Rare Flix: Night Eyes/Deadly Eyes

The Rats are coming!  The Review is here.  Today's Film is Deadly Eyes aka Night Eyes, a 1982 Horror Film about some familiar vermin.  This is all about Rats- big, ugly ones!  This is yet another Killer Animals Film based on a Book, although this one doesn't come to us from the 1970s.  Sorry, you're more in line with Slugs, Beaks than Bug or Night of the Lepus.  Is that an insult?  I'll get back to you on that.  This Film comes with a note from its original Author- it's bad.  He didn't like the Film apparently, but I guess the check still cashed.  The Director is notable- Robert Clouse.  The man who brought us Enter the Dragon and Jackie Chan's first big Film in America- Battle Creek- also made a Film about killer rats- go figure.  This fact was apparently not known by any of the Cast Members, which is odd when you consider that it was only 4 years past Game of Death's U.S. Release.  Ouch.  So yeah, the Plot involves vaguely-mutant Rats and a romantic love-triangle that is all sort of padding.  To find out if this is a lost Classic or something that your cat buried, read on...

Mutant Rats enter NYC via some tainted grain full of pesticides and steroids.  Thanks alot, Vince McMahon!

Our Hero is this Teacher, who has a girl in his Class with a crush on him.  She's subtle.

Here's something you probably didn't see coming...

After teasing that this kid is in danger several times, they...actually kill the kid in this Story!  Seriously!  They also kill the Responsible Teen, the same kind who'd live to the end in a Slasher Film.

The girl makes a move on the Teacher and he does his best to keep her away.  Try harder!

Meanwhile, the Rats continue their onslaught on the young, old and feeble.  Only one Teen so far!

To help the Film reach 90 minutes, he then hooks up with the lady who stopped the shipment from coming in originally.  For such a big City, it sure is small!

As the Film starts to wrap up, we get a bunch of people killed by Animals in the Subway.

Wait- this was also in Wild Beasts!  What are the odds?!?

The Film give us the Corman-Bay combo- giant explosion and burning the set down.

Our Heroes- he ditches the young girl, by the way- get the Subway started again and drive it to the next stop, revealing the Rats to everyone.  Aren't they also going to get them killed?

Oh well- the Film is over.  The End.

Where does this rank among the killer Rat Films?  Deadly Eyes is a pretty solid Film, even if the Plot doesn't ever deviate too much from the norm and is a bit padded.  The Rat effects are actually pretty convincing, even if they basically used the same trick from The Killer Shrews.  The Film apparently has a sort-of-Remake from 2002 and that just uses CG.  At least that Film has the weird notoriety of being bumped from TV on its original air date- September 11, 2001.  Ouch.  Anyhow, this one is still really not that great, but it at least deserves more than being a hard-to-find Film online.  In many ways, it is similar to stuff like those German Rat Films I covered long ago.  If you can accept the pretty stock Plot, the Film has some genuinely-good Effects (I know- I was shocked too) and a few surprises in store.  It also has some nice, dated moments like the Hero's kid watching the B.C. Cartoon and...people making out while watching Game of Death...

Next up, an even more Rare Film that isn't even on the 'big' sites.  Is it truly a hidden gem?  Stay tuned...