Did I mention the rat people?
Main Cast: Nick Damici, Kim Blair
Director: Jim Mickle
Each year there are movies produced that are never seen by the public. Their content is considered too graphic, too disturbing, too shocking for general audiences. This is one of those films.
In a crumbling New York apartment building, the residents are struggling to get by, leaning on each other for companionship, and just hoping they don’t get evicted as part of the new “cleaning up the neighborhood” campaign being launched by a rich real estate dude. Meanwhile, an outbreak of rat attacks is taking the city by storm. But these are no ordinary rat attacks.
As the victims fall, they’re starting to get back up again, only this time with a taste for human flesh. And they’re sprouting hair in new and unusual places. And their eyes are getting beadier. And their teeth are getting bigger.
Over the course of one day, Manhattan is closed off and under siege by an infestation of rat people. And it’s every man for himself. Except in this old apartment building on Mulberry Street, where neighbors are family and everyone watches out for everyone else.
Yes, it is every bit as goofy as it sounds. But it’s also pretty fun to watch. Why is it the horror genre is the one that gets saddled with the most ridiculous situations in the world, and is forced to play them straight?
MULBERRY ST. takes its cues from all the similar movies that have come before, most obviously NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, only the survivors holed up in the building aren’t strangers, and the zombies coming after them have all the powers of a rat, including the ability to eat through walls and into the ceilings and whatnot. In essence, MULBERRY ST. is a zombie movie without the zombies. But let’s face it, rat people are so much cooler anyway, right?
There’s gore aplenty, but no one-liners or cheap scares. MULBERRY ST. is very much a straight up serious horror movie–with rat people, did I mention the rat people? The cast is made up of unknowns from start to finish–at least I didn’t recognize any of them. These aren’t Broadway actors trying to make it into the movies, I’d imagine more like neighborhood friends of the writer and director who happen to have a few other credits as well. There’s a lot of “CSI” and “Law and Order” appearances listed in these resumes.
Director Jim Mickle has plenty of credits to his name, but this was his first directing gig. For what it was (rat people!), MULBERRY ST. was handled pretty well. I’m glad they didn’t resort to trying for the EVIL DEAD horror/comedy angle; it was bad enough with the rat people, this movie needed all the seriousness it could muster. Mickle used a lot of handheld cameras which complimented the news footage that carried the story along (thank God, no ridiculous info dumps from some mysterious all-knowing character who pops up in act three to give our heroes all the info they need to survive and bring down the rat people for good!), but never got so shaky I thought I was watching a TV cop drama.
Music was well-placed and well-chosen for the greatest effect, especially in one particularly beautiful scene, and cinematographer Ryan Samul got some excellent gritty and oppressive footage. I certainly felt the heat of that ungodly day coming through the screen.
I dug MULBERRY ST. I wouldn’t mind watching it again. I think it took way too long to get moving; of the 84 minute running time, the first 35-40 of that was spent on establishing characters and relationships before anything truly interesting happened, and while that’s way too long to get to the action, once it started it never let up, which I appreciated. Sometimes you just need something fun and gross and totally ridiculous to clean the pallet, you know?
While MULBERRY ST. isn’t the most awesome or ground-breaking thing to come along in years, it does ride that line very well between giving horror fans something they haven’t seen before, but keeping enough reserve in check not to go overboard. I can’t imagine it winning any awards, but it was pretty good.
More 8 Films to Die For II
C. Dennis Moore is the author of over 60 published short stories and novellas in the speculative fiction genre. Most recent appearances are in the Dark Highlands 2, What Fears Become, Dead Bait 3 and Dark Highways anthologies. His novels are Revelations, and the Angel Hill stories, The Man in the Window, The Third Floor, and The Flip.
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