A post-apocalyptic adventure with viciously mutated rats munching their way through a gang of nuclear holocaust survivors! It's pretty damn difficult to screw up an easy yet promising horror concept like this, unless of course your name is Bruno Mattei and you're one of Italy's most untalented directors. Our good pal Mattei obviously wanted to cash in on the popularity of John Carpenter's "Escape from NY", like his colleague Sergio Martino did more successfully with "2019: After the Fall of New York", but also add in something extra like angry ravenous rodents! Yeah!! They're not gigantic in size or looking any different from ordinary rats, they just like to feast on human flesh. A group of people, led by what appears to be the only still living member of The Bee Gees, entrench themselves in an old science lab. The place is filled with corpses, yet they decide to stay anyway and learn that the rats in the basement are mean and hungry. Make no mistake, it's a really bad film that doesn't even contain that many gory make-up effects or sleazy sequences as I anticipated. Most of the killings are too dark to see what's happening and Mattei makes absolutely no use of the available set pieces. The music is alright and some of the females are nice to look at, although the lines they speak hurt your ears. Do gather all your courage to remain watching until the last sequences, as the message on the tape recorder is hilarious and the climax-twist needs to be seen in order to be believed.
Review of Rats: Night of Terror
