Of Unknown Origin (1983)

This man against rat story can I think be viewed two ways: straight up, as a horror film that will be as scary as the viewer's particular fear of rats makes it; or allegorically, as a driven, ambitious man's battle to maintain control over his life and environment.At the risk of being accused of reading too much into the film, I prefer the second option, not only because it makes a more interesting film, but because I think the film provides a lot of evidence that it wants to be taken this way. Peter Weller is sensational as the New York yuppie with the flawless brownstone that he rehabbed by hand, who begins to feel threatened at work just around the time that an icky little visitor starts wreaking havoc at home. I tend to have a rather obsessive personality, and more than once have let something fairly mundane, like a household project, or a minor physical symptom that I convince myself is cancer, become something that occupies my every waking thought. I thought this film nicely captured that specific mental state, and I could relate to the scenes of Weller poring over books about rats, getting some kind of grim satisfaction out of fueling his obsession. Now it would be the Internet providing the material, but the effect would be the same.The film becomes increasingly surreal, and darkly comic, as the man/rat standoff escalates to the point where Weller goes after it clad in homemade armor with a medieval-looking spear. Weller's performance shouldn't be under-appreciated -- it would take a considerable amount of talent to put over a film like this, and he does it admirably.If you like lots of point of view shots of rats spying on people from their vantage point behind furniture, this movie's for you. And rats have never seemed more disgusting to me than after watching the ones in this film in all their slimy, greasy glory.Grade: A-

Peter Weller makes enough money at his snooty office job to buy a brownstone in New York City, refurbish it, and then furbish it, all on his own. It's beautiful. It's exactly the way he wanted it, except for one thing -- a rat the size of a Scottish wildcat that drives him crazy with its catabolic antics. The reason for its existence, or even the existence itself, is a puzzle that may be called Schroedinger's rat.The beastly thing begins by chewing through the electrical cables and ends up by making a meal of some urgent work Weller has prepared for his job. The maintenance man gives Weller the lowdown on rats. They're cannibals, they bring plague and other diseases, they attack people's genitals, and can chew through a steel I beam. Weller uses mouse traps but the rat outwits him. This rat, by the way, has the IQ of a human being but a psychopathic one.The entire movie is a story of mano a mano combat between Weller and rat. The monster rat can drop or jump to the attack at any time, from any place. Weller is obsessed by his battle with the animal. Its noises keep him awake at night. He loses sleep and dozes off or daydreams at work, endangering his job. (His sympathetic but pragmatic boss is Lawrence Dane, who delivers a fine performance of which the film is unworthy.) The story becomes almost tragic as Weller isolates himself from friends and colleagues who would like to help him. They do what they can even though Weller has never told them that he's having a problem with a mutant rat. He becomes Howard Hughes. He refuses to answer the door or the phone and when an empathic woman from the office shouts to him from the sidewalk, we hear only hear his voice calling down distantly from an upper story, "Leave me alone." Weller's increasing estrangement is the best part of the film because the rest of the story is so ill handled, never missing a cliché. Thus, we hear scuttling noises in the ceiling and the camera takes the rat's point of view as it rushes through pipes and shafts. The musical score is pedestrian. Several shocking scenes presented as real are revealed as Weller's daydreams. The scenes of man/rat combat aren't convincing because there were no CGI's yet, so all we see is Weller screaming and demolishing his house with a weird studded weapon fashioned around a baseball bat. The happy ending comes out of nowhere and leaves all sorts of plot threads dangling. Weller's acting is up to par. His character is credible. We can easily identify with him, except for those moments when he's shrieking and being attacked by a damned rodent.

I saw this in the video store20+ yrs. ago. I like horror films overall. I liked the title, the blurb, and i like Peter Weller's acting. He is not over the top like Shatner or Walken. This movie has really good moments: the shadow on the wall, talking to the exterminator and trying to explain to his friends what is happening to him. I like it because it tries to use old school horror techniques: imply the horror instead of showing everything outright. I think if you allow your imagination to take over you will be really scared. To the point if you hear a sound you will do one of three things: hide under the covers, check the apt./house or call 911.

"Of Unknown Origin" is an interesting item on the resume of the late director George P. Cosmatos. Better known for features such as "Rambo: First Blood Part II", "Cobra", and "Tombstone", he directs this man vs. nature thriller with a sure hand, creating some genuine suspense and some harrowing and disturbing moments. The animal action is first rate, and the shocks done with consummate skill (there's a wonderful jolt involving a toilet). The movie is pretty obvious about its themes - a man running the rat race at work must fight an actual monster rat at home, and must get in touch with his most primitive instincts - but that doesn't mean that they don't still work.The man in question is Wall Street yuppie Bart Hughes (Peter Weller, in his first lead role), who's temporarily left on his own after his wife Meg (scorching hot Shannon Tweed, in the role that officially "introduced" her) and son Peter (Leif Anderson) spend some time with Barts' in-laws. Bart has some important business to attend to at work, but he ends up distracted by the war he must wage with this infernal rodent that's threatening the peacefulness of his exquisitely refurbished brownstone. Just as there are co-workers (played by Kenneth Welsh and Maury Chaykin) who would like to see him take a fall, he's often undermined by the utter craftiness of this beast, who often proves to be a step ahead of him.The movie has a great look, with slick cinematography by Rene Verzier, and it also has an effective music score by Ken Wannberg. Weller is terrific in the lead, and is believable through the characters' whole arc. The exemplary supporting cast consists of such top notch Canadian character actors as Lawrence Dane, Welsh, Louis Del Grande (the guy whose head blew up REAL good in "Scanners"), Keith Knight, Chaykin, and Earl Pennington. Tweed supplies some delectable eye candy early on in a shower scene. Stephan Dupuis handles the makeup effects. The finale, when it comes down to a physical battle between human and rodent, is rousing stuff, with Weller carrying around one very MEAN looking custom made weapon.This is a good little story that does merit another look from dedicated genre fans.Eight out of 10.