Of Unknown Origin (1983)

How sad is this?

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Bart Hughes (Peter Weller) is living the good life in New York City. Prestigious, high-paying job with ample opportunity for advancement? Check. Attractive and supportive spouse? Check. Nice, newly-renovated three-story brownstone? Check. Infestation by large-sized, uncommonly-intelligent, extremely-destructive rodent? Che... Uh... Well life can't always be perfect, can it?With his wife (Shannon Tweed) and their young son out of town visiting her rich father, Bart has two whole weeks of peace and quiet to immerse himself in work in order to impress his boss (Lawrence Dane) and secure a promotion. One morning he notices his dishwasher has leaked and flooded out the kitchen. A closer look reveals a leaky hose that's been gnawed almost in half. Suspecting either a mouse or rat as the culprit, Bart turns to the building superintendent Clete (Louis Del Grande) for help. Clete tells him about all the various ways he can exterminate the pest ("You trap 'em, you poison 'em, you knock 'em on the head, you gas 'em or you shoot 'em.") but adds that rats are the only animal that can survive atomic bomb blasts. That's encouraging, huh? Bart puts out a bunch of old school wooden traps with cheese bait and goes about his day. Unfortunately, those traps end up easily demolished, and his later attempts to kill it using heavy-duty steel traps and poison also fail.All the while, the "furry f#?!er" makes Bart's life a living hell. It pops out of a toilet, attacks him when he tries to sleep, kills a stray cat he brings in, leaves black hairs all over the place, eats his food, breaks vases and photos, chews through the electrical wiring, chews through the phone wiring, chews holes in the ceiling and walls, chews up feather pillows and essentially turns his once-immaculate home into a complete dump. It isn't long before Bart is studying articles like "The Rat: Lapdog of the Devil," flipping through photos of bite victims and learning everything there is to know about rats. His obsession with killing the four-legged intruder ends up potentially threatening his job, his marriage and even his sanity, until he decides he's had enough and goes after it with a spiked baseball bat.Though flawed (it's essentially a one-idea film and grows repetitive and tedious at points), this isn't a bad movie. It's professionally made and directed and features good music, camera-work (including a neat shot inside the box springs of a mattress!) and special effects (a mixture of model rats and close-ups shots of real ones were used). Some of the writing is sharp, including a very amusing scene where Bart spoils a snobby dinner party by discussing some unpleasant facts about rats. Best of all though is Weller himself, who deserves a lot of credit for single-handedly holding the whole thing together, which is important considering his character is the only one of any interest whatsoever. It's also slightly more interesting than your usual 'animal attack' flick because it eschews the cliché every-man lead for a main character who's a not- particularly- likable dissatisfied yuppie control freak who cringes when one character sits on his pristine kitchen counter top. The makers appear to be using the rat metaphorically to represent all that threatens the uptight protagonist's affluent lifestyle by dethroning him as king in his own self-made castle.As I was watching this, the final segment in George Romero's CREEPSHOW (1982) - which featured E.G. Marshall as a rich old jerk whose spotless apartment is invaded by an army of killer cockroaches - quickly sprung to mind. Both of these tales are black comedies and both feature an upper-class character that has it made being forced to confront how most of the rest of the world lives when their privileged bubble is invaded by an unwelcome intruder. What's interesting is that both stories have completely different resolutions. Not surprisingly, Romero, whose work is typically bleak, opts for the grim finale, while Cosmatos, who'd make the raise-your-flag-and-cheer-on-Stallone-as-he-blows-away-the-bad-guys RAMBO II soon after this, goes for the positive. In other words, by watching both you get to see the same basic story told from two very specific yet completely different perspectives; one condemning and punishing what they perceive to be classism and the other taking a more optimistic stance by suggesting that anyone is capable of positive change given the right catalyst.

Bert Hughes is home alone in his Manhattan apartment,trying to work out a major change in his trust company when a noisy rat starts scratching around his periphery and he becomes obsessed with exterminating it.By the time Hughes is through,his whole apartment is nearly exterminated-and his friends are keeping their distance due to his rat-mania.Pretty suspenseful and effective rat invasion flick with terrific central performance of Peter Weller.Several memorable moments were the diner table discussion turned to rats and everyone felt uncomfortable;and the end battle with the rat.There are also some very effective jump scenes that were finding the cat on top of the refrigerator and the toilet scene.Overall,"Of Unknown Origin" is a fine animal attack film that deserves rediscovery.8 out of 10.

It's (future) Robocop VS. Rodent in this interesting & compelling but ultimately bland hybrid between an ordinary creature feature and a portrait of psychological downfall. Textbook 80's yuppie Bart Hughes has everything you could wish for in life. Married to the previous Playmate of the year, he owns a personally renovated brownstone in the heart of New York, his parents-in-law live all the Vermont, his secretary has a not-so-hidden crush on him and he's moments away from getting that important assignment everybody at the office was craving for. Bart's perfect universe gets brutally disturbed when an unusually intelligent rat decides to join the household and run a little bit of amok in the house. When all regular rat-catching methods like traps and poison fail, Bart begins to take the battle personal. He gradually goes berserk, isolating himself from his colleagues and neighbors, with only one mission left to live for: annihilate the rat! Okay, what we have here is an ambitious script about an alarmingly escalating obsession, a stellar performance by Peter Weller and skillful photography by René Verzier who successfully manages to depict the ordinary rat like the most fierce and petrifying monster in the universe. That's very admirable and all but, in the end, "Of Unknown Origin" only just remains a film about a guy chasing vermin through the house for nearly 90 minutes. The rodent's intellectual capacities, as wells as some of Bart's desperate measures to catch it, are just a tad bit implausible and actually on the verge of hilarious, even though the whole thing is acted with straight faces and serious undertones. What type of rat are we dealing with here, in fact? Because sometimes the animal is small enough to move through the draining pipes whereas at other times it looks big enough to pass for a warthog. Or maybe its variable sizes were intentional as part of the whole psychological aspect, and then I missed the point again? I know "Of Unknown Origin" isn't meant to be a full-blooded horror film, but still the lack of blood and action was mildly disappointing. Couldn't the rat have killed the irritating neighbor, the exterminator or even Shannon Tweed? Unquestionably the most fascinating moments of the entire film are the rat trivia Bart recites to all his clearly embarrassed colleagues & superiors during a diner party. Now that scene was both creepy and educational.

This little movie is hardly a must-see. People who got excited by this forgettable mediocrity have probably seen far too few (good) horror films, or are huge Weller fans.I didn't have a problem with a mere rat being such a challenge for what seemed to be an intelligent man, i.e. the absurdity of the premise is acceptable because this is a horror film. However, the only way this film should have been done was to do it as an all-out comedy. Though, even then it would have probably gotten dull sooner rather than later due to its one-joke premise.Maybe if they had made the rat out to be much larger, or if they had gotten him to look like Martin Sheen... Though, admittedly, if we had a Sheen rat we could never believe that he could be that intelligent.Perhaps if it looked like Barbra Streisand...? A Barbra rat would be just as dull-witted as a Sheen rat but at least its nose would have scared everyone - including me. Brrrr!