Crawling from the trashiest depths of the Italian film industry, Giuliano Carnimeo’s RAT MAN (1988) was an attempt by producer Fabrizio De Angelis, and his prolific production company Fulvia Film, to further extend the waning popularity of the Italian horror film. As per the film’s opening narration, the Rat Man was “developed by introducing the sperm of a rat into the ovum of a monkey”, and the resulting hybrid, which even carries a “potent poison” in its teeth and under its nails, wouldn’t seem out of place if it was accompanied by a showman’s pitch or some Carny-style hyperbole. Lurking behind some unnervingly long incisors and enlarged clawed hands, Carnimeo’s film is noteworthy for the sheer lowbrow audacity of casting the late Nelson De La Rosa (1968 – 2006) as the title monster. Measuring a mere 71cm (that’s 2’4” for you yanks) in height, De La Rosa was an inexplicably tiny actor who would later gain a measure of fame when he appeared alongside Marlon Brando in the unmitigated Richard Stanley / John Frankenheimer disaster that was THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU (1996). Filmed entirely in the Dominican Republic from an original story by Dardano Sacchetti (using his usual nom de plume David Parker Jr.), this largely forgotten horror film was resurrected via Cauldron Films’ lavish BD (its first official North American home video release), which finally shows the film on its very best behaviour.
Dr. Olman (Pepito Guerra), an apparently renowned molecular biologist who works in one of filthiest laboratories imaginable, is hoping to present his Rat Man hybridization (whom he refers to as ‘Mousey’) at the next genetics congress, but before he can do so, the aforementioned title creature escapes. When a mutilated body is found during a beachside photo shoot, Marilyn (Eva Grimaldi), Peggy (Luisa Menon) and their photographer Mark (Werner Pochath), who treats everyone with undisguised scorn (“The only thing that he’s got that clicks with me is a shutter!”), decide not to report it because Mark doesn’t “want to be interrogated.” Later that night, Peggy is clawed to death following a lengthy confrontation with a knife-wielding local, a sequence which has more in common with any number of gialli than your typical monster film. When Peggy’s sister Terry (Janet Agren) comes looking for her in this tropical paradise, she is quickly befriended by mystery novelist Fred Williams (David Warbeck), when they inadvertently share a taxi. Despite her initial icy aloofness towards him, the two of them eventually team up and try to find her missing sister as the Rat Man continues to scurry about sinking his teeth into the local populace…
Beginning with an introductory voiceover from Dr. Olman, the script attempts to make some unsubtle allusions to H.G. Wells’ classic novel The Island of Dr. Moreau, and while RAT MAN does reveal some similar themes about humanity’s curious nature, Carnimeo’s film moves several notches below Wells’ text without even a hint of the ethical and philosophical concerns depicted in the book. It’s this seeming laziness and general indifference to the material that ultimately hampers the film, which could have benefitted from a little more creative energy into the fantastical components of the story. At one point, Warbeck’s character Fred Williams casually remarks that as a writer, he is “short on inspiration”, which is perhaps Sacchetti’s own self-referential dig at his one-note script. In an interesting side note, one of the disc’s extra features has veteran director Alberto De Martino discussing his brief involvement with the film as a post-production consultant wherein he points out the “fundamental mistake” of the story’s premise and its non-threatening monster, which you could simply “squish” under your feet. So, at his insistence, it was decided to add the fatal poison to the monster’s genetic make-up, to try and help produce a more sensible scenario. Despite this much-needed tinkering, it still seems, along with the cast and crew, plot and characterization all wandered off to enjoy the pretty tropical scenery, but it’s always fun watching David Warbeck do his earnest if bored-looking best while trying to make sense of things. As the body count begins to rack-up, RAT MAN still musters enough odd touches (e.g., mousey crawling out of a filthy toilet or eerily climbing up a wall) and bursts of energy, including a well-choreographed finale between a frequently-nude Eva Grimaldi and our titular varmint, and is this respect, you can’t help but radiate a modicum of fondness for the entire endeavour.
Never officially released on North American home video, RAT MAN did appear on some video store shelves in the US and Canada via Caribbeam ABC Video (titled THE RAT MAN on the vid box), a dubious Puerto Rican VHS videocassette, which was overly dark and didn’t do the film any favours whatsoever. In 2008, UK-based label Shameless Screen Entertainment unveiled the film’s first DVD release, but it was compiled from a number of sketchy source materials, which were murky, lacked depth, and bordered on unwatchable. Fortunately, it now looks better than ever thanks to Cauldron Films’ new Blu-ray, which features a brand new “4K restoration from the negative” that finally preserves the film’s colour integrity along with tons of previously-obscured details, and while it still lacks the stylish verve of Carnimeo’s earlier Sartana spaghetti westerns, this nicely-detailed HD presentation benefits the film greatly. The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono audio is likewise a massive improvement, which is freed of the hiss and VHS-sourced buzz of Shameless’ DVD; it all sounds remarkably good.
While the film hasn’t lost any of its morbid fascination over the last few decades, Cauldron Films have included a wealth of interesting extra features to try and put everything in perspective beginning with a lively audio commentary from Mondo Digital’s Nathaniel Thompson, and authors Troy Howarth and Eugenio Ercolani. In it, they discuss a wide variety of topics in regards to this “interesting installment of Italian horror” including De La Rosa’s “pop culture lineage” and his great screen presence, independent exploitation mogul Fabrizio De Angelis and how he created a “safe haven” for many aging directors in their twilight years, Mainetti’s “fun electronic score”, a ton of background info on director Carnimeo and DP Roberto Girometti, the simplistic nature of these latter-day genre films, the film’s striking – and very misleading – poster art, the many English voice talent actors, and a very funny quote from director Sergio Martino regarding the inordinate amount of shower scenes in Italian trash films! As usual, the three of them work very well-together discussing the film with equal parts affection and nostalgia (and occasional laughter!) in this thorough and well-researched listen. Good stuff!
Other, no less significant extras include a trio of featurettes from Eugenio Ercolani, which begin with Lighting the Rat Man (16m24s), an on-camera interview with Roberto Girometti wherein he discusses his early career as a camera operator, his brief working relationship with Roberto Rossellini who “embodied the magic of cinema”, and of course, his time working on RAT MAN alongside director Carnimeo and producer De Angelis who was a “bossy” personality and frequently referred to as “The Cobra.” In Framing the Rat Man (17m21s), long-time camera operator and DP Federico Del Zoppo is interviewed and talks about the technical side of his work, but he also indulges in a ton of anecdotes from his time in the Italian film industry, his work on RAT MAN, and his relationship with producer De Angelis working on other horror films such as KILLER CROCODILE (1989). Lastly, in the aforementioned Just a Fin (6m34s), an audio interview with director Alberto De Martino, he casually chats about his time working with Fulvia Film “supervising pictures” such as RAT MAN, his dislike of the horror genre, the difficulty of working with Michael Moriarty on BLOODLINK (1982), and his total dislike of MIAMI GOLEM (a.k.a. MIAMI HORROR, 1985), which he has since disowned. The film’s energetic theatrical trailer (“The body was chewed by rats!”, 2m08s) is also included. The initial 2-disc limited edition pressing also included Stefano Mainetti’s entire score on a separate CD (19 tracks, 36m24s), a double-sided poster, and a nicely-illustrated slipcase with artwork by Justin Coffee, and as of this writing, it’s still available from the Cauldron Films website.
All-in-all RAT MAN falls short of being an Italian horror film classic, but despite its flaws, it’s unusual enough and remains consistently watchable, especially via Cauldron Films’ outstanding Blu-ray. Order it from Cauldron Films or DiabolikDVD.
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