The Weekly Horror Double Bill: Of Unknown Origin and Willard

This week we've got a bit of a pest control problem with two very different solutions.

You've got rats in your house. Do you:

a) Do whatever it takes to kill the varmint?

or

b) Make it your best buddy?  

Of Unknown Origin (1983)

The title of George P. Cosmatos' film may suggest some otherworldly menace but, in truth, it’s about a rat and one mild-mannered office worker's obsession with exterminating said rodent.

When Bart Hughes’ wife and son go on vacation, Bart stays behind. He’s hoping for a promotion and can’t risk going away at such a crucial time. It’s not long however, before he realises he’s not alone in his newly renovated townhouse.

Director Cosmatos builds the tension like a master, giving us point of view shots of the “creature” accompanied by creepy scurrying sounds. It’s not so much not wanting to reveal the “monster” too soon as giving you, the viewer, a similar perspective to Bart, thus tying you more closely to the film's central character.

A pre-Robocop Peter Weller plays Bart Hughes in a tour de force performance that sucks you into the film; it has to, as Bart is the only fully developed character in the movie. We may encounter his fellow office workers and even his wife and child, but they’re not essential to the story. This is a primal tale of man against beast, with Bart’s need to kill the creature so all-consuming that nothing else matters, not work, not family, nothing but his need to end the vermin’s life.

The director realises he’s telling an epic story on a small scale and the film is littered with references to other famous man-against-nature encounters; the book Bart throws at the ceiling when he hears the rat scratching above him is Moby Dick, a movie showing on TV is John Sturges’ adaptation of Hemingway’s The Old Man of the Sea.

It may go a tad over the top towards the end, as Bart does more damage to the home he restored than the rat does, but then that’s the nature of obsession.

This is a little gem of a film that really deserves to be more well known. The trailer paints it as a supernatural tale in the vein of The Amityville Horror but it’s all the more effective for having a “real” monster. You’ll be listening for telltale sounds for days after it's ended.

Article Author: Ian Woolstencroft

Ian Woolstencroft was brought up on a diet of John Wayne movies and Marvel Comics and still has a passion for both. Now as a blogcritic he finally understands what Spider-Man’s Uncle Ben meant when he said ‘With great power comes great responsibility.’ …

Visit Ian Woolstencroft's author page — Ian Woolstencroft's Blog