Tags:
Film: Burial of the Rats
Year: 1995
Director: Dan Golden
Writer: Adrien Hein, Tara McCann, Daniella Purcell and Somtow Sucharitkul
Starring: Adrienne Barbeau, Maria Ford and Kevin Alber
Review:
This film begins with two men in the back of a coach. The younger one is Bram Stoker, before he was a famous writer and he is played by Kevin Alber. The other man is his father who is played by Eduard Plaxin. Their coach starts to go much faster and Plaxin scolds the driver to slow down. He warns them that there are bandits in the area. The coach then comes to a stop. We then see through the eyes of a creature that is small and goes for the coach.
The two men exit to find that their driver has been killed and cleaned to the bone by something. Hooded figures then come out of nowhere and attack. Alber pulls out a gun and tells the one that is before him to leave or he will shoot. He does and kills the person. He is then tied up and captured.
Alber is chained up in a cell and we see that the people that have kidnapped him are scantly clad women. One is played by Maria Ford and another by Olga Kabo. Kabo wants to kill him, but Ford seems interested in him.
This group of women is led by Adrienne Barbeau, who they call the queen. These women have control over rats and they do their bidding on command. They all have been wronged by men in some way, so they are out to punish them. Barbeau has an instrument that allows her to communicate with them. They put on dances every night from women who are not wearing very much.
It is decided that since Alber killed one of the women, that he is sentenced to be killed by being strapped to a pendulum and the women take turns hitting the device so that it lowers him closer to a pit of rats. He is close to being killed when Alber states to Ford that he only killed the woman, because he was protecting his father. Ford misses hitting the device and Alber is allowed to survive.
Barbeau decrees that he will be allowed to live and that they are going to take him on a raid of a local monastery that is corrupt. Alber is commanded to go along to see what the women do.
At this point we see that Plaxin is still alive and goes to the constable, played by Vladimir Kuleshov. He asks him to help find his son. When the police learn where they were attacked and taken, he doesn’t think that Alber is still alive. They ignore his pleas.
We then shift to the monastery. Inside we see that the priests here are greedy as they have more gold than they know what to do with it. Kabo knocks at the door and she is greeted by the head priest. He attempts to turn her away, but Kabo convinces him to hear her sins. During her confession, the priest gropes her and she releases rats that attack him. More women bust into the monastery and attack. Alber watches as they do. After killing the men, they loot what they can. Ford takes paper and ink, knowing that Alber wants to be a writer from one of their talks.
She gives him this as a gift when he is in his cell. She visits him later on and he has written some things. We learn that she cannot read and wants him to tell her what he wrote. He starts to and while he is reading, Kabo overhears it. She takes this to Barbeau. Ford is falling for Alber, so she enters his cell and releases his leg from a shackle. Barbeau and Kabo happen upon them. What Alber has written is given to Barbeau who reads it. This backfires though, as she loves it. She then commands that Alber will be allowed to stay with them, as long as he keeps writing. The plan is to send it off to scare men away from their group.
Alber then makes love to Ford and joins the women for dinner, much to the displeasure of Kabo. Alber wants to know what their next raid will be so he can write about it. Kabo doesn’t think it is smart to do another so soon, as the police will be ready for them. She is overruled and there is a local brothel that will be their next target.
At this brothel, they have the youngest prostitute in the city. It is degrading and the women attack, killing patrons of the establishment. Kabo was right as the police were not too far away. During this raid, Ford is captured. She is taken and tortured to discover where the hideout of the Rat Women is. Kuleshov was at the brothel and was hiding, but he learned that Alber was with them. He then listens to Plaxin. Kuleshov’s goal is to end this group of women.
Will Kuleshov find their hideout and put an end to the Rat Women? Will Alber get free of them before it is too late? Will he be reunited with his father? Can he convince Ford to come with him?
This film is quite interesting. I like the fact that the main character is the famous writer Bram Stoker, but before he is famous and actually a writer. His father tells him to get out there and experience the world so he can write about what he sees. This leads us into him being captured and writing things that impresses Barbeau of the Rat Women. There were some sword fights and being able to control the rats wasn’t bad. This film could have also been a great look at feminism. This group of women is oppressed by men to the point where they are not going to take it anymore. They get their revenge and the police or men are out to put them back into their place. This unfortunately gets undermined by all of the nudity and the ending though. It really ends up being a film that is made by a man about women.
Unfortunately as well, this film was marred by bad acting. The concept of the film is good and I don’t mind the fact that Alber gets initiated into their group, but it happens so quickly and he really didn’t need to do much to get there. It was almost like that he just told him that he was a good guy and that he wanted to help him, they never experienced so they allowed him to join. A little farfetched to me speaking how deep their hatred seems to go. The film seems to just rest on all of the nudity that is in it throughout and the film actually needs up being kind of boring. I also hated that he bodies of victims of the rats are cleaned to the bone so quickly. It isn’t realistic and they don’t have that many rats from what we saw on screen to do it like they did.
Now with that said, I would avoid this film unless you are just out to see a bunch of half naked women. Most everyone is wearing revealing clothing and many of them get nude in some way. The acting is subpar, the story is kind of boring and they wasted a good concept. This could have been a great look at feminism and women oppression, but it is undermined by the nudity and the ending. If not for that, this could have had more staying power and be used to look at issues we see even now. I personally do not recommend this film unless this sounds interesting.
My Rating: 4 out of 10