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Post doomsday: Humankind has been pretty much wiped out, safe for a
biker gang led by King (Ottaviano Dell'Aqua) that's roaming the
countryside in search of a certain survival drug - and eventually
the gang hits Manhattan and enters a bar with a science lab and a
greenhouse in the basement (!), and they figure they must be on the right
track. For some reason they don't care in the least that the place is all
rat-infested, and soon enough they put up camp in the place ... however,
before long three of them are killed by the ratsand horribly so, and the
rats have also laid waste to the greenhouse and eaten up the gang's bikes'
tyres.
Our bikers soon have to realize they are on the defensive, and the rats
attack ever fiercer, killing more of them and horribly mutilating Diane
(Cindy Leadbetter), King's girlfriend, but that's not all, there's also
Duke, who questions King's authority and eventually wants to make off with
Myrna (Ann-Gisel Glass) in the gang's tank - which only ends in a big
explosion. Then Diane commits suicide because she thinks the rats need a
human sacrifice (why she thinks that I'm not exactly sure.
Ultimately the rest of the gang fight it out with the rats, a fight
that only two of them survive, Video (Richard Cross) and Chocolat (Geretta
Geretta) when just in time a group of exterminators in protective suits
arrive and gas all the rats. But when the leader of the exterminators
takes off his mask, it turns out he's a rat as well, a human-sized one ...
Need I even mention this is trash science fiction ?
Probably not, but now I did it anyway. Made quite obviously on the
cheap, this one's actually pretty bad: The actors and actresses try to
redefine the word wooden, the dialogue is either blatant, clumsy or silly,
depends which way you look at it, the rats for the most part don't look in
the least bit scary (and that's me saying it who has a mortal fear of
rats)and the ending with the rat-man is nothing short of ridiculous. The
films only raison d'être though seem to be its many gore effects and
ghastly makeup jobs (intentionally ghastly, I feel obliged to add since
this film was made in the 1980's) anyways, and director Bruno Mattei seems
to be the perfect choice for making a film like this: He never let
narrative requirements stand in the way of another gruesome effect, he
never showed much mercy to his characters and never hesitated to kill off
the most likeable characers for the sake of sensationalism (not that his
characters are necesarily particularly likeable, but I think you know what
I mean).
The outcome is, as noted above, pure trash science fiction (I said it
again), but not of the good kind. Still, might be fun to watch with a few
beers and a few mates, just to have a laugh.
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