Rats: Night of Terror

Rats: Night of Terror (Italian: Rats - Notte di terrore) is a 1984 post-apocalyptic horror film directed by Bruno Mattei and Claudio Fragasso about a biker-gang that find themselves trapped in an abandoned research lab fighting for their lives against hordes of bloodthirsty killer rats.[3]

Rats: Night of Terror
Directed byBruno Mattei
Screenplay by
  • Claudio Fragasso
  • Bruno Mattei[1]
Story byBruno Mattei[2]
Starring
Music byLuigi Ceccarelli[2]
CinematographyFranco Delli Colli[1]
Production
companies
  • Beatrice Film
  • IMP.FX.CI[1]
Release date
  • 1984 (1984)
Running time
96 minutes[2]
Country
  • Italy
  • France[1]

Plot

Set 225 years after a nuclear holocaust in 2015 in the modern day, the survivors are divided between those who live in comfortable underground cities and the "New Primitives" who live in the sunlight. A group of 11 of these people come across a mysterious, abandoned village. Despite the presence of numerous horribly mutilated corpses, the adventurers decide to settle in town after discovering a large amount of food, a greenhouse with various fruit trees and a reservoir of drinking water. The following night hundreds and hundreds of hungry genetically mutated rats are ready to attack them one by one.[4]

In the end, Chocolate and Video are the sole survivors but are surrounded by voracious, contaminated rats. As they contemplate suicide, teams in hazmat suits appear from the sewers, gas all the rats and save the pair. As the pair thank their saviors and remark they are all friends because they are of the same human race, the leader of the rescue team removes his mask, revealing himself to be a humanoid rat.

Cast
  • Ottaviano Dell'Acqua as Kurt
  • Geretta Geretta as Chocolate
  • Massimo Vanni as Taurus
  • Gianni Franco as Video
  • Ann-Gisel Glass as Myrna
  • Cindy Leadbetter as Diana
  • Henry Luciani as Duke
  • Fausto Lombardi as Deus as Tony Lombardo
  • Jean-Christophe Brétigniere as Lucifer as Christoph Bretner
  • Christian Fremont as Noah as Chris Fremont
  • Katharine Troth as Kat
  • Laura Avakian as Laura

Production

Rats: Night of Terror used some of the sets from Sergio Leone's film Once Upon a Time in America.[5] Geretta Geretta took the role after her roommate Dale Wyatt was offered it.[5] Geretta believed it was her second film she did in Italy and she did not speak any Italian.[5][6] Geretta translated her script with a pocket dictionary.[6]

When asked if Claudio Fragasso directed anything of the film, Geretta replied "Hell no" and that "I hear the same crap regarding Dario and Lamberto when we were all on Demons - is that really talented people like Bruno, allow other people to have opinions, chime in, come up with stuff. But Rats is Bruno's film."[6] Geretta continued that Fragasso "had lots of good ideas and Bruno would sort of pull on his chin in silence then if he liked it he'd say "Va bene" and plenty of times he did not say "Va bene"."[6]

Release

Rats: Night of Terror was released in 1984.[5] It was released in Canada with a R rating,[7] after it had been previously submitted and rejected twice.[8]

Rats was released on DVD by Anchor Bay, in their 2005 Fright Pack.[9][10] It was later re-released by Blue Underground in 2007.[11]

Critical reception

Allmovie wrote, "for what it's worth, Rats remains one of Mattei's more watchable efforts."[12]

References

Footnotes
  1. Paul 2005, p. 218.
  2. Muir 2012, p. 374.
  3. https://www.allmovie.com/movie/rats-v40363
  4. John Kenneth Muir. Horror films of the 1980s. McFarland, 2007.
  5. Alexander 2014, p. 28.
  6. Alexander 2014, p. 29.
  7. Shlomo Schwartzberg (March 6, 1987). "Angel Heart gets Restricted rating". Toronto Star. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
  8. Shlomo Schwartzberg (October 10, 1986). "Deadly Friend loses its (exploding) head". Toronto Star. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
  9. "Anchor Bay's latest Fright Pack - Man's Worst Friends". Monsters and Critics. August 28, 2005. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
  10. Par Laurent (1 October 2008). "Rats De Manhattan : Le Z Ultime". Excessif.com. Archived from the original on 31 July 2012. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
  11. "RATS: NIGHT OF TERROR". Blue Underground. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
  12. Robert Firsching. "Rats (1983)". Allmovie. Retrieved 30 June 2012.

Sources
  • Alexander, Chris (2014). "The Rats are Coming...Geretta Geretta is Here!". Delirium. No. 3. Charles Band.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Muir, John Kenneth (2012). Horror Films of the 1980s. McFarland. ISBN 0786455012.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Paul, Louis (2005). Italian Horror Film Directors. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-8749-3.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
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