So, I’m at home getting ready to go bowling. And there it is, a rat has climbed up the wall towards the roof. And while I’m laying the rat traps here, there, and around, that fear takes hold. What if it while I’m laying the trap in that dark corner I feel its whiskers. What if I see its eyes? What if mistake its tail for a paintbrush? What if it falls from above and lands on my head? Or it crawls down my shirt? Or they nest in the baby stroller? Or what if I inhale some rat turd without knowing it. Now you laugh but I know guy had that happen to him. Some how he digested some rat scat and he almost died.

So what is your favorite use of a rat in a horror movie? Hands down it’s got to be HORROR CASTLE with Christopher Lee. That part I write of is when The Punisher straps a rat cage to a victim’s face and lets the rat loose. “The old ways are still the best”.

The thought it not only has a disease but it may eat you. Uuuuk! So come on what are your picks? And how do you get rid of these things?

Do R.O.U.S's count?

There was a scene similar to the one you describe in Horror Castle I remember in a film called Epitaph that really impressed me as a kid, only more gruesome... at least, that's how I remember it (it might also have seemed nastier just because the film'd contemporary, so the violence felt less removed from the viewer). I haven't seen it since then, but that scene has definitely stayed with me. I wish it would come out on DVD so I could revisit it.

Got to be the water-breathing rat in THE ABYSS (which may not be in the current UK BBFC-approved version, I've lost track). Or the facially-applied rats in 1984.

As I've mentioned, the rat in OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN haunts me...

Rats are great torture devices. You haven't lived until you've seen how Chuck Norris survives having a burlap sack with a rat in it tied over his head in MISSING IN ACTION 2. Anyone who doubts the awesomeness of Chuck Norris will surely have his mind changed.

2 FAST 2 FURIOUS introduced a nicely sadistic rat torture, but didn't follow through with it.

This inspired use of rats was also used in the amazing DEATH PROMISE. Of course, the Turks one upped us all by having Spider-Man use a Guinea Pig as the inflicter of pain in 3 DEV ADAM.

"HELP! RATS! THEY'RE EATING ME! RATS! HELP ME! RATS ARE EATING MEEEE!!! RATS ARE EATING ME ALIVE!!! HELP ME! THEY'RE EATING ME ALIVE!!!"
- Mean Old Bastard, Inferno

(Contrary to general notions, out-of-towners should take note that this sort of thing happens in Central Park every night.)

Off the top of my head, my favorite horror movie scenes with rats would probably be in both the Murnau and Herzog versions of Nosferatu.

Gotta love 'During Barty's Party' from Nigel Kneale's BEASTS - and you don't even see 'em!

Doran, that David Lynch directed PSA you posted in the commercials thread over in the tv forum makes great use of rats, too. Here's the link again:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSWv90msTUc

As for my favorite use of a rat, I'd have to go with RATATOUILLE. Yes, I know the rats were animated, but the animators obviously spent loads of time with real rats to get the movements and postures down. I love rats, I've had lots of pet rats over the years, and RATATOUILLE was spot-on.

The talking rat in DREAM IN THE WITCH HOUSE is seriously creepy.

beast,
FBC

Oh yeah - those were some great examples I didn't think of.
Here's another one: Bruno Mattei's Rats - the final scene (I won't spoil it; but if you've seen it, you know)!

And in a more humane and enlightened universe:
rats are people too

That being said - it's not a horror film but fav rat scene happens crossing the border through the endless sewer in EL NORTE.

I was thinking the opening of Hell of the Living Dead... a zombie rat that somehow gets into the airtight hazmat setup of a techie and sets into motion one of the film's funniest motifs: someone getting their face chewed off as everyone else does nothing but stand there looking horrified.

It's not officially a horror film -- it's just horrible -- but John Savage wakes up with a rat in his mouth in the delirious Nastassja Kinski vehicle MARIA'S LOVERS (1984).

Sad to say, the burning rats in HUNCHBACK OF THE MORGUE are pretty effective.

. . . I would agree with this - Murnau's win by a nose as black and white (tinted blue-ish?) rats work better for me as objects of horror than those in color, his film enjoys a creepier atmosphere than Herzog's, and stars an actual vampire (see SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE for details) . . .

No question about it:

Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?

What, no lovin' for Willard?

HELLRAISER: Frank, a rat and a switchblade.

I've always been partial to the rat cage scene from The Virgin of Nuremberg. Nothing like having a cage placed over one's head with a hungry rat romping and chomping around at will.

I think BEN had more rats - but was a sweeter story. In fact, when I saw BEN when I was a kid, I was balling at the end of the movie...when Ben and David (Lee Montgomery) are reunited...and Michael Jackson's song plays...as moving as LASSIE COME HOME...

Anyway - the rats under the Starlight Motel in EATEN ALIVE are pretty gnarly...

One of the pariahs sweeping rats off a corpse before dragging it over to a wall so he and a friend can chow down on it whilst Laura Gemser (credited as Moira Chen) sneaks past - at the beginning of Joe D'Amato's ENDGAME.

another favorite is in THE INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1978).

"Its a rat turd."