Deadly Eyes

Plot synopsis:
The plot and subplots center on the movie's leading man, Paul Harris (Sam Groom), a divorced high school teacher and basketball coach and his interactions during a killer rat infestation with a health department inspector Kelly (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 the size of small dogs 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 begin to kill a toddler left unattended in a high chair as well as Henry a senior citizen is attacked from rats, walking the snowy streets alone late at night. Foskins (Scatman Crothers), a health department field inspector, is destined to become the next victim. Inspecting the bowels of the city's sewer system, he encounters a pack of rats. Foskins commences with 'the running of the rats' in the sewer, followed by his demise.
Paul telephones his friend, a professor who is a rat expert, who instantly concludes that the steroid feed had spawned a new breed 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 theater 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 incluind matt and a scene of fleeing film patrons.
Meanwhile, the city's mayor prepares to make an inaugural run of a new subway section - straight into a hungry pack of rats. While escaping the Rats, and sacrificing the other delegates, the mayor stows away on the empty subway train. Paul attempts to stop the festivities. He is forced to assault a cop and take his revolver. Paul proceeds down the tunnel and finds a disabled subway train with passengers just emerging from the cars.
Paul finds Kelly and his son just as the rats attack the passengers and mayor is killed from rats off screen. The three are able to escape down the tunnel and find refuge in a fenced-in maintenance area which is the rats nest. Fortunately, they discover cutting torches and drums of flammable liquids and soon, the three escape from the tunnel as the rats are killed during a flammable explosion behind him. After the three survivors re-board the subway train to reach safety, the train reaches the platform and the party-goers for the new subway section approach the train and to shock, it's revealed that the three had boarded the same train as the Mayor did, which shows a small amount of surviving rats eating the body of the mayor as the final scene shows a bloody rat hissing at the train window.

Tags: violence

Review:
Cat-sized rats, laced-up on steroid enriched grain apparently destined for starving kids in Africa, overrun the city as former chop-socky filmmaker Clouse applies his unique, high contact brand of action/horror.
Local teacher and single dad Groom investigates the strange goings on, while courting the attentions of Health official (Botsford) and attempting to dissuade those of an infatuated student (Langlois).The versatile vaudeville performer Crothers is wasted in a frivolous supporting role, while veteran Canadian actor Linder is also given little respect.
Clouse even manages to stage a rat attack during a Bruce Lee cinema retrospective at which his film "Game of Death" is played on the big screen, for those who might appreciate an in-joke.It's formula filmmaking and Clouse handles both the characterisations and action sequences with adept skill, albeit with little attention to detail or continuity.
Groom is an affable leading man, Botsford a more attractive proposition (there's even a fire-lit love scene to really set the mood), and the daschunds dressed in sewer rat costumes, almost look cute in some scenes, as they scamper from one mark to the next below aerial shots that clearly display their canine features.
Science teacher Sam Groom and health official Sara Botsford find out and try to save the city (carefully not named but it was filmed in Toronto).The plot is old hat but this is reasonably well done.
Yes, I know they're dogs in rat suits but they look convincing and the scenes of them chasing victims are scary.
Also the attack scenes (especially the one in the theatre) are vicious, bloody and very gory.So a worthwhile movie for horror fans--especially those who like early 80s horror (like me).
Giant rat movie based on excellent book "The Rats", this is a definite addition to the So-Bad-It's-Almost-Good hall of fame.
You think you have seen it all until you see the little dogs in rat costumes running everywhere, munching on fleeing, screaming humans.
the deadly eyes is the king of all monster rat movies,if you overlook the fact that they are dogs dressed to look like rats,sort of like the killer shrews(59)but its downright scary and creepy,and the music is creepy as well.made in Canada in 1983 the deadly eyes delivers some real good scares.a good cast;Sam groom,scatman crothers,Sara botsford, and sexy blonde Lisa langlois(the nest and many other horror films) the scenes of the rats eating people are downright gory and disturbing.
the movie was'nt well received by critics,its no masterpiece but its a good killer rat movie.heres some trivia,what movie was playing at the movie theater during a crucial scene?well heres one hint.golden harvest made the movie.and golden harvest made many kung fu/karate movies.
