New York is in panic as virus-stricken rats from down in the sewers are infecting human beings and turning them into human-rat hybrid zombie-like creatures with a taste for killing. Our protagonists are the inhabitants of a crummy apartment block. The most prominent characters are ex-boxer Nick Damici, his scarred Iraq veteran daughter Kim Blair, who is on her way to see her dad when the outbreak starts. There’s also a single mum, and a drag queen amongst the character mix.
Look, I really want to love modern horror films, but geez filmmakers are making it hard to do so these days. This horror outing from co-writer/director Jim Mickle is proof that it is possible for a film about rat people to be completely boring and uninvolving. This is thanks mostly to an unoriginal plot, and uninteresting and underdeveloped characters. The crummy, rundown-looking location (apparently it’s set in Manhattan, which I always thought of as up-market, but then I’m not American) was fairly interesting and unique (“REC” and “Quarantine” are the only other films with similar settings that I can recall), but the film takes forever to get…not very far. The rat people thing sounded great on paper, but it turns out to be just another zombie rage virus movie, but with zombie rats. And boring people whom I never had any interest or investment in whatsoever, making it impossible to care how it all turns out. One character witnessing their zombified mother’s neck getting snapped might’ve been a heart-tugging moment, if only I gave a zombie rat’s behind.
That said, when the human-rat zombies do turn up, I liked them a lot, even though they looked more like “Nosferatu” than rats. Early on the film also has a bit of a low-key George Romero uneasiness to it, but the awful pacing (i.e. There is no sense of urgency that you would normally equate with such a terrifying situation) and dud characters make that small effort all for nought. There’s also a good ‘Boo!’ scare where the sound completely drops out. So many horror films screw that up by rushing it, or offering a clichéd ‘false scare’ before the real one. I hate that, so I was glad this film didn’t go there. Speaking of cliché, though, the film is horribly photographed, as is becoming the distressing norm these days. I mean, since when have underground sewers come with green lighting fixtures? And why do scenes above ground have the same hue? Were green lights going cheap or something? I hate colour filters/gels, as you’re all getting tired of hearing (hey, I’m tired of typing it!), as they’re mostly just unnecessary artifice. And whenever you use them in scenes that are already poorly lit the action is rendered incoherent. If the film were meant to be pitch dark, that would be one thing (it’s a very effective terror tool not used nearly often enough), but if it’s clear that we’re meant to be able to see something (even in a night-time scene) and I’m not seeing it, that’s shoddy cinematography. The hyper-editing (a staple of zombie rage virus flicks) is also beyond annoying, though it probably helps hide budget constraints in this case.
OVERALL SUMMARY
Overall this film is better than “The Signal” (a slightly similar rage virus film), but so is a hernia operation. With dull characters and a has-been plot (I’m beyond sick of zombie rage viruses), I just didn’t care about this. It also lacks a sense of humour for something so inherently silly.
