Deadly Eyes (1983)

Over the years, Deadly Eyes has gotten plenty of bad critiques. However, I love the movie, it's a suspenseful laugh-riot and great to watch at a party with friends!Kelly is a health inspector and orders a pile of animal feed to be destroyed after noting that it is a breeding ground for rats. Unknown to her, the steroids within the feed have created rats the size of Great Danes that will soon terrorize the city of Toronto when they run out of food. Meanwhile she meets Paul, a high school teacher who is divorced and has one son. Paul is being stalked by one of his students, Trudy, and he keeps trying to convince her that it's inappropriate for a teacher to date a student but she refuses to listen to reason. Soon the rats begin to invade, dragging away and eating a baby, eating the babysitter as well, biting a kid's hand, eating an old man and living among the sewers of Toronto. (the rats are actually wiener dogs in rat costumes to appear larger, accompanied by a bizarre soundboard that sounds like a trio of old men with indigestion). Paul and Kelly have to stop the rats before they take over Toronto, and the rest of Canada as well.Yes, this movie is cheap, yes, the acting is bad, yes, the soundtrack is lousy and yes the special effects are lame, but come on, this movie is hilarious! I put it on at a Halloween party with my friends, we all loved it! People all-too-quickly forget that horror isn't just about being scary and full of gore, horror can have a comedic side as well. And there was a moment of amazing soundtrack, the song 'Lolita' by Chuck McDermott was excellent and I'd love to find a copy of it somewhere! The acting was generally pretty bad, but Scatman Crothers, the guy from the Stanley Kubrick classic 'the Shining', pulled off an excellent performance.Deadly Eyes deserves a much better rating, it's a hilarious B-movie with an original plot, great to watch at least once in your life.

We've had over sized alligators, flying piranha's, over sized killer ants, blood hungry rot weillers, and so on. Now we've got giant rats really sinking their teeth into their victims, in some quite bloody scenes, one sadly involving a toddler which I thought was a bit too much. This film basically borrows the same plot of Empire Of The Ants, as the cause to how these rats became giant frenzied killers. Hunky science teacher, Groom, the object of one student's (Langois) affections, works with and becomes romantically involved with a health inspector (Botsford) to get to the core of the rat problem. When employee Scatman Crothers tells Botsford he saw a rat about three feet big, she at first, doesn't believe him. It takes his death to instigate her into action. Groom and her share a little their own action off the playing field, in one quite erotic scene, amidst the madness of these killer vermin. Langois is a sight, though. This is how bad her crush is, she actually lets herself into Groom's bedroom, the son mentioning this to him when he comes through the house, where upstairs is a really nice surprise, waiting for him. It's hard to hold back, especially when she bends over in panties and a short shirt. But near the end, her crush subsides as she gets back with her ex, where they make a mistake of going to the movies. Rats isn't anything special. One would say it has a limited quality about it in terms of story where they should of gone more into the history of these killer rats. One feels too it may of spent a little too much time in Groom's romantic life. How's this? Like Langois catches Groom in the boys changerooms naked, Botsford catches Langois and Groom in the bedroom, but still takes Groom's son out to the zoo. Groom, an interesting actor I've found in what little he's done, provides some funny moments, one of the few assets to this well shot average horror.

James Herbert is a great horror writer, and The Rats; the first in a trilogy of rodent-infested horror stories, is surely one of his finest works. However, Herbert seems to suffer from an even more severe case of the same affliction that haunts Stephen King when it comes to movies; and that is that his work never gets the respect that it deserves. Aside from a few character names and the basic central theme, Deadly Eyes has little in common with its source material. The sluggish way that the plot plods out in this film is nothing like the exciting and engrossing way that Herbert wrote the story, and the principal problem here is that it takes far too long to get round to the actual rat attack; and the scenes in-between the horror aren't very interesting. The film focuses on Harris; a gym teacher who teams up with a woman named Kelly from the local health authority when a bunch of rats eat some infected corn and become monsters. It takes a while, but our lead character eventually realises what's going on; and it comes to a head on the subway where the rats have nested.Director Robert Clouse is no stranger to 'when animals attack' films, as he directed the decent 'The Pack' back in the seventies. He seems to not be too bothered about tension and suspense, however, and this is shown throughout as there's a distinct lack of it. We do get treated to some rat attack scenes throughout the film, but nothing too devastating until the ending when the film lets rip as much as the budget would allow. The major problem with the ending is that it's such a missed opportunity! The climax was a real highlight in the book and gave the story more weight than a novel about giant rats had any right to have; but here it's just the standard 'wipe them all out with fire' conclusion. To say this isn't a good film would be a huge understatement, but despite its short comings in just about every department; there's something that is easy to like about this film. Maybe it's the amazingly rubbish acting, or the fact that the rats are simply small dogs dressed up. It's probably best not to think about the book too much and just enjoy the film for what it is; namely, a below average slice of eighties tosh.

I thought I was in for a real treat when I found this on VHS under the title "The Rats" recently. However, cover artwork is usually deceptive in the horror genre and The Rats is no exception. There are a few good scenes scattered about, but not enough to make the film good as a whole, even in a cheesy way. The funniest scene is near the beginning, when a little toddler is sat eating, and the rats invade the kitchen and drag him into the cellar (the dragging is shown off-screen though). The only other scene worthy of note is when the rats attack a cinema full of popcorn munchers. This scene is hilarious, as everyone starts yelping as the rats simultaneously bite their feet. Other scenes with the rats in are mostly shot in darkness so it's too hard to see what's going on. You do occasionally see their noses and whiskers, but that's about it. The ending leaves room for a sequel, and is quite cool. Overall, this may be worth a watch if you can tolerate the boredom of waiting until the rats attack. The Rats will never be a cult classic as it's just not interesting or cheesy enough, but may still be worth a watch if this is your thing.