"Deadly Eyes" is a total cheesefest!Based on James Herbert's very good novel "Rats" it features dogs in rat suits terrorizing the city.My favourite scene is when "rats" are killing this little kid!The acting is pretty awful,the gore is almost non-existent and the direction is bad.However if you love really bad horror movies give this one a look-it is certainly enjoyable!.
Now, the big feature about the movie that made me want to see it - giant rats played by dachshunds - does provide a little amusement, as well as the equally not convincing puppetry work when we see close-ups of the giant rats' faces.
THE RATS (Robert Clouse) This little documented B-monster mash up turned out to be quite an amusing time-waster concerning the mainly human diet of a ravening plague of dachshund-sized rats in downtown Toronto.
The real problem with the film is that it is meant to be based on James Herbert's scuzzball splatterfest, and outside of cribbing the title, Clouse ill-advisedly decided to eschew Herbert's wall-to-wall grume and stick to a more conventional modus operandi, which plays like a 1950's Bert I.
A particularly amusing moment (reminding one of 'The Blob') is the sequence in the packed cinema with a clutch of appreciative, vocal fans enjoying the classic sequence from 'Game of Death' where Bruce Lee makes light work of lanky titan, Kareem Abdul Jabbar; when suddenly the rampaging rats chew their way through the shrieking audience; bloody marvelous!
As the owner of the offending batch watches on, Kelly and her righthand man George (Scatman Crothers of The Shining) burn the whole containment which inadvertently forces the resident rat population scurrying for the city sewer system.
Mutated, oversized and extremely aggressive, the super rats are now loose in the city and seemingly growing in numbers attacking anyone or anything unlucky enough to cross their path.Despite a rather tired premise The Rats remains entertaining enough as long as you can ignore plot holes, hokey science and questionable special effects.
Robert Clouse keeps the pace brisk and the movie is well worth seeing alone just for the cinema attack scene and the subway train finalé (which leaves The Rats wide open for a sequel that for whatever reason never materialised).
This is not an adaptation of the Herbert novel at all, as the screenwriters seemed to have invented every other plot point on from the time when the boy gets his hand bitten by a rat.
Nothing special, in other words..."Deadly Eyes" is a fairly entertaining early 80's creature feature that'll satisfy undemanding horror buffs, but you obviously shouldn't expect high-quality suspense or even a tad bit of logic.
When they attack (especially during the second half of the film), this results in a couple of adorably gross and hectic sequences, for example in a movie theater or in the newly finished subway tunnel.
The special effects are good, even if funny.Horror fans who like their films cheesy will love this.
There is an attack in a movie theater, which is terribly fake, and the film does retain some of the characters, but it's as if the producers had no respect for the novel's rich characterization and, more importantly, classic London setting.
Stupefyingly bad film with choppy action, uneven acting, and a fleet of highly-trained dachshunds in rat costumes.
Teacher, single father and lady magnet Paul Harris (Sam Groom) pairs up in all sense of the term with health official, independent woman and man eater entrepreneur Kelly Leonard (Sara Botsford) to save the city.
Very loosely based on James Herbert's first novel, "The Rats" also known under the daft moniker "Deadly Eyes" is a simple yet adroitly crafted horror b movie.
There are very little surprises here: the black token character (Scatman Crothers in an all too brief appearance sadly), the stupid canon-fodder teenagers, the old guy who knows about the threat in question are all present in the mix.But that doesn't mean it's all bad, mind you.
But if, like my little self, you're an 80's horror film buff then this could be a worthy addition to your collection (if you manage to get your hand on it, that is)..
Time hasn't been kind to his work because horror nowadays isn't as fashionable as it was once and Herbert's books have a very formulaic , predictable structure where every chapter alternates between one that is vaguely important to the plot followed by another that serves to introduce a character only for them to be killed off at the end of the chapter .
It does become noticeable that the writer had one eye on the cinema/TV market later and DOMAIN the book that ended his Rats trilogy seems a conscious attempt to pitch his novel to a film company hence the nuclear devastated landscape of London is made more film-able by having many key scenes take place in the pitch blackness of or in mist shrouded day scenes which saves on a potential budget .
