It might seem strange to use the word "lovable" for a post-nuke film about man-eating rats and no sympathetic characters whatsoever, but Bruno Mattei's Rats: Night of Terror is a truly endearing goofball of a movie. Here we have a combination of two popular subgenres, post-apocalyptic sci-fi and animal attack films, established in the opening crawl: "In the Christian Year, 2015 [remember that?], the insensitivity of man finally triumphs and hundreds of atomic bombs devastate all five continents... Terrified by the slaughter and destruction the few survivors of the disaster seek refuge under the ground." Faster than you can say Bronx Warriors, we're introduced to our "heroes," a marauding biker gang scavenging the remains of civilization in 2230. They arrive in the desolate remains of a town and decide to camp out in an abandoned building for the night, hopefully finding sustenance in the process. However, the area turns out to be infested by thousands of mutated, flesh-hungry rats, with tough guy leader Kurt (prolific stunt man and dancer Ottaviano Dell'Acqua, credited as "Richard Raymond") trying to keep them working in harmony with an arsenal of weapons to fend off the seemingly unstoppable forces of nature.

After starting his career in sexploitation in the '70s, filmmaker Bruno Mattei was still fairly new to horror when he made this one with frequent collaborators Claudio Fragasso and Rosella Drudi after 1980's Hell of the Living Dead and 1981's The Other Hell. Shot for peanuts with a limited cast in one location on a set, the film got a marginal U.S. theatrical and VHS release (first under the Lightning Video banner and then through Video Treasures) but didn't really pick up much of a reputation until it hit DVD in 2002 from Anchor Bay at the same time as their edition of Hell. The English dialogue is handled fairly well here (sync-wise at least) and loaded with quotable one liners, with some wholly gratuitous nudity and sex thrown in along with a wonderfully kitschy synth score by Luigi Ceccarelli (who went from this to Claude Chabrol's Quiet Days in Clichy, oddly enough). Also welcome is the presence of Geretta Geretta, the striking American actress and model who appeared in Murderock the same year and went on to horror immortality as Rosemary, the instigator of Demons. Then there's that twist ending, which manages to be utterly ludicrous and oddly creepy at the same time.

After its first rounds on DVD (including a double feature from Anchor Bay with its companion Mattei film and an eventual transition to Blue Underground), Rats has generally fared well on DVD. Blue Underground paired them up for a 2014 Blu-ray release that's more than many human beings could process. The Blu-ray carries over the international trailers for both films along with a Mattei featurette and poster and still galleries from the DVD editions, while a second international trailer for Rats and the similar but even nuttier Italian trailers for both are included as well (all in glorious HD). The biggest extra is the 50-minute "Bonded by Blood," which you can read more about at the Hell review linked above. In France, Pulse Video offered a later edition of the film with a wild making-of doc, "Mad Rats: The Making of a Cult" (55m35s), with Fragasso, Dell’Acqua, actors Massimo Vanni, Ann-Gisel Glass, and Jean-Christophe Brétignière, composer Luigi Ceccarelli, and still photographer Gianni Leacche dishing out lots of stories involving rat mishaps, unexpected spiders, latex shenanigans, set recycling, and much more.

In 2025, Severin Films upgraded Rats to UHD and Blu-ray (with the latter offered as a separate single disc) featuring a fresh scan from the negative with Dolby Vision bringing out every bit of visual luster possible (ahem) on the 4K option. The edition sold directly by the label comes with an exclusive slipcover and a soundtrack CD featuring the rediscovered score, sounding excellent. An opening disclaimer notes the elements had suffered damage over the years which means you can spot some fleeting yellow stains for a frame or two at times, but it's nothing terribly severe. The usual English track is here with optional English SDH subs, while the Italian track is added for the first time with translated English subtitles as well. A trailer is on both discs, while the Blu-ray has the rest of the extras including a port of that great French "Mad Rats" doc with English subs. The "Bonded by Blood" doc is here as well from the Blue Underground disc, while Mattei appears solo in "Of Rats and Men" (7m4s) in an archival interview about the simple concept of the script involving a young gang and a thousand rats, the screenplay process with Fragasso, and lessons he learned on the set that came in handy for later films like The Tomb. In "Richard and the Rats" (12m48s), Dell'Acqua chats about his thoughts on his character (which he doesn't classify as a leading man), the reason for his English screen name here, his background in the circus, and the physical skills he brought to the film. In "Chocolate and Rats" (12m27s), Geretta Geretta sports an appropriate piece of headwear and enthusiastically shares stories about her first screen role after bouncing around the performing arts scene in New York and Europe and getting this gig through her roommate. In "Last Rat Standing" (12m21s), actor Gianni Franco goes into his own debut role here, his warm memories of Mattei, getting cast on the recommendation of Fragasso, his annoyance at having his voice dubbed, and thoughts on his fellow actors. In "Rats Dance" (9m56s), Ceccarelli admits upfront he doesn't remember a ton about the film but shares how he was young and just starting out when he started working with Fragasso and bouncing between "serious" projects and pulp fun like this. Finally in "Bruno And Claudio, I Knew Them Well" (13m15s), executive producer Roberto Di Girolamo offers his own perspective on the working relationship between Mattei and Fragasso including their two most beloved horror projects. That's not all though; the disc wraps with the recent "Under the Black Sky" music video by Geretta Geretta (for a music project called Pornographie Exclusive) directed by Severin's David Gregory (who also makes a vivid appearance at the beginning) and featuring a slew of movie-crazy visuals. Believe it or not, a tie-in novelization by Brad Carter was also commissioned at the same time as this release and fills in plenty more details for those who can't get enough Rats in their life.

SEVERIN FILMS (Blu-ray)

BLUE UNDERGROUND (Blu-ray)

Updated review on March 24, 2025