The hour of the rat
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The hour of the rat |
| Original title | Food of the Gods II |
| Country of production | Canada |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1989 |
| length | 86 (79) minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 18 (16) |
| Rod | |
| Director | Damian Lee |
| script | Richard Bennett |
| production |
Andras Hamori Bob Misiorowski (as Robert Misiorowski) Damian Lee David Mitchell , |
| music |
Steve W. Parsons (as Steve Parsons) Dennis Haines |
| camera |
Richard Bennett Mike Werb (as E. Kim Brewster) |
| cut | David Mitchell |
| occupation | |
| |
The hour of the rat (alternatively also attack of the killer rats ) (original title: Food of the Gods II , alternatively Gnaw: Food of the Gods II ) is a Canadian horror film from 1988, which was released in the USA on May 19, 1989 had its premiere. It was released in German cinemas on August 3, 1989. Directed by Damian Lee and written by Richard Bennett . The film is loosely based on the novel by HG Wells The Giants are Coming! (Original title: The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth). The German-language premiere took place on August 3, 1989. The hour of the rat is an independent continuation of the film Die Insel der Ungeheuer from 1976.
action
The film begins with a demonstration against animal testing in front of a university under the leadership of the student Mark. The arriving professor Edmund Delhurst waves off his animal experiments with the fact that in his opinion at least two of the demonstrators present will die of cancer within the next ten years and that he wants to reduce these numbers. However, his opinion is received very critically by the demonstrators.
In the university laboratory, the scientist Dr. Neil Hamilton and his assistant Joshua were studying growth genes in plants when he received a call from Dr. Kate Travis reached. Shortly thereafter, Hamilton leaves and gives Joshua his white rat. Dr. Hamilton's relationship with the tame white rat is very intense. He can lure them with a flute so that it crawls up over his arm onto his shoulder.
Dr. Travis receives Dr. Hamilton in a remote house, where she made a failed experiment with growth hormones with the adolescent Bobby because he had stunted growth. Bobby has already mutated to a considerable size and has also become more aggressive. Dr. Travis hopes in Dr. Hamilton to find help because she doesn't know what to do. Hamilton lets himself be persuaded to look for a serum. Meanwhile, Professor Delhurst and his assistant Brett fail to conduct cancer research on a monkey. Since the demonstrators are not satisfied with the demonstration and want to get additional evidence, they break into the Delhurst laboratory that night and meet some animals that are still alive and have already been subjected to terrible experiments. Mark tells the demonstrators to destroy the laboratory in order to stop the research for the time being. Dean Dean White, along with Professor Delhurst, is not enthusiastic about the vandalism. They quote the alleged perpetrators in the office the next morning. Despite warnings from the dean, Mark pretends to be ignorant.
Professor Delhurst visits Dr. Hamilton in his laboratory. Because of his own destroyed laboratory, he hopes to get help from Hamilton, but the latter refuses.
After feverish research, Hamilton finds progress to get closer to the cure for Bobby. He first tests the formula on a tomato plant. In just a few hours after the injection of the serum, it grows to a considerable size. His assistant sees the formula as "a gift from the gods," while Hamilton is more after an antidote. When the assistant makes the suggestion to carry out further tests with laboratory rats, Hamilton disagrees massively. A short time later, Alex arrives at Dr. Hamilton's lab over. They love each other. However, Hamilton knows that she is one of the demonstrators and asks whether she knows nothing about the vandalism campaign. The conversation is interrupted by Mary Anne, who is also interested in Hamilton. Alex and Hamilton arrange to meet in the evening.
Despite Hamilton's refusal, Joshua brings several rats into the laboratory as test animals. Hamilton initially waves it away, but is then convinced.
Time goes by and Alex stands in the door. Joshua should take care of everything else. In doing so, he carelessly places the genetically modified tomato plants near the rat cages. During the night the rats eat the tomatoes and mutate. The protesters Mark, Al and Angie do not stop at Hamilton either and sneak into his laboratory that same night and meet the now oversized rats. When turning on the headlights for better camera images, one of the rats suddenly goes crazy. Al is frightened and knocks over the cages that fall on Mark. The rats can break free from the cages. While Al and Angie flee, Mark remains behind. Mark is attacked and killed by the rats. Then they escape from the laboratory.
Lt. A little later Weixel interrogates Al and Angie, but he doesn't believe that the rats were so big. The present dean also downplayed the incident and spoke of just one mutated rat. Therefore exterminators are brought in. Meanwhile, Angie and Al don't want to let Mark's death sit on them and go in search of the rats in the sewer themselves.
