based on the story by Bram Stoker
directed by Dan Golden
Starring Adrienne Barbeau, Maria Ford and Kevin Alber
VHS, 77 min.
Rated R
1995
Concorde - New Horizons Corp. and Mosfilm(!)
ASIN: 6304040091
This movie was a big disappointment. It wasn't scary, it wasn't funny, it wasn't particularly ratty and it was pretty dumb. It seemed as if they needed an excuse to use a small amount of cheap leather costume material left over from another film. Or else someone involved in the production (from Mosfilm, perhaps?) had a thing about big, tough blondes in black leather bikinis. I was hopeful after the first few scenes, but it got worse -- much worse.
The story revolves around a group of outcast women who are united in their hatred of men and love of rats. They take orders from the self-styled Queen of Vermin (Adrienne Barbeau) a.k.a. "the Pied Piper's twisted sister". This theme of women and their rats is a terrific one that isn't often explored in the movies, but I know most women who own rats have a much better dress sense! Plus these so-called rat women aren't exactly all that nice to their pets. In the beginning there is one very cute scene where the rats dance around the feet of the queen while she plays the flute (the Pied Piper theme again). Unfortunately, immediately following that, one of the rats is caught dancing out of step and is guillotined in front of the others to teach them a lesson. That and the unnecessary partial nudity in this scene and others left me with a feeling of dislike for this movie, which continued to grow the more I watched.
The plot can be summed up fairly quickly. After kidnapping the hero, Bram Stoker (Kevin Alber), and deciding to keep him alive as amusement and so he can make them famous by writing about their exploits, the rat women begin rampaging around the local countryside. Aided by their team of trained attack rats, they raid a church and a brothel before running into trouble with the male powers-that-be. Bram's love interest, Madeline (Maria Ford), gets captured by the local constabulary and the rat women set out to try to put things right. I don't want to spoil the somewhat violent and sappy end too much, but the Vermin Queen does get paid back for her previous rudeness to ratties. She breaks her flute and, um, turns to strawberry jam, and well, you know how much ratties love jam! (Did I say that the special effects are a bit hokey, too?)
 |
Go To Page: 1 2
