He’s the critter from the shitter! Science has created another monster, this time it’s a half monkey, half rat, pint sized aberration known as the Ratman. The little fella manages to break free and with nothing stopping him, starts chowing down on the local population, with a particular taste for good looking models it would seem. It’s up to two newly arrived folks, Fred and Terry, to discover the mystery of what’s going on and hopefully find Terry’s sister in the process.
Ratman is a real guilty pleasure kind of movie, it’s a lot of fun even though it’s not really that good. Nelson De La Rosa is superb as Ratman and even though he has no lines he does convey the menacing, devious aspects of his character well. In terms of quality acting, i guess it ends there. David Warbeck and Janet Agren both star in this flick but they’re not really that good, truth be told. Decent enough to be passable but certainly nothing else. Most of the other actors in the movie fall into this category as well… Just passable.
Being an old 80’s Italian flick, Ratman isn’t short on gore. I suppose by modern standards it could be considered mild, but for it’s time the gore scenes are pretty good. We get to see ratty tearing chunks outta peoples necks, legs, chest, you name it. Scares wise, there are a few genuine nerve jangler moments but it’s really the suspense and dread that Ratman does best. There are a few scenes where we know he’s there but you just can’t be sure where exactly, which makes for a tense watch.
Some of the locales in Ratman are gorgeous and even if you can’t appreciate the horror or the good looking, naked chicks in this flick, then you should be able to appreciate the scenery.
So to wind up, Ratman may not be the best thing to hit the horror genre, but it is a fun, schlocky adventure with a little dude that is just freaky as hell. i would recommend trying to get the apprehensive or shameless DVDs of this movie since they are uncut, even though the image quality is nothing exceptional, they are certainly watchable.
Movie Details
Director: Anthony Ascot
Writer: David Parker Jr
Actors: Janet Agren, David Warbeck, Werner Pocath, Luisa Menon
AKA: Quella villa in fondo al parco, Terror House
Release Year: 1988