BEN 1972 (SHOUT FACTORY) BLU-RAY

The sequel to the highly successful "Willard".

This picks up exactly where Willard left off, as a matter of fact the opening credits are superimposed over the ending of the first film.

After an investigation of the murder of Willard Stiles, a young boy befriends the rat Willard named Ben. The boy, Danny (Lee Montgomery)comes to love Ben, all the while Ben is leading an army of several thousand rats on feeding frenzies in such places as local supermarkets and candy factories.

The police are trying to locate thousands of rats and exterminate them. Several people are killed and to make matters worse, Danny will not co-operate with the police in finding the rats.

Soon they are located and it becomes all out war between the city and sewers full of rats, and when I say full of rats, I mean FULL.

Joseph Campanella is the police detective in charge of getting rid of the rats. This film takes an entirely different turn as an out and out monster movie about killer rats where Willard was also a character tale. This is ok as the first movie was titled after the main character and this is titled after a rat, so it makes sense.

Phil Karlson directed and knows how to handle the material very well. I like this movie, not as much as Willard, but pretty damn close. the supporting cast also includes Meredith Baxter, Arthur O' Connell, Rosemary Murphey, Paul Carr and Ken Tobey. The title song is, of course, sung by Michael Jackson and to this day I am amazed about how many people know this song, but do not know it is a love song to a killer rat!!

The Blu-ray looks good and Shout makes it known that the original inter positive and negative have been lost, but don't let that keep you away from a very creepy film.