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Rats

Play trailer 2:37 Poster for Rats 2016 1h 24m Documentary Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
65% Tomatometer 20 Reviews 45% Popcornmeter 100+ Ratings
Venturing into rat-dominated environments, Morgan Spurlock brings you face to face with the little, misunderstood creatures that live and breathe all around you.

Critics Reviews

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Charlotte O'Sullivan London Evening Standard Crude but crafty ... Rated: 4/5 Dec 18, 2016 Full Review Wendy Ide Observer (UK) This is gleefully exploitative in its approach, and as such, it is horribly entertaining. Rated: 3/5 Dec 18, 2016 Full Review Kevin Maher The Times (UK) A horror movie in everything but name, Morgan Spurlock's Rats is a giddy, difficult, occasionally satirical, often stomach-churning thrill ride masquerading as a serious documentary. Rated: 4/5 Dec 16, 2016 Full Review Richard Crouse Richard Crouse Often more unsettling than anything you can make up because these little horrors aren't hidden. They're everywhere. Rated: 3.5/5 Feb 3, 2021 Full Review Jade Budowski Decider If you enter this film with the optimism that perhaps it's going to change your perspective on rats, like many other animal-based documentaries have, you will unfortunately be very, very disappointed. Dec 19, 2017 Full Review Erick Estrada Cinegarage A documentary that unites the gigantic fear of an epidemic that is both a living and unified monster that moves and operates alongside human intelligence. [Full review in Spanish] Jan 2, 2017 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Audience Member Doesn't give you much information about rat's other than killing them. Shows some shock scenes and disecting. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/13/21 Full Review Audience Member Interesting doc re rats and how theyre handled all over the world. Not scary. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/15/23 Full Review Audience Member This is brilliant - how did it get rated so badly!? Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/22/23 Full Review Audience Member Doesn't give you much information about rat's other than killing them. Shows some shock scenes and disecting. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/31/23 Full Review Audience Member Horribly done. Poorly scripted. Not worth the time to watch it. The cheesy effect on the narration to make it seem like its a radio talk show or something is straight out of those horrible 8th grade videos from science class trying desperately to be cool. The horror music, even if it is satirical or whatever it was meant to be, is totally overpowering and not balanced well at all. The overall info isnt to bad but its horribly presented and not well organized and in the dissection scene for example they had the researchers talking out loud as if it was common place to state every relevant fact about rats. What a waste of time/my evening. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 02/21/23 Full Review Audience Member If Steve Harvey surveyed 100 Americans to name an animal they'd most like to watch a documentary on, it's safe to say "Rats" would not show up anywhere on the Family Feud board. Sharks? 100%. Chimpanzees? Probably. Kangaroos? Perhaps. Rats? No chance in Fedex Field (for the record my answer would have been Hippos). Nonetheless, here comes Rats, a new horror documentary from Morgan Spurlock of Super Size Me fame. This garnered some buzz after premiering in the very fitting midnight madness slate of the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival and was subsequently purchased by Discovery, just in time for Halloween showings. Rats dissects the most rat infested areas on Earth and details what lengths humans will go to in attempting to gain some sort of control over snowballing rodent populations. The obvious starting point is New York City, but Spurlock also brings viewers to New Orleans, Mumbai, Cambodia, and in the most twisted section of the film, Cheltenham, UK, where otherwise cute, high-pitched packs of terriers are enlisted as the resident exterminators. If all of this sounds like a disgusting viewing, well, that's because it is. But I also found it to be equally fascinating. The overall theme of the film, "Every action on our part will cause a reaction on their part," is echoed by a badass Brooklyn exterminator by the name Ed Sheeran (pictured below), who if there's ever a movie made about him will absolutely be played by Ron Perlman. Leaning back, cigar in hand in a dimly lit basement, Sheehan recounts his many tactics battling these unrelenting rodents over his 40 years of experience, ultimately admitting that there's really nothing we can do to significantly curb them. If it's not already clear, I should warn you that this documentary is graphic. You know those "no animals were harmed during filming" you sometimes see in movie credits? Rats cannot claim that. In addition, it's a very one-sided approach to the subject, with no mention of any positives rats bring to the ecosystem (I have no idea, but I'm assuming they must bring something to the table more than spreading disease and mentoring mutant turtles). Then again, the purpose of this film is clearly not to inform, but rather to freak you out and motivate you to take out the trash. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/07/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Rats

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Movie Info

Synopsis Venturing into rat-dominated environments, Morgan Spurlock brings you face to face with the little, misunderstood creatures that live and breathe all around you.
Director
Morgan Spurlock
Producer
Dan Braun, Josh Braun, Stanley F. Buchthal, Jeremy Chilnick, David Koh, Morgan Spurlock
Screenwriter
Jeremy Chilnick, Morgan Spurlock
Production Co
Warrior Poets, Submarine Entertainment, Dakota Group
Genre
Documentary
Original Language
English
Release Date (Streaming)
Nov 30, 2016
Runtime
1h 24m