This is very loosely based on Classic James Herbert Novel Rats , I heard nothing but really bad stuff comment about this movie, It taken me while to see it!As I been in Killer Rats movie mood lately , I gave this go.You know what, I actually it enjoyed it, I thought it was so much better then I thought it was going to be.We know no movie is better then any book.
no matter how good the movie is never come close to the book.I found this really well paced it as some really good attack scenes in this movie, some very bloody moment in this movie not not gory.Those are some big ass rats in this movie (I know their dog in rats suit) They didn't look half that of bad.The acting was really good in this movie for this kind of movie from the whole cast.
I didn't like some of the sub plot were a little boring at, Girl in love with teacher, they should have skip that, we could got more Rat actions.The loved the way the movie ended 7 out of 10.
A fun bit of trivia that nobody else here mentioned: Robert Clouse, who made this film, was also the director of the last Bruce Lee vehicle, "Game of Death", clips of which we watch during the extended scene in the movie theater.
It was done in the killer shrew as it was apparent they were just dogs with bad costumes taped to them or something and it is very apparent in this movie.
So that is about it with this movie, wiener dogs dressed up like giant rats with not to many good gory kills to accompany their presence.
James Herbert is a great horror writer, and The Rats; the first in a trilogy of rodent-infested horror stories, is surely one of his finest works.
The sluggish way that the plot plods out in this film is nothing like the exciting and engrossing way that Herbert wrote the story, and the principal problem here is that it takes far too long to get round to the actual rat attack; and the scenes in-between the horror aren't very interesting.
The film focuses on Harris; a gym teacher who teams up with a woman named Kelly from the local health authority when a bunch of rats eat some infected corn and become monsters.
It takes a while, but our lead character eventually realises what's going on; and it comes to a head on the subway where the rats have nested.Director Robert Clouse is no stranger to 'when animals attack' films, as he directed the decent 'The Pack' back in the seventies.
We do get treated to some rat attack scenes throughout the film, but nothing too devastating until the ending when the film lets rip as much as the budget would allow.
Picture little dogs dressed up in rat suits running around (never mind that you can see the zippers) and that's about as harmful as this film gets.I'm not sure what it is about rat films like this that all carry the same cliche's.
But this carries one of the most hilarious scenes in cinematic history - seeing Scatman Crothers' body getting dragged down a set of stairs by mutant rats!
It actually looks like three dogs pulling a mannequin with lamb chops tied to strings down a set of stairs, but you have to use your imagination here.Overall, I thought this was also one of the worst films that I have ever seen.
This should have been placed under the 'Family' section at video store - there was certainly nothing 'horrific' about this film, other than the fact that it was made on a shoestring budget and featured dogs in rat suits and people that couldn't act.Save this one for when you're drunk and you need something funny to laugh at.My Grade: Z!.
Deadly Eyes (1982) * (out of 4) Awful "nature gone wild" film from Canada has a bunch of bad grain being eaten by rats, which turns them into large creatures out for human blood.This film pretty much disappeared from the radar until Shout Factory!
This film here probably isn't as well remembered as those movies because it really doesn't feature a familiar cast or at least anyone remembered well today.
Another problem is that the film is pretty darn bad from the start and continues that way until the end.
Even worse is the fact that the "rats" are actually dogs with rat costumes on them, which will remind some of THE KILLER SHREWS.There are countless problems with this movie but we can start with all the characters.
The animal attack scenes are all pretty stupid with either silly looking costumes chasing people or really bad looking puppets.
Sadly, everything else is pretty much a bust including the annoying sound effects and the rather silly music score.Look, not many of the films in this genre are actually "good" but thankfully stuff like THE FOOD OF THE GODS is so awful that you can laugh.
Now we've got giant rats really sinking their teeth into their victims, in some quite bloody scenes, one sadly involving a toddler which I thought was a bit too much.
This film basically borrows the same plot of Empire Of The Ants, as the cause to how these rats became giant frenzied killers.
