädchen Amick, who was cute in Sleepwalkers (also not much of a movie). The Rats is yet another creature feature that owes more than a little to the mastermind of Alfred Hitchcock's the Birds. I also saw a little bit of Jaws at times, especially one sequence involving the invasion of a public pool, (Rats are good swimmers actually, it is not as dumb as it may sound.

That say, the movie is not that smart and definitely not inventive, but it does what it is supposed to do, even if that comes at the cost of giving rats a bad name.

I'll be truthful, when I first picked up this movie in the library, I though I would cry myself to sleep because of how horrible it might be, but I digress, it was pretty good. There were some scares; some scenes were you just cringe because its rats but I liked it. It boils down to New York run amok by rats, but these are no ordinary rats, they are, in fact, parasitic disease-spreading rodents that broke out of an abandoned genetics lab.

The movie had some pretty sly humor and the characters were very well played out. The whole concept of rats invading a luxury department store and finding mounds of rat crap all over the place, using a dark light, was the funnies thing I have ever seen in a rodent movie. Some interesting scenes involving massive hordes and tunnels of rats got me pretty uncomfortable, some, like the pool scene, were suggestive considering massive blood loss of kids.

The movie had some pretty snappy comebacks and a humorous relationship between the sophisticated luxury department store owner and the suave discrete exterminator. Their relationship, at points, is hard to look at because of campy level it's on but nonetheless a very good relationship. I liked how the Health Department is trying everything to cover everything up and…..its just a funny, scary movie.

Of course, there is a limit of how much corniness and silliness a movie can have. But despite that factor, this isn't that bad of a movie, the rats are more of a vermin that his movie and I think that any horror fan should at least try this movie. I like it, not loved it, but like it, and I hope other will.

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.

This movie is a gem. It's the twenty dollar bill you find in your pocket at the laundry mat. It's just a neat surprise.

It brought me back to the great, forgotten genre of "B-Movie animals-gone-wrong movies of the '70s". It has a great, suspenseful build, and the characters just felt like they were having a good time. There's this great, easy chemistry between Spano and Ameck that most studio tent-pole movies could never hope to achieve.

And don't even get me started on the swimming pool scene. Jaws kept me out of the water; and this movie is going to keep me out of a swimming pool for a long time to come. Don't miss it.

Rats invade every place in New York...you get a B-movie plot. The beautiful, elegant, sexy Madchen Ammick stars in this cheesy Horror flick for cable.

I won't talk about the plot because there isn't much to tell about it. In fact, I will only comment about the scenes that are worth the watch. The rat attack in the swimming pool is a must see as it's a little but tense moment as the rats almost bite the young Daveigh Chase.

Near the end, when the beautiful Madchen falls and is attacked by thousands of rats really made me worry because I could only think about her beautiful face getting disfigured. To my happiness, she only gets some scratches and is rescued by Spano and other guy.

The rat massacre at the ending is also a must see for the cheese factor. What a cartoonish ending!

This is a must see for people who have a phobia for rats like me. This is what Horror is about, scare and make you feel tense. This low budget movie makes it's job and entertains B-movie consumers for about 90 mins.

Watch "The Rats" for it's intention to entertain and to watch the stunning, incredible Madchen Ammick.