Gutsy reporter Jennifer (a winningly spunky performance by fetching blonde Sarah Downing) poses as the troubled Samantha so she can be admitted into the mysterious sanitarium Brookdale Institute in order to research a possible expose on the place. Jennifer uncovers more than she bargained for when she discovers that the joint is infested by lethal carnivorous mutant rats. Director Tibor Takacs, working from an engrossing script by Adam Gierasch and Jace Anderson, does a sound job of creating a suitably creepy'n'claustrophobic atmosphere, stages the rat attack sequences with a reasonable amount of flair, maintains a steady pace throughout, and further spices things up with a nice smattering of grisly splatter. The mental patients are a colorfully freaky bunch: Bailey Chase as the amiable Johnny Falls, Eileen Grubba as the scrappy, belligerent Rose, Patrick Dreikauss as the twitchy Morgan, Desislava Tenekedjieva as the fragile, suicidal Cypress, and Tarri Markell as spiky junkie Naomi. The rest of the cast are likewise fine in their roles, with especially praiseworthy work from Ron Perlman as humane psychiatrist Dr. William Winslow, Michael Zeliniker as oddball custodian Ernst, Denise Dowse as no-nonsense head nurse Matilda, Sean Cullen as Jennifer's concerned fellow reporter boyfriend Michael, and Michael Hagerty as likable orderly Lenny. Barry Gravelle's polished, shadowy cinematography does the trick. Guy Zerafa's shivery score hits the shuddery spot. While the rats with their glowing red eyes and insatiable flesh-eating appetites are pretty unnerving, the main giant rodent alas proves to be a total washout due to extremely poor and unconvincing CGI effects. That criticism aside, this movie overall sizes up as a nifty little fright feature.

The tale concerns about the Brookdale asylum is a strange hospital for the insane, mad and criminals. Jennifer(Sara Dowling) an intrepid reporter for Philadelpia Enquirer newspaper and guised as a patient investigates about possible health rules infraction. But Brookdale hospital is infested with astonishing and super-intelligent killer rats created long time ago by Doctor Winslow(Ron Perlman). Nowadays an ex-patient(Michael Zilkene) is developing a symbiotic friendship with the large bugs. The inmates are attacked by the amazing rodents who are mobilizing to do battle with the human intruders. This is a terror-thriller quite exciting where large creatures roam for facing off the patients fears and developing a bloodthirsty and eerie hunger.The rats, themselves, of course , are the real stars , as deliver the goods with genuine chills, terror and tension. The film provides lots of screams, blood and gore and with creepy atmosphere which becomes pretty sinister when the rats appear. This movie with thin characters and contrived plot, packs grisly murders and the filmmaker retains a fascination with the decapitated members. The rats are mostly made by computer generator FX, as usual, they're frightening astounding and quite convincing . The motion picture is regularly directed by Tibor Takacs. Born Budapest, Takacs has directed TV movies(Sabrina, the teenage witch,Outer limits, Earth, final conflict), Mark Dacascos vehicles(Deathline,Sanctuary,Sabotage) and giant monsters and bugs movies(Rats,MegaSnake, Ice spider, Mansquito,). Another films about the Rats sub-genre are the following: Food of gods(76, Bert I Gordon); Food of the godsII(1988, Damian Lee),Willard(1973, Daniel Mann with Bruce Davison), Willard(2003, Glen Morgan with Crispin Glover), The Rats (2002, John Lafia with Vincent Spano), among others.

Let's start out with the cons of the movie,, the computer generated big rat,,, well it's so obvious that it's fake,, i mean it hops like a bunny rabbit,, i have a problem with the doors where the patients seem to go,, HM shouldn't those doors be locked.. other than those two points , i really don't have any problems with this movie. The acting wasn't that bad, the movie wasn't given a big budget; so it's going to show up somewhere. I think that the premise wasn't too bad either, at first i thought it was going to be like Clockwork Orange, then came the RAts so i'm thinking,, okay,, attack of the killer shrews,, the characters in this movie are pretty good, i liked the head of the hospital, Ron Pearlman's character, the female reporter was a hottie, the head nurse was funny,, this is a good movie if you're looking to have a few laughs,, not scared of rats, not expecting too much, and just want to enjoy yourself,, this is not a thinking man's movie, and if you go in to the movie with that frame of mind , trust me you will not be disappointed.

I'm trying to think of something good to say about Rats, but it's very difficult. Okay, Ron Perlman wasn't too bad but he was underused to a criminal extent and I wonder why he even appeared in this dreck.The special effects wouldn't have looked convincing in the 80's so for a movie released in 2003 they're almost unbearable. The acting isn't good either, but it's mostly the abysmal story that drags this movie down to 2 stars.------------spoiler ahead-------------------It suffers from a barely comprehensible plot line that includes a man who has a telepathic link to rats due to being bitten by one as a child and the much-used 'secret scientific experiments' that resulted in the smart and oversize rats. The rats in Princess Bride were just as big but looked 100 times as real and were used for a comic effect; in Rats they are only funny unintentionally.This isn't even worth watching for free on cable, although it is fairly gory so if that's something you enjoy then there's something for you at least.