Let's be realistic.

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Blistering performances.

A disappointingly weak adaptation of James Herbert's nasty novel of the same name, this plodding movie strings together a number of passable action sequences of people being attacked by giant rats with some dull characterisation involving everyday run-of-the-mill characters that it's difficult to care two hoots about. The movie has a cold, clinically detached feel to it which oddly seems to be the case with most horror movies filmed in Canada - check out Cronenberg's early work if you don't believe me. This opinion comes from a big fan of monster movies, too, so be prepared to rate it even lower if you're not a fun of such fare.From the twelve minute (!) pre-credit sequence to the supposedly shocking freeze-frame of a papier-mâché rat "head" lunging at the camera at the end of the film, you won't find much to shock or terrify you with this movie. It may just send you asleep though. While the rat attack sequences are undoubtedly the highlights of the movie and contain some nicely gory touches, most are filmed in too-dark locations to disguise the fact that the oversize rats are simply dogs dressed in rat costumes. I know that the film got a lot of stick for having dogs as the villains, but for me the effect is pretty realistic in long-shot.The increasingly bizarre murders are initiated by a genuinely shocking attack on a young baby, followed by an old man, a professor, a kid in a bowling alley and even patrons of a cinema (showing GAME OF DEATH of all things) getting chewed by the pesky rodents. Events culminate with the rats loose in a subway and a train containing the mayor and guests of an official opening party breaks down and everybody gets bloodily massacred. The film's token hero, his love interest, and child find themselves besieged by the ravenous critters before escaping with the help of a well-timed explosion, and then the film just suddenly freeze-frames at a downbeat moment with no finalisation or epilogue to finish it off. It looks like they ran out of film! The lack of appealing characters really hurts the film too, and makes it difficult to care. Sam Groom, the film's lead, is a good actor but his teacher, while well characterised, is just boring and ordinary and displays little heroic tendencies. The rest of the unknown cast are okay, but nobody really shines with the exception of token star Scatman Crothers, who ends up being just as unlucky as he was in THE SHINING. Even the gore effects, while nicely bloody, are only shown in quick glimpses perhaps to disguise the low budget. I found this to be a watchable film but a distinctly unimpressive one which is already beginning to fade from my memory, despite the fact I only watched it yesterday. I'm sure that in a week's time all I'll have will be a fleeting memory...

Deadly Eyes (1982) * (out of 4) Awful "nature gone wild" film from Canada has a bunch of bad grain being eaten by rats, which turns them into large creatures out for human blood.This film pretty much disappeared from the radar until Shout Factory! released a Special Edition of it. This is pretty much in the same vein as NIGHT OF THE LEPUS, THE FOOD OF THE GODS, EMPIRE OF THE ANTS and countless other films where nature goes after man. This film here probably isn't as well remembered as those movies because it really doesn't feature a familiar cast or at least anyone remembered well today. Another problem is that the film is pretty darn bad from the start and continues that way until the end. Even worse is the fact that the "rats" are actually dogs with rat costumes on them, which will remind some of THE KILLER SHREWS.There are countless problems with this movie but we can start with all the characters. All of them are rather bland, boring and you certainly don't care for any of them. The screenplay really tries to build up the relationship between the teacher (Sam Groom) and a health inspector (Sara Botsford) but it just comes across silly as does a subplot dealing with one of the teacher's students constantly trying to seduce him. Another major problem is that the film certainly isn't scary or intense. The animal attack scenes are all pretty stupid with either silly looking costumes chasing people or really bad looking puppets. There's some gore throughout the picture but none of it is all that memorable.The performances are about the only good thing with both Groom and Botsford at least turning in good work. Both of them are certainly much better than the material and we also get a quick spot by Scatman Crothers. Sadly, everything else is pretty much a bust including the annoying sound effects and the rather silly music score.Look, not many of the films in this genre are actually "good" but thankfully stuff like THE FOOD OF THE GODS is so awful that you can laugh. I found DEADLY EYES awful but sadly there just wasn't any laughs to be had with it.

Over the years, Deadly Eyes has gotten plenty of bad critiques. However, I love the movie, it's a suspenseful laugh-riot and great to watch at a party with friends!Kelly is a health inspector and orders a pile of animal feed to be destroyed after noting that it is a breeding ground for rats. Unknown to her, the steroids within the feed have created rats the size of Great Danes that will soon terrorize the city of Toronto when they run out of food. Meanwhile she meets Paul, a high school teacher who is divorced and has one son. Paul is being stalked by one of his students, Trudy, and he keeps trying to convince her that it's inappropriate for a teacher to date a student but she refuses to listen to reason. Soon the rats begin to invade, dragging away and eating a baby, eating the babysitter as well, biting a kid's hand, eating an old man and living among the sewers of Toronto. (the rats are actually wiener dogs in rat costumes to appear larger, accompanied by a bizarre soundboard that sounds like a trio of old men with indigestion). Paul and Kelly have to stop the rats before they take over Toronto, and the rest of Canada as well.Yes, this movie is cheap, yes, the acting is bad, yes, the soundtrack is lousy and yes the special effects are lame, but come on, this movie is hilarious! I put it on at a Halloween party with my friends, we all loved it! People all-too-quickly forget that horror isn't just about being scary and full of gore, horror can have a comedic side as well. And there was a moment of amazing soundtrack, the song 'Lolita' by Chuck McDermott was excellent and I'd love to find a copy of it somewhere! The acting was generally pretty bad, but Scatman Crothers, the guy from the Stanley Kubrick classic 'the Shining', pulled off an excellent performance.Deadly Eyes deserves a much better rating, it's a hilarious B-movie with an original plot, great to watch at least once in your life.

I thought I was in for a real treat when I found this on VHS under the title "The Rats" recently. However, cover artwork is usually deceptive in the horror genre and The Rats is no exception. There are a few good scenes scattered about, but not enough to make the film good as a whole, even in a cheesy way. The funniest scene is near the beginning, when a little toddler is sat eating, and the rats invade the kitchen and drag him into the cellar (the dragging is shown off-screen though). The only other scene worthy of note is when the rats attack a cinema full of popcorn munchers. This scene is hilarious, as everyone starts yelping as the rats simultaneously bite their feet. Other scenes with the rats in are mostly shot in darkness so it's too hard to see what's going on. You do occasionally see their noses and whiskers, but that's about it. The ending leaves room for a sequel, and is quite cool. Overall, this may be worth a watch if you can tolerate the boredom of waiting until the rats attack. The Rats will never be a cult classic as it's just not interesting or cheesy enough, but may still be worth a watch if this is your thing.