Rats: Night Of Terror (1984)

Although starting off feeling like a hundred other Italian post-apocalyptic movies, Rats: Night Of Terror quickly settles in to being the enjoyably daffy creature feature you should be expecting after the first few scenes. It delivers the rats, both real and obviously fake, and it delivers some fun gore gags.

Set in a year after the big bomb has gone off, things start with a group of 11 roving survivors discovering an abandoned area that they think could make a good base. There seems to be some food, some decent resources, and maybe even some decent drinking water. There are also a lot of rats. And the rats don't want these interlopers around, unless they can be turned into rather snacks. So the battle begins.

From director Bruno Mattei, this is a film that may not please animal lovers (because you know a number of rats were very likely harmed during the making of this), but will certainly please those who love entertaining schlock. The screenplay, by Claudio Fragasso and Hervé Piccini, actually does a decent job, in terms of setting up the various characters and planting the seeds of ideas that all come to fruition in the second half. It's not so decent when it comes to conversation and arguments, making the middle section a bit of a slog at times, but I have suffered through numerous Italian shockers from this time that had much weaker screenplays leading to much less satisfying payoffs.

And then there's that final scene, which is as demented as it is quite brilliant. A classic moment that, once seen, will never be forgotten. Part of me wants to just detail it here, and part of me wants everyone to watch the movie as soon as possible, if only to enjoy that one moment.

Geretta Geretta stars as Chocolate, one of the female gang members, and you also get main roles for Gianni Franco, Ottaviano Dell'acqua, Massimo Vanni, and more (often listed under different names, depending on which print you see). Nobody is a true great, although I have a soft spot for Geretta (thanks to her most memorable turn as Rosemary in Demons), but they all react with suitable - maybe even too much - panic as the rats become more and more dangerous to them.

If you're in the right mood for this, and I think you know what mood that is, then Rats: Night Of Terror is a very entertaining bit of hokum. If you don't think you'll ever be in the right mood for it then, well, look on in bewilderment as other genre fans discover, and enjoy, it.

6/10

You may be able to order the movie here.

Burial Ground: The Nights Of Terror (1981)

Burial Ground: The Nights Of Terror is a surprisingly enjoyable and atmospheric horror movie that suffers from a lot of bad (over-)acting and the presence of THIS guy

playing one of the creepiest "children" that I've ever seen onscreen. That's probably due to the fact that he was a midget already in his mid-20s when he portrayed young Michael, a boy who dotes on his mother a little too much. But more on that later.

The plot is simplicity itself as a bunch of people arrive at a villa and start to encounter some zombies. It's all the fault of a professor, he managed to wake them up moments before becoming their first victim. That's all you need to know. The characters onscreen aren't all that well fleshed out or even interesting but they're there and they're in peril and that's all that's needed.

Directed by Andrea Bianchi and written by Piero Regnoli, Burial Ground: The Nights Of Terror has enough gore to appease fans of blood and viscera and plenty of atmosphere despite the many flaws. The zombies aren't the best I've ever seen but they're grimy and maggot-strewn and when heads are damaged the makers of the movie have gone for an interesting way of depicting the trauma, it's done in the style of shattering ceramic as opposed to bloody mush. There's some blood and mush on display but the shattering of each dried corpse head is a nice little touch that helps make the movie memorable.

The other thing making the movie memorable is the very strange and incestuous relationship depicted between young Michael (Peter Bark, pictured above) and his mother, Evelyn (Mariangela Giordano). The film hits all of the usual beats, in many ways, and shuffles from one zombie moment to another and then takes a massive swerve when Michael finds himself being offered comfort by his mother and trying to exploit the situation in a very Oedipal way. It's probably the most disturbing part of the whole film and certainly made Peter Bark an actor held with warped affection in the schlock-loving hearts of many genre fans.

Mind you, at least Bark and Giordano make an impression, which is more than can be said for the rest of the cast. It's not entirely their fault, they are ill-served by weak material that sometimes feels like it's going to veer into softcore porn territory before it gets back on track with yet another zombie appearance. The acting is bad, the script is weak and the film isn't one to recommend to anyone who wants a wholly satisfying movie experience. Thankfully, there are some positive aspects (mainly that atmosphere and the special effects here and there) to make it worth viewing at least once and I'd certainly advise fans of zombie movies to at least make up their own minds about it.

5/10

http://www.amazon.com/Burial-Ground-The-Nights-Terror/dp/B000063K1F/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1350749640&sr=8-1&keywords=burial+grounds+nights+of+terror