Of Unknown Origin (1983)




    

Bart is a man who knows what he wants and what he likes. He has built his home from scratch, puts his job over his family, his secretary over his wife, and obsession over his sanity. But now, he’s gonna get a wake-up call. A rat has entered into his house and gotten inside the walls. When his wife and child go visit the grandparents, the rat strikes and proceeds to annihilate everything Bart lived for. Bart must now decide if his own sanity or his house are more important. And the rat won’t accept anything other than unconditional surrender.           Overall: I like this movie when I first saw it and it was just the same a decade later (eBay purchase no less as this is out of print). One of the first roles for Shannon Tweed and a pre-Robocop Peter Weller. Other than the rat and Peter Weller, there isn’t much more of a cast. Everyone else seems to be there for filler because this film gets deep in its story trying to shoot down Yuppi-ism at its worst. This story was essentially re-done in “Tales from the Darkside” (cat executioner) and in “Terror Tract” (monkey) but they went for pure terror and little on the story. But that can prove that this film really tries to poke at your brain. However, I really wonder if anyone would truly do anything different than what the character did here – slowly escalate as the rat escalates the carnage. By the end, Peter’s character finally seems to get it (no I won’t say if he got it before killing or being killed by the rat. The film is a fun film without much glitz or glamour. Just something to keep you awake at night next time you hear some rumblings in your walls.           Comparison: Moby Dick meets The Pied Piper

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