Watched October 27, 2023
1982
Starring: Sam Groom, Sara Botsford, Scatman Crothers, Lisa Langlois
Director: Robert Clouse
The internet tricked me, saying this movie was available on all streaming services, that is not correct. Shout/Scream Factory did a Blu-ray release but due to lack of planning we watched a file entitled 'my edit' from a random user on YouTube that was so compressed that a good amount of details were lost, oh well. Check out the Blu-ray, the trailer looked great.
Kelly Leonard (Sarah Botsford) the health inspector goes to a grainery with George Foskins (Scatman Crothers). The grain has been contaminated with steroids so George torches the grain.
High school students are on a field trip where they are listening to a lecture about rats from Dr. Louis Spencer (Cec Linder.) Trudy (Lisa Langlois) talks to her friend about being over her boyfriend because she's in love with their teacher Mr. Paul Harris (Sam Groom.) They all take the bus back to school and Trudy hits on Mr. Harris hard.
Meanwhile, by torching the grainery the gigantic steroid fed rats now have to look for a new food source and their first pick is people!
Mr. Harris is also the basketball coach. Right after basketball practice, Trudy surprises Mr. Harris in the locker room and
kisses him but he's not interested. The rest of the kids head to one kid house to hang out. While leaving, one teen gets bit outside in the snow. They come back to the school to get help from Mr. Harris who helps them get to the hospital.
At the hospital the doctors say it looks like a rat bite, but a very large rat bite. Here is where Mr. Harris meets Kelly Leonard (Sarah Botsford) the health inspector from the beginning.
At the teen party (kinda) I mean after school hang out. The host girl is making out with a dude in one of the bedrooms but her baby sister cries so she has to get in and puts her in a high chair in the kitchen. It's dark outside but it's also winter so it could be 4pm. The rest of the kids leave the party, the girl goes to get the baby sister out of the high chair but all she sees is blood. She follows the blood trail down to the basement, but all she finds on the baby sister is a bloody onesie! She is then also attacked by the rats, no one mentions her again.
Mr. Harris is a divorced dad sharing custody of his kid. At the park, Mr. Harris runs into Kelly while she is jogging and he's playing with his kid. His kid plays hide and seek, hides in a tunnel and is almost rat food, but Mr. Harris gets him in time and nevers sees the rat.
George goes to check out something in some tunnels, potential rat stuff and is eaten by rats.
Kelly gets Mr. Harris's number out of the phone book. There's a whole beautiful scene of him trying to figure out how to cook a hungry man dinner for one, luckily Kelly calls and they go out. They got back to her place and have some fairly graphic sex with nipple kissing. In the morning, she gets a call about George and takes Mr. Harris with her to the scene. George is barely recognizable when they find his body. Mr. Harris recommends the rat expert, Dr. Spencer who explains the rats will eat everyone unless they're trapped and poisoned.
Mr. Harris and his son are invited to the Mayor's new train line opening. Harris and his son are at home getting ready. Mr. Harris goes to change and finds Trudy in his bed in nothing but a slip. He's half dressed because he was getting ready for the opening but then Kelly comes to get them. Kelly assumes that Paul is sleeping with Trudy, she takes the son to the subway opening anyway and leaves Mr. Harris alone.
The teens all go to the movies. The brunette is waiting for Skip, the boy she likes but he works at the bowling alley and can't get off his shift. He goes to clean out some stuff in the pin reset area and is attacked by rats. The rats attack the theater, the waiting brunette teen doesn't get attacked at first but then is pushed out of a window as the crowd rushes out. Trudy is also crushed to death.
The Mayor and Kelly and a bunch of kids get on the train but then it's stopped because the rats have chewed through the cables. The party is awaiting their arrival so the Mayor is pissed it's going so poorly. Eventually they get off the stopped train car to walk to the station where the big party is happening. Mr. Harris makes it to the party but the train car hasn't arrived and he tries to warn them about the rats. The train does arrive and inside the rats are eating everyone. Mr. Harris and son and health inspector make it out alive.
Highlights: dead baby in the first 20 minutes and they never check on that family again. All the teens die, which is satisfying. Sex scenes are too nipply for my taste. We also see two difference shower scenes with Mr. Harris, it's a lot. I love the freezing cold Toronto vibes, especially with the kids playing in the snowy park.Mr. Harris trying to figure out how to make a frozen meal for one is wonderful. But choosing to watch a terrible upload on YouTube made it so dark during the big scenes we couldn't even see that the rats are dogs in costumes.
