Deadly Eyes
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| Deadly Eyes | |
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 Deadly Eyes VHS cover |
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| Directed by | Robert Clouse |
| Produced by | Paul Kahnert Jeff Schechtman |
| Written by | Charles H. Eglee James Herbert |
| Starring | Sam Groom Scatman Crothers Sara Botsford Cec Linder Lisa Langlois Lesleh Donaldson James B. Douglas Lee-Max Walton |
| Music by | Anthony Guefen |
| Cinematography | René Verzier |
| Editing by | Ron Wisman |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures |
| Release date(s) | October 28, 1982 (CAN) |
| Running time | 87 min. |
| Country | Canada |
| Language | English |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Deadly Eyes is a 1982 Canadian film directed by Robert Clouse, based on the horror novel The Rats by James Herbert. The story revolves around Giant Black Rats who begin eating the residents of Toronto after ingesting contaminated grain.
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[edit] Plot
The plot and subplots center on the movies leading man, Paul Harris (Sam Groom), a high school teacher and basketball coach and his relationships between a health department inspector (Sara Botsford), a high school cheerleader, Trudy (Lisa Langlois), his students, and his friend, Dr. Spencer (Cec Linder), a college professor and rat expert. Giant rats living in mountains of grain full of steroids are rendered homeless when a health department inspector orders it burned. The rats migrate to a suburban home occupied by unsupervised high school students. The rats first human victim is a toddler left unattended in a high chair. The next victim is a senior citizen, walking the snowy streets alone late at night. Scatman Crothers, who briefly plays a health department field inspector, is destined to become the next victim. Inspecting the bowels of the cities sewer system, he encounters a pack of rats. Scatman commences with 'the running of the rats' in the sewer, followed by his demise. Mr. Harris, the teacher, telephones his friend, professor rat expert, who instantly and concludes that the steroid feed had spawned a new bread of 'super-rat' that had migrated into the sewers in search of food. Upon hearing this information, the Health Inspector immediately orders the fumigation of the entire city sewer system, which is immediately and efficiently carried out with no apparent effect. The futility of this action is confirmed when the rat expert himself is attacked and killed. The rats then move on to a bowling alley and a movie theatre and make their first brazen mass attack on the unsuspecting public. The rats select the viewers of a Bruce Lee movie, resulting in numerous deaths and a scene of fleeing film patrons. Meanwhile, the cities mayor prepares to make an inaugural run of a new subway section - straight into a hungry pack of rats. Mr. Harris attempts to stop the festivities. He is forced to assault a cop and take his revolver. Mr. Harris proceeds down the tunnel and finds a disabled subway train with passengers just emerging from the cars. Mr. Harris meets his girlfriend and son just as the rats attack. The three are able to escape down the tunnel and find refuge in a fenced in maintenance area. Fortunately, they discover cutting torches and drums of flammable liquids. They are able to burn all the rats.
[edit] Differences from the book
- The rats in the film mutated due to consuming grain containing steroids, whereas in the novel they were the spawn of nuclear tests in the Pacific.
- The rat outbreak in the film takes place in Toronto, while in the original novel it occurred in London.
- In the novel, the rats were a eusocial species with various different castes, including a queen. The rats in the film had no such social structure.
[edit] Trivia
- The creatures were brought to life through a mixture of hand puppetry and dressing up Dachshunds in rat costumes.
- James Herbert apparently was not involved in the films production. While his first book The Rats was intended to be a social commentary on government incompetence toward urban decay, Deadly Eyes is more of a warning on the advent of genetic engineering in food.
