So much average

Just perfect...

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Bruno Mattei. What a guy. Single-handedly responsible for most of the appalling trash to come out of the gutters of Italy's cinematic export, he here lovingly crafts a totally boring, ridiculous, and inept addition to the post-apocalypse genre which takes the usual band of roving bikers, badly-dressed females, and souped-up vehicles and plonks them right into a run-down industrial setting. Unfortunately for our 'heroes', they aren't alone, and soon start getting picked off one by one by some killer rats. The rest of the film consists of them running around the same three locations, setting fire to each other, whilst the special effects guys create some cheap but nasty gore effects for the horror crowd to delight in. Whilst not as incredibly bad (and thus entertaining) as his ZOMBIE CREEPING FLESH, RATS: NIGHT OF TERROR should still be seen by Mattei buffs as a typical example of the director's insane output.The film is as badly dubbed as any to come out of Italy and the script is even more stupid than usual. Imagine somebody setting a film in the years A.B. (After the Bomb) and then clapping themselves on the back for their cleverness. Plus we get more stupid character names – I swear there's a guy named Video, a black girl named Chocolate, and still somebody else called Lucifer. A typical scene in the movie involves a couple having sex in front of the rest of the group. They're asked to leave and split up after a fight. The guy gets into her sleeping bag, which is invaded by rats, and then she's eaten. The guy, drunk, falls into a pit, is smothered in rats and dies. Things like this happen throughout the drawn-out running time with little interest to hold the viewer.I kept trying to spot some redeeming aspect of this film but I couldn't. The idea of rats as a menace is a pretty unnerving one, but as Mattei and friends didn't have the money for effects they ended up using real rats. Shining a torch on a rat in a bid to make it look threatening just doesn't work and these are an even poorer menace than the dressed-up dogs in THE RATS because when required to attack full-force they just run off in different directions. The various rat attacks seemingly involve pouring a load of unfortunate rats on top of the screaming victim, repeated ad infinitum. Being a rodent lover some scenes are distasteful but at least there's nothing as bad as the (real) rat burning in THE HUNCHBACK OF THE MORGUE. The gore effects are plentiful but cheap and shoddy, the highlight being when a rat bursts out of a guy's back like in DEMONS. However Sergio Stivaletti isn't to hand for the effects so instead they just inflate the guy's leather jacket which is pretty dumb – but funny.The dubbing is very bad and there isn't any action to speak of. Everything happens in the dark at night so you can't really see what's happening very clearly, although perhaps this is a blessing. The acting is appalling and there are no likable characters to sympathise with at all. One thing I did like about the film is the simply ludicrous twist ending which has to be one of the most unintentionally funniest out there – unforgettable once you've seen it and definitely worth waiting for. RATS: NIGHT OF TERROR is another toothless menace from mother Italy, a harmless and disappointing exercise in thrills and fear made watchable by sheer incompetence all round. Bad movie buffs should have a field day. Bruno Mattei, take a bow.

A truly remarkable film, some of the other killer animal movies have a setting that isn't far from our own, normal places like a cabin, the beach, a forest, a small town, a city, but this movie goes beyond that, its a Bruno Mattei movie, he wouldn't settle for anything less, this is probably the best killer rat movie and the best post apocalyptic movie too, its fun, the characters are great, very likable with their own unique personality, its every graphic movie, also I would like so say something that not many people talks about, it has to do with a scene were one of the characters gets burned, it was very revolutionary for Italy at the time, before all they would do its just to light someone on fire and that's it, but Mattei decided to improve it, he shot it on a special suit for the actor and shot the scene putting the fire on and off and edited it so it would look like one sequence, for the time in Italy that was great, overall the movie its great fun, go and watch it.

A significant horror genre is Euro-horror. These movies from Spain, France, Italy, Germany and occasionally others are rarely scary, but nevertheless show some REALLY nasty things. Directors in this genre include Antonio Margheriti (to whom Quentin Tarantino briefly paid homage in "Inglourious Basterds"), Dario Argento, Jean Rollin, Jess Franco, and Bruno Mattei.The first Bruno Mattei movie that I've ever seen is "Rats: Notte di terrore" ("Rats: Night of Terror" in English). Set in the years after a nuclear holocaust, it depicts a motorcycle gang riding into an abandoned city, which turns out to be populated by hungry vermin. Woe betide you if you venture into THIS city! "Rats" is a truly cornball movie. But, it was probably intended as such. I have no doubt that its target audience was horny teenagers. The movie delivers exactly what it promises and makes no pretense about what it is. It's gross, but it's still pretty fun. Probably worth seeing just to understand what it is.

This film is so bad, that it's just laughable. It is absolutely terrible compared to most films, but it should definitely not be avoided. Films like this could probably take over the comedy genre.On post-apocalyptic Earth, some human survivors (from the 70's apparently) stupidly claim dominion over a tiny town, where they discover a lot of flesh-eaten corpses. Lo and behold, they discover that the resident rats are hostile, and naturally, people start dying in ridiculous ways.The rats are so nonthreatening, you might wonder if you're partially blind and missing some terrifying special effect. But no fear, this film's most technical special effect is some rat silhouettes on a conveyor belt. The acting is pretty atrocious with hideous overacting and trashy dubbing. The characters are so stupidly idiotic, you wonder how they managed to survive nuclear war while the intelligent people perished. We have the dumbest leader ever (who sets his comrades on fire if they have a few rats on them), an equally stupid guy who decides that he wants charge of the group, a blonde who WILL NOT STOP SCREAMING, a black woman (quite offensively named Chocolate) who threatens to shoot people with a spike, a technical nerd (named Video) who thinks machines have balls, a heroine who falls fatally ill after a few rat scratches (or rats jumping on her basically), a Mohawk-headed guy who speaks in cliché foreboding (which he learned from a book), an ugly pallid drunk who gets annoyed when he can't get laid, a freaky big-eyed girl with a leather studded corset,Halloween Dracula cape and top hat on (UGH!) and (unfortunately) a few other idiots too.Despite this idiocy in the film's plot, characters and premise, the gore effects are relatively decent but the film's general crappiness gives one the feeling of a zombie movie that is missing the zombies. I collect old controversial horror films (mostly Italian horrors) and I've seen some pretty silly stuff, but this film took the biscuit completely out of my hands. The only thing we're left with is the hilarity of the film's events and once you've seen the ending, I wouldn't be surprised if your rectum prolapses from the laughter.Final word: Don't expect a masterpiece, but wallow in the film's sheer stupidity.