Leave it to Morgan Spurlock — the Oscar-nominated documentarian who brought us Super Size Me and 30 Days — to take on rats. His new “horrormentary” Rats is a wildly entertaining look at these sinister little beasts that are taking over the world. Rats premieres on Discovery Channel Saturday, Oct. 22 at 9/8p. Spurlock was inspired by New York Times best-selling author Robert Sullivan’s book Rats: Observations on the History & Habitat of the City’s Most Unwanted Inhabitants, for which Sullivan spent a year investigating rats and the people (sanitation crews, exterminators, activists) who interact with the creatures along an infested alley a few blocks off Wall Street. Spurlock takes that concept and goes global, bringing viewers face-to-face with these parasites while exploring our fears and fascinations.
The film is both enlightening and terrifying — in subject matter and pace — as it follows the traditional documentary format but makes us cringe, jump and gag along the way. [The dissection of a rat where scientists pull out a live fly larva had me reaching for my garbage can. Thank you, Mr. Spurlock.] Of course a documentary on rats needs to feature New York City’s finest, so viewers will be treated to a walking tour around the city where experts point out the rats along city streets, in parks, subway tunnels, really everywhere. Ed Sheen, an exterminator who has been dealing with these diabolical animals for the past 48 years, says while NYC has 8.2 million people, the city also has 8.2 million rats and these rats “are dribbling urine all over your dishes.” Ugh!
Clearly, the greatest thing rats pose to us is disease – with leptospirosis being one of the most deadly. These facts are lobbed at us throughout the documentary, and they are going to leave you jaw dropped (rats can carry 500 million viruses on one foot) and downright afraid (this is an animal that if it has the opportunity will attack).
Spurlock takes his cameras beyond New York City and goes to the English countryside, where packs of terriers hunt and kill the varmints. Cameras also follow a group of residents in India who are revered as the Night Rat Killers, as they prowl the city for rats, capturing them with nets and then snapping their necks with their bare hands. Equally disgusting, yet utterly engrossing, is Spurlock’s coverage of a New Orleans lab where scientists are studying how flooding and abandoned neighborhoods have increased the infestation.
It’s truly a can’t-turn-away TV experience. Thank Spurlock for your nightmares.