Hunky science teacher, Groom, the object of one student's (Langois) affections, works with and becomes romantically involved with a health inspector (Botsford) to get to the core of the rat problem.
The funniest scene is near the beginning, when a little toddler is sat eating, and the rats invade the kitchen and drag him into the cellar (the dragging is shown off-screen though).
Well, not bad, but by 1990 early 80's horror films started to show some age.
I remember big rats attacking everyone, they seem to feed off of eating grain to get to this size.
There's a scene were the rats eat a little baby, attack a subway and movie theater..
However, I love the movie, it's a suspenseful laugh-riot and great to watch at a party with friends!Kelly is a health inspector and orders a pile of animal feed to be destroyed after noting that it is a breeding ground for rats.
Unknown to her, the steroids within the feed have created rats the size of Great Danes that will soon terrorize the city of Toronto when they run out of food.
Paul and Kelly have to stop the rats before they take over Toronto, and the rest of Canada as well.Yes, this movie is cheap, yes, the acting is bad, yes, the soundtrack is lousy and yes the special effects are lame, but come on, this movie is hilarious!
The acting was generally pretty bad, but Scatman Crothers, the guy from the Stanley Kubrick classic 'the Shining', pulled off an excellent performance.Deadly Eyes deserves a much better rating, it's a hilarious B-movie with an original plot, great to watch at least once in your life..
Imagine my surprise in finding this Canadian horror film that pretty much takes Herbert's story and runs away with it (or gets away with it).Paul Harris is a divorced high school teacher and basketball coach who is dealing with rats the sizes of small dogs that have been found living in buildings containing steroid-rich grain (ripped from today's headlines!) that the health department orders burned.
And certainly not the mayor who acts like he's in the Canadian version of Jaws and then has a party on a subway train that gets infested by rats.
The unlikely heroes of the piece are science teacher & basketball coach Paul Harris (Sam Groom) and health inspector Kelly Leonard (Sara Botsford), who realize what they're dealing with and try to save the people occupying a new subway line.Author James Herbert was none too pleased with this not particularly faithful film version of his novel.
Most genre buffs already know that the rodent menaces were actually played by dachshunds wearing costumes and rather crude rat faces.
Lovely Canadian scream queens of the time Lisa Langlois and Lesleh Donaldson co-star (Langlois plays a student of Grooms' who in a subplot develops an infatuation with him), but the one person who is really worth watching here is ever lovable Scatman Crothers, who you really miss when he's gone.Unfortunately, the climax isn't all that exciting, and the ending is quite unsatisfying.
I'm fricking serious - this is a movie about mutant killer rats invading Toronto, and the rats are played by small dogs in rat costumes.
Scatman Crothers does the old one-day-Carradine trick, but these idiots forget that you're supposed to space the token big-star's scenes out through the WHOLE movie - he's gone within twenty minutes.
A disappointingly weak adaptation of James Herbert's nasty novel of the same name, this plodding movie strings together a number of passable action sequences of people being attacked by giant rats with some dull characterisation involving everyday run-of-the-mill characters that it's difficult to care two hoots about.
While the rat attack sequences are undoubtedly the highlights of the movie and contain some nicely gory touches, most are filmed in too-dark locations to disguise the fact that the oversize rats are simply dogs dressed in rat costumes.
I know that the film got a lot of stick for having dogs as the villains, but for me the effect is pretty realistic in long-shot.The increasingly bizarre murders are initiated by a genuinely shocking attack on a young baby, followed by an old man, a professor, a kid in a bowling alley and even patrons of a cinema (showing GAME OF DEATH of all things) getting chewed by the pesky rodents.
Sam Groom, the film's lead, is a good actor but his teacher, while well characterised, is just boring and ordinary and displays little heroic tendencies.
Attack of the giant killer wiener dog rats!.
Grain tainted with steroids spawns a new strain of giant killer mutant black rats that attack and eat various folks in a big city.
Director Robert Clouse lets the enjoyable story unfold at a snappy pace, delivers a handy helping of grisly gore, and stages the rat attack set pieces at a bowling alley and in a movie theater showing Clouse's Bruce Lee opus "The Game of Death" with gusto.