Rat Man — Rat Man( Blu Ray)
Rat Man is a prime slice of late 80’s euro horror cheese which is ridiculous, campy, bad-taste, and at points creepy/ gory- but always highly entertaining. It finds the (then) world's smallest actor Nelson De La Rosa, playing the title character who was meant to be a poisoned clawed monkey-rat crossbreed, who is stalking ‘n’ killing models on a Caribbean island. Here from the fine folks at Cauldron Films is a new Blu-Ray release of the film- featuring a new 4k scan, a commentary track, and a few interviews.
Rat Man ( aka Quella Villa In Fondo Al Parco, Terror House) is from the year 1988 and is an Italian production. The film was helmed by Bari, Puglia, Italy born from Giuliano Carnimeo. He had twenty-eight feature-length credits to name- these took in four Sartana spaghetti westerns from the late 60’s/ early 70’s I Am Sartana, Your Angel of Death, Light the Fuse... Sartana Is Coming, Have a Good Funeral, My Friend... Sartana Will Pay, and Sartana's Here... Trade Your Pistol for a Coffin. He made a giallo The Case of the Bloody Iris ( 1970), a sex comedy My Wife Goes Back To School ( 1981), and Mad-Max rip-off The Exterminators of the Year 3000 (1983).
Rat Man has a neat & trim runtime of one hour and twenty-two minutes, and I have to say I loved every minute of it. As it shifted from the pulpy and ridiculous, onto the bad-taste and illogical, though to the highly camp & cheesy, onto the creepy & gory tipped.
The film's two leads are Fred Williams (David Warner) often shirt-unbuttoned mystery novel writer, and looking for her model sister Terry(Janet Agren). These two try to figure out who or what is attacking/ killing women on a Caribbean island- as the action shifts from shadowy city alleyways, onto by-the-sea & in cave photoshoots soundtracked by vapid synth funk, though to eerier half-abandoned houses.
Joining in the fun we have sweaty and twitchy meant-to-be English mad-doctor Oldman (Pepito Guerra), often finger-pointing/ hopeless inspector( Franklin Dominguez), and of course, we have two foot four Nelson De La Rosa- as our small person killer Mousey- who has dodgy looking stuck on teeth, black claws, and often shakes around gore.
Our killer hides inside wardrobes, behind pictures, in suitcases & bags. We get moments of effectively creepy/eerie atmospheric stalking, as well as unnerving close-up eye twitching & rat/ape-bound chatter. We have a few touches of female nudity and rapid spurting red attacks. Rat Man hints at a sequel, and it is a pity we didn't get one.
This region-free Blu-Ray features a new 4k scan of the film- this is very well-balanced/ even print, with even fairly good nighttime shots. On the extras side, we get a few things first off a commentary with film historians Eugenio Ercolani, Troy Howarth, and Nathaniel Thompson- this is an excellent mix of good research, informed options, and amusing chattiness. They begin by stating that this is certainly not a film that could be made today- for various reasons. Discuss the career of the film's producer Fabrizio De Angelis, and how a lot of the older genre directors worked with him in late 80's. They talk about how the film didn’t get a theatrical release- going straight to VHS, and how the films soundtrack first got released bizarrely joined to Fabio Frizzi's score for Fulci’s The Beyond. They chat about the film's English dub, and some of the recognisable voices who turned in other euro horror fare. They talk about how one of the few Italian genres director Giuliano Carnimeo wouldn’t do was Poliziotteschi- due to his political views. Later on, they talk about the film's effects/ make-up, and who did them. They talk about the careers of both Warner and La Rosa, and other notable films they acted in. And much more- well worth a play track.
Otherwise, on the new extras front, we have the following two on film Lighting the Rat Man (16.25) with cinematographer Roberto Girome. And Framing the Rat Man (17.21) with camera operator Federico Del Zo. We get an archive audio-only interview with post-production consultant Alberto De Martino(6.35)
If you enjoy highly cheesy, camp, and trashy Euro horror Rat Man is most certainly a must. Cauldron Films' new release takes in a bright ‘n’ bold print, and a rewarding selection of extras.