Killer Rats, aka Rats, not to be confused with The Rats (2002) ups the ante by taking place in a mental institution instead of just “New York,” like most rat films. The ante is also upped by having Ron Perlman in it as a psychiatrist. Is he evil? He is a psychiatrist in a movie who works at a mental institution—of course he’s evil. He even has a moustache.
The institution is for the criminally insane and also kids of the super wealthy who are causing issues and can’t be legally lobotomized anymore. The film follows an investigative journalist who checks herself in under false pretences to unravel the shady dealings of the asylum. What she finds is even more shady than she expected: giant rats.
The rats.. what can be said about the rats in Killer Rats with mere human words? They are mostly CGI. Mostly.
I don’t know if this can be called CGI. They were generated in a computer, supposedly, and they are imagery, but would you consider a screen saver from 1999 CGI? Because these rats look like they are from a screensaver that you downloaded from a screen saver website in 1999 (those existed). There is also a practical effect big ass rat, which is cool, but cheap. I also think they glued red led lights on real rats for eyes, which is less cool.
The main issue the film has is that it’s quite dull. The rats are really the b-plot, while the a-plot is “nobody believes the crazy lady that there are rats but we know she isn’t crazy but a journalist and also we saw the rats.” Compare that with the fun Rats (2002) that was just: there are fucking rats.
The movie is a mixture of Willard, Girl Interrupted, Graveyard Shift, that season of American Horror Story that was set in an Asylum and Gothika without a Linkin Park cover of a The Who song as a theme. It should maybe work but it doesn’t. Maybe because it’s filled with a bunch of monotonous acting that lulls you into a false sense of safety and then BAMM: a flying toaster rat.
