World Rat Day, which falls on the Fourth of April, hopes to dispel the myths surrounding these common and misunderstood rodents. Meanwhile, John Lafia’s The Rats does the exact opposite — it’s designed to exploit our fear and discomfort. And that it does in every inch of its tawdry yet satisfying story of extreme infestation. […]
Image: Mädchen Amick, Vincent Spano and Shawn Michael Howard are on the hunt for rats.
The Rats, which may or may not be loosely based on James Herbert’s homonymous novel, plays out like any Jaws imitator would. The approaching threat poses a risk to business, and anyone in the know seeks discretion. Even after that nibbled customer from earlier winds up in the hospital with a life-threatening case of Weil’s disease, the epicenter of the growing menace refuses to shut down. The decision to not alert the masses and close up shop in the meantime is comparatively more egregious, considering the pestilence factor here.
Unlike a man-eating shark that’s limited to water and dependent on foolish or uninformed swimmers, the rats can go anywhere they please. The movie takes advantage of this fact by setting up set-pieces that everyone can relate to, whether or not they live in a big city. The public swimming pool that Susan and her daughter Amy (Daveigh Chase) use, along with the city transportation they take every day, is soon under siege from the story’s voracious namesakes. The pool attack never reaches the high of the one found in another low bow of rodent horror, the grosser Gnaw II: Food of the Gods, but in this movie, it happens sooner than later and serves as a ringing alarm bell for fence-sitter Susan.
Until Amick’s character can compromise her occupational loyalty without any wavering, that striving to do the right thing is bestowed upon Vincent Spano’s Jack. Not being your typical-looking pest control guy — the movie conveys that stereotype with Susan’s landlord and the story’s second victim (Joe Pingue) — this handsome and New York-bred exterminator is exactly what the upper crust prefers in their rat catchers. The plain-clothes Jack Carver, a walking encyclopedia for rats, stresses the urgency of the problem at hand while also filling in the holes of Susan’s conscience. There’s an outer shell to Amick’s part that requires some figurative chewing to expose her decency. As much as she struggles with it, Susan’s boss’ managerial style has rubbed off and clouded her obligations.
Image: Mädchen Amick and Daveigh Chase avoid more rats than usual on the subway.
All is not lost: Susan warms up to not only us the audience but also Jack, whose allures are hard to resist as the pair crawls through dark, dank and tight spaces, or they investigate the origin of these ultimately not-so-common critters. The movie can’t just let rats be rats; the vicious varmints are the result of underground lab experiments that might have made them physically stronger. For the sake of maintaining some shred of plausibility, The Rats doesn’t dwell on this tropey and mad science-ridden explanation, although there is a connect-the-dots revelation that involves perfume as a sort of aromatic lure. “Ratnip,” if you will.
Taking a cue from Mimic, the movie does the most New Yorkish thing it could possibly do; the rats bombard a stranded subway car full of unsuspecting passengers, including Susan and her daughter. The supposed tameness of this flick temporarily fades here as a man is shown being eaten alive in gory detail. In hindsight, the digital wizardry for this ambush and the eventful conclusion is competent enough for something of this pedigree and time, and to a certain extent, the low-res and drab presentation helps hide flaws. The sheer number of rats on display has the reverse effect of showing the monster too much in another movie — that multitude is intensifying, not desensitizing, and lends itself to shuddersome spectacle. Spano rescuing Amick from a dense sea of writhing rats, before they’re set to be executed en masse, is a fun sight to behold.
Big network-produced, genrefied movies of the week are virtually extinct nowadays, so to see one from way back when going out on such a ridiculous note is stirring. The Rats is indeed a low obscurity from an era of when TV was more inclined to be just TV, but in this instance, that’s a good thing.
Image: Mädchen Amick, Vincent Spano and Shawn Michael Howard are still looking for those rats.
