Fridae

Thirty-two years after rival rats Socrates and Ben first swarmed over the silver screen, they and their nasty little furry friends are back, terrorising and devouring humans in a creepy remake of Willard.

Starring kooky Crispin Glover in the title role, Willard is a kitschy remake of a 1971 cult horror flick of the same name. Glover plays Willard Stiles, an introverted antisocial loner who finds solace and ultimately vengeance in the growing colony of rats in the basement of a decaying old mansion he shares with a grotesquely old invalid mother (Jackie Burroughs) who alternates between being belittling and possessive toward her son.

Although the premise sounds like a perfect recipe for a B-movie for weirdos, writer-director Glen Morgan and producer James Wong, who previously worked on TV classic The X-Files and sci-fi horror flick Final Destination, pull it off with strong performances, stylish direction and ominous cinematography.

Glover, with his naturally sinister persona and trademark �ber-angular features, delivers a goose pimple inducing performance in a different kind of horror movie where your popcorn won't spill.

A perfect synthesis of actor and role, the 39-year-old actor who is probably best remembered as George McFly in 1985 classic Back To the Future and The Thin Man in Charlie's Angels, manages to captivate the audience through his chemistry with his little furry friends.

Willard works in a menial office job at a dreary factory his long-dead father founded where he is constantly terrorised and humiliated by his cruel boss (R. Lee Ermey) who muscled out the elder Stiles and may have had something to do with his death. When Willard's boss persists that he will not be devoured by the rat race of the business world, we snicker knowingly and patiently await his gruesome fate.

After a complaint from his mother about rats in the basement, Willard investigates; but instead of exterminating the vermin, Willard, who finds social interaction with fellow human beings difficult, befriends an albino rat that he names Socrates. He becomes enchanted with the intelligent, friendly rodent and takes it with him to work - and to bed.

Willard's fondness for Socrates does not go unnoticed by rival Ben, a ferocious and intimidating rabbit-sized gray rat who leads the rat pack. As the film winds down, we are reminded that the Ben/Socrates rivalry - as surprisingly moving and relevant as it may be - stretches too far and is far too silly for us to make it seriously (they are rats afterall!). And as Willard scurries to its natural conclusion, we're trapped in our seats waiting a little too long for what we're there to see - retribution at the tiny hands of the rats.

Warning: cat lovers beware!