Kelly Leonard (Sara Botsford) works for the city as a Health Inspector. Kelly determines that a supply of corn meal to be shipped out to a third world country is contaminated with rodents and is full of steroids. She orders that the entire shipment be burned. The rats that have been feasting on the corn have mutated and are now the size of small dogs. With their home and food supply now gone, the rats begin migrating from the docks into the sewer system and the basements of homes. People begin to get attacked by the rats.
Paul Harris (Sam Groom) is a high school teacher and the school’s basketball coach. Paul is divorced and has a young son, Tim (Lee-Max Walton). One of Paul’s students, Trudy White (Lisa Langlois) has a crush on Paul and would like to have a fling with him. Paul understands the perils of such a situation and does his best to nicely turn her down. When one of Paul’s basketball students, David Hoserman (Kevin Foxx), is bitten, Kelly shows up at the emergency room to find out what bit him. Paul shows up to check on David and meets Kelly. Paul and Kelly meet again the next day in the park. They become attracted to each other and begin a relationship.
When Kelly’s associate George Foskins (Scatman Crothers) is killed by the rats, Kelly begins to wonder if the grain they were eating did something to their metabolism. She has the sewer system fumigated just in case. Kelly and Paul visit Paul’s friend, Dr. Louis Spenser (Cec Linder) for advice. At first Dr. Spenser sees no reason why the grain should have any effect on the rodents. He later changes his mind when he sees damage done by the rats. He leaves Paul a message about his findings and about his concern that the rats may be able to infiltrate the subway system.
Kelly and Paul had plans to take Tim to the dedication of the opening of a new metro stop. When Tracy’s latest scheme puts Paul in a bind, Tim and Kelly go without him. Paul goes into a panic when he hears Dr. Spenser’s message about giant rats in the subway system. With the sewers filled with poison gas, the rats spread out and come up into a nearby cinema, bowling alley and the subway. All hell breaks loose when the giant rats start dining on the citizens of the city.
“Deadly Eyes” AKA “Night Eyes” AKA “The Rats” AKA “Rats” was released in 1982 and was directed by Robert Clouse. It is a Canadian science fiction horror movie. The film is loosely based on the 1974 novel “The Rats” by James Herbert.
This is one of those silly guilty pleasure movies. The rats are smaller than the shrews from “The Killer Shrews” 1959, but the movie is on the same lines. I consider it a 50’s style giant creature movie, with extra blood, and a good example of ratsploitation.
The giant rats are actually Dachshunds and Terriers in costume. The trainers used 35 Dachshunds and 5 Terriers. The dogs had trouble seeing in the rat costumes, so meat was used to get them to run in whatever direction was needed. Puppets were also used for close ups. One of the Dachshunds died on set. It is believed it suffocated in the rat suit. Other than that one tragedy, it is generally believed that the dogs were treated quite well.
The movie takes place in Toronto, Canada. According to Orkin Canada, Toronto has the worst rodent problem in the country.