The Rats Are Coming! The Werewolves Are Here! Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		3.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		2.0

The Rats Are Coming! The Werewolves Are Here! Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 5, 2021

Note: This film is available as part of The Dungeon of Andy Milligan.

Lovers of what might be charitably termed Grade Z Cinema have had a number of outstanding releases by a variety of labels over the past few years. Arrow has offered fans surprisingly deluxe-ified (that's a word, I insist) editions of The Herschell Gordon Lewis Feast and Weird Wisconsin: The Bill Rebane Collection, among others, while Severin Films has gotten into exploring this decidedly odd nook and/or cranny with releases like Al Adamson: The Masterpiece Collection. Severin's back with more, um, "masterpieces" with this inventively packaged homage to the late Andy Milligan, a kinda sorta auteur whose professional life had more than its fair share of hurdles, and whose personal life unfortunately ended up not being much better. The 14 films (with one bonus film in HD, Toga Party) aggregated in this set are exploitation outings at their "finest" (?), which means those with more patrician tastes are probably well advised to steer completely clear of this release. Those with grittier sensibilities will find some at times oddly entertaining movies and Severin's usual supply of appealing supplements.

I'm pretty sure I reviewed a release some time ago where I think it may have been Samuel M. Sherman, who is also featured in this set (if not on this particular disc) in one of the many supplements included as bonus items, who may have been talking in some other supplement on another disc about some other exploitation fare he had a hand in. Sherman relayed an anecdote where some event or movie hit or something caused a new film to be produced as quickly as possible (like in just a few days) in order to cash in on whatever the craze of the moment was (it may have been one of the Adamson biker movies made in the wake of Easy Rider). Hilariously in that regard, the fact that The Rats Are Coming! The Werewolves Are Here! began life as a ratless feature called Curse of the Full Moon (included on this disc as a supplement) may spark memories in some cult movie fans of a little film called Willard, which came out in 1971 and became an unexpected box office phenomenon. One can almost hear producer William Mishkin looking at Willard's ticket sales and musing, "Rats? Well, okay, then, rats. Milligan, we need rats in your picture, stat."

Unfortunately, the whole rat angle is more than obviously shoehorned into what is otherwise an at least passably interesting Gothic tinged tale of a young about to be married couple coming to the bride's family home for the prospective groom to meet his beloved's relatives, only to discover he may be marrying into a family of werewolves. This is another Milligan effort with some pretty wide variances in acting acumen, and only fitful attempts at a consistent feel for time and place.

The Rats Are Coming! The Werewolves Are Here! Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Rats Are Coming! The Werewolves Are Here! is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. Severin's booklet included with this release has the following information on the transfer:

The Rats Are Coming! The Werewolves Are Here! is presented in two versions: the original unreleased director's cut, filmed in 1969 as Curse of the Full Moon; and the 1972 cinema release, rated 'PG', which featured additional material shot in 1971. Curse has been scanned and restored in 2K from its 16mm camera reversal. This version of the film was never released. No title sequence was prepared and no final mix done. Rats has been reconstructed using the same 16mm camera reversal as Curse, with the additional sequences sourced from the 25mm blow-up internegative created for the theatrical release, which is the best condition source element believed to survive. All audio for Rats was transferred from the 35mm optical soundtrack negative.

There's a somewhat heterogeneous look here, which I'm assuming is due to the different source elements mentioned above, but this is overall a rather appealing looking transfer, one that preserves the grittier aspects of the 16mm element while also offering some decent detail levels when lighting conditions and Milligan's always tenuous framing and focus pulling allow. The palette looks rather well suffused for the most part. There's a bit of haziness that accrues in selected interior scenes, and again perhaps due at least in part to the different elements utilized, grain structure is a bit variable at times as well.

The Rats Are Coming! The Werewolves Are Here! Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

While it's certainly not going set any audiophile's ears on fire, The Rats Are Coming! The Werewolves Are Here! features one of the less problematic DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono tracks on this set. There are still some minor deficits in consistent amplitude, though I found this track to be less challenging than others in that regard. While there's a bit of age related background hiss, fidelity is generally decent if not overwhelming. Optional English subtitles can help to decipher any hard to understand dialogue.

The Rats Are Coming! The Werewolves Are Here! Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer (SD; 2:27)


• Curse of the Full Moon (HD; 1:13:07) is billed as "the original unfinished director's cut" of The Rats Are Coming! - The Werewolves are Here! This has two audio tracks, "original dialogue only" and "cut down audio from The Rats Are Coming!".


• The World of Andy Milligan (HD; 15:10) is an appealing featurette giving a bit of biographical background on Milligan along with looks at various locations, with Chris Poggiali from Temple of Schlock.

The Rats Are Coming! The Werewolves Are Here! Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This particular disc may be of special interest for Milligan fans since it offers a kind of behind the curtain glimpse at how Milligan was tasked with making his films supposedly "relevant" or at least "marketable". Within the context of this set as a whole, where technical merits can be limited by source elements utilized, The Rats Are Coming! The Werewolves Are Here! features decent video and audio, for those who are considering making a purchase.