Netflix Halloween Countdown #1: Rat Fever!!!

For a couple of years I’ve been conducting the Netflix Streaming Safari in which I plunge deep into the bowels of Netflix Watch Instantly to find movies worth watching because let’s face it, Netflix streaming is basically a collection of a lot of TV shows, a few big movies, and a whole bunch of “Who cares?” However, if you are a loser like me with loads of free time and a willingness to dig, there are funky hidden diamonds to be found. This October, I’m counting down a freaky horror movie (or two, or three) every day until Halloween. No big blockbusters, no movies you’ve already seen a million times. Just 31 days of weird horror movies that Netflix will instantly vomit into your home over the internuts.

For the first day of the Netflix Safari Halloween Adventure we’re focusing our attention on giant rats.

FOOD OF THE GODS (1976) – do you like monster movies? What about a monster movie in which the monsters are mice, filmed in extreme close-up, rubbing their furry little ball sacks all over models of cars and houses? Starring Marjoe (the child evangelist turned faith healer turned Christian con artist whistle blower, here trying to become a movie star) and golden age actress and film noir director, Ida Lupino (giving a new meaning to the word “Acting!”) this might be the most consistently entertaining gonzo movie on Netflix. Every five seconds someone delivers a head-scratching wooden line, like a log falling out of the sawmill that is their mouth, or they’re fighting a really terrible optical effect, or there’s a close-up of mouse-balls. (Watch it!)

MULBERRY STREET (2007) - the first movie from Jim Mickle and Nick Damici who would go on to make the fantastic low budget redneck vampire epic, STAKE LAND, this is a movie for anyone who’s ever found a mouse in their apartment and wanted to stomp its furry little brains out. Shot for about a $1.45, MULBERRY STREET is one of those horror movies that makes up for in originality what it lacks in budget. An apartment building stuffed with freaky New York City characters suffers from a rat problem, and not just a regular rat problem, but a problem with rats who are turning into human beings or human beings who are turning into rats. Unexpected, full of scrappy characters without a prayer making courageous last stands, and Nick Damici who’s so manly that he makes Clint Eastwood look like a schoolgirl, MULBERRY STREET is held together with spit and string but it delivers a wild ride that never slows down long enough for you to see the seams. (Watch it!)