Of Unknown Origin

R

1983

1 hr. 28 min.

Horror

List

63%

8 Reviews

Tomatometer

40%

1,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

A New York banker (Peter Weller) fends for himself against a giant rat loose in his renovated brownstone.

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Audience Member

Based on The Visitor by Chauncey G. Parker III, this movie is totally worth watching just to see Peter Weller pretty much be in a movie by himself for long stretches, going absolutely ful nutzoid at the premise of having a rat in his walls. If you've said, "I want a movie where rats attack people while they're arrdvarking and children at birthday parties," Of Unknown Origin is your movie. I mean, there was one point where I had to stop this movie and just catch my breath and be amazed that it exists. George P. Cosmatos may be known today as the father of Beyond the Black Rainbow and Mandy director Panos Cosmatos, but he was a more than dependable director, turning out blockbuster fare like Rambo: First Blood Part II, Cobra, Leviathan and Tombstone. Bart Hughes (Weller) stays behind to work on the job that will get him a promotion while his wife (Shannon Tweed) and child go away on vacation. He just redid their brownstone, so this should be a great weekend for him, but no, a rat shows up and that's the story. Ninety minutes or so of a rat and Peter Weller descends into destructive dementia and screams stuff like, "Watch and weep, you furry f**ker" and "Keep it up. Just keep it up. I've got friends in Jersey." Bart Hughes (Weller) stays behind to work on the job that will get him a promotion while his wife (Shannon Tweed) and child go away on vacation. He just redid their brownstone, so this should be a great weekend for him, but no, a rat shows up and that's the story. Ninety minutes or so of a rat and Peter Weller descends into destructive dementia and screams stuff like, "Watch and weep, you furry f**ker" and "Keep it up. Just keep it up. I've got friends in Jersey." There's also a moment where he tells everyone at a dinner party that no one knows where rats come from — Of Unknown Origin — and no one corrects him and calls BS and explains that they come from Asia, but then again, no one had Wikipedia in 1983 and they had to figure out how to get the title into the movie.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/06/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Of Unknown Origin is a brilliant horror film about a Giant Rat. Ben vs Robocop in a grudge match.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

10/17/20

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Audience Member

Pretty awesome movie. It's more of a character study than just a simple man vs rat movie. Peter Weller is great in it, and it's impressive watching him go slowly mad, as he sheds his reliance on material gains in his hunt for this disgusting vermin.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

07/02/18

Full Review

Audience Member

Entertainingly offbeat horror film has banker Peter Weller, in his first leading role, being driven insane by a particularly clever and destructive rat. Weller seems to slowly lose his sanity in his obsessive quest to kill the vermin and ends up destroying his apartment in the process. Directed by George P. Cosmatos ("Cobra" and "Tombstone"), this film is slickly made and visually arresting, though I'm not quite sure if Cosmatos saw this film as a psychological horror film along the lines of "Repulsion" or "The Tenant," but this film definitely seems much closer to "Willard." Still, I enjoyed "Willard" and I enjoyed this film as well.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

No me gustó, no la terminé de ver, es matar una rata por el solo hecho de ser rata, en realidad no era nada más y ese tipo de películas no me gustan.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

01/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

I don't know that I've ever rooted for a man over an animal as hard as I did while watching this!

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/14/23

Full Review

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George P. Cosmatos

Director

Peter Weller

Bart Hughes

Jennifer Dale

Lorrie Wells

Shannon Tweed

Meg Hughes

Lawrence Dane

Eliot Riverton

Kenneth Welsh

James Hall

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Alan Jones

Starburst

Wrings every ounce of terror and suspense from such a simple premise.

Aug 1, 2022

Full Review

Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

Flawed, but not without interest.

Rated: 2.5/4

Aug 24, 2021

Full Review

C.H. Newell

Father Son Holy Gore

An odd, engrossing horror that's also an impressive allegory for the detrimental effects of the capitalist working world on the individual in America.

Rated: 4/5

May 1, 2019

Full Review

Dennis Schwartz

Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews

Too close to home for the extreme rat phobia explored not to sink in as much as possible as scary stuff.

Rated: B

May 18, 2017

Full Review

David Nusair

Reel Film Reviews

It's ultimately clear that Of Unknown Origin might've worked as a half hour short yet is simply unable to sustain an 88 minute running time...

Rated: 1.5/4

Jul 3, 2012

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Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com

Rated: 2/5

Aug 6, 2005

Full Review

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Synopsis

A New York banker (Peter Weller) fends for himself against a giant rat loose in his renovated brownstone.

Director: George P. Cosmatos
Executive Producer: Pierre David
Screenwriter: Brian Taggert
Production Co: Warner Brothers/Seven Arts
Rating: R
Genre: Horror
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Nov 21, 2016

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