Hamilton and Joshua continue to research the antidote in the laboratory. Alex arrives and confronts Hamilton about the animal testing.
In the meantime one of the exterminators hears a noise and follows it up. Shortly afterwards he sees himself attacked by a giant rat. He escapes into the basement of the university, but is caught by the rat. Dr. Brett hears his scream and looks for the cause. He becomes the rats' next victim. The second exterminator caught one of the giant rats with his special flamethrower shortly afterwards. In the meantime, Hamilton has found the formula to cure Bobby. A call about new victims and the dead giant rat disturbs his euphoria. Hamilton wants to see the killed rat, but he realizes that it is not the one he is looking for. The Lt. and Dean contradict him again. Angie and Al have split up in the sewer tunnel system. Angie meets the rats that attack her. She runs back down the tunnel and Al comes towards her. Al stands protectively in front of Angie. First he is attacked, then the rats get Angie.
At Dr. Travis goes off the alarm that night. Bobby has fled. The police hunt him down with dogs, he is caught. Scared of what had happened, she called Hamilton and asked for the serum. Carlos becomes the rats' next victim shortly afterwards, when he wants to have free time with Mary Anne. Hamilton and Joshua get a hunting dog, which is supposed to track down the rats in the basement corridors. You first meet the caretaker, who thinks the giant rats are joking. A little later they find the completely eaten up torso of the second exterminator. The caretaker was disturbed by squeaking noises in the corridors, followed them up, but couldn't see anything. Only a little further on he is attacked by one of the rats and tries to escape. Even his screams do not go unheard. Hamilton and Joshua run to help him, but it's too late. Two students say goodbye and go to their vehicles. One of them is surprised by a rat in the car, and the other person has a devastating accident. The arriving police find only badly battered bodies. Hamilton and White are back together on site. The dean continues to downplay all incidents because he does not want to ruin an upcoming building opening. Hamilton catches Delhurst sniffing in his laboratory shortly afterwards. Some time after, Joshua had the idea of putting a rat in heat on the males, with the choice falling on Hamilton's white rat. Shortly afterwards, Joshua tries his hand at a tracking device on a remote-controlled vehicle. He is surprised by the rats. An approaching policeman chases the rats away, but a little later Joshua succumbs to his bad injuries. The Lt. is in favor of finally doing something against the rats, but the dean doesn't want to cause a stir. He doesn't care about the plan with the rat lady. Hamilton attacks him for his ignorance and is fired. Delhurst tries on the serum stolen from Hamilton. He injures himself and some of the serum gets into his bloodstream. He mutates beyond recognition. The arrived Hamilton tests the counter-serum on him. It works, but it is too late to save Delhurst. Meanwhile, the inauguration of the building in the swimming pool is already underway. Hamilton goes into the sewers with Alex and the now mutated white rat to track down the male rats. They encounter the bodies of Al and Angie. The male rats are already on their way to the swimming pool. In the swimming pool the artistic performance is disturbed by the appearance of the rats from the pool. The rats attack everything that comes in front of them. Mass hysteria breaks out, the police have little chance of firing coordinated shots without hitting innocent people. Hamilton has meanwhile arrived at the swimming pool. With music he lures the remaining rats into the foyer. The animals are finally killed in the hail of fire from the police. Hamilton's white rat also dies here.
A little later, Hamilton calls Dr. Travis and tells her that he can be with her in a few hours with the counter-serum. While he's on the phone, the now huge Bobby kills Dr. Travis and flees again.
background
As in the first part, the film deals with the subject of genetic engineering . Animal experiments useful for research are also criticized.
The production cost was approximately $ 3.5 million.
criticism
The second part also got mostly bad reviews. The editorial team of cinema.de wrote the sequel to degenerate into a lousy horror show without meaning or message . At kino.de, on the other hand, they are of the positive opinion that the film is technically clean and that its horror comes exclusively from the bloody attacks of the greedy giant rats. The hour of the rat stands out from comparable productions mainly due to its solid design and some successful special effects. The targeted genre audience would see themselves well entertained.
Trivia
In the first part, the giant rats were led by a white rat. In the second part, too, a white rat plays the leading role.
Also in the animal horror film Willard , a white rat leads the other rats.
The mutating, growing Bobby is an allusion to the 1965 film Village of the Giants by Bert I. Gordon , which is also about mutated adolescent giant teens. Gordon is also the director of the first part, The Food of the Gods . All three films represent a trilogy. Village of the Giants is currently only available as an English DVD in Germany.
Web links
- The hour of the rat in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- https://www.schnittberichte.com/schnittbericht.php?ID=5479166
- The hour of the rat in the online film database