Editorials
Raving for Rodents: 8 of Horror’s Raddest Rats!
Since we’ve been huddling together in caves, rats have gotten a bad rap. Murophobia, the fear of mice and rats, is one of the most common phobias in the world. Their cultural significance as carriers of disease and creators of famine has made them monsters in horror fiction.
Real-life rats are actually pretty helpful to humans. They’re great for scientific experimentation because their social structures are so similar to ours. They’re excellent pets for children, as they’re clean and rarely bite. Some species are being used to sniff out landmines and detect Tuberculosis.
So what makes rats scary, exactly? They have sharp teeth, sharp nails, and can carry diseases. They live where we live, and it’s common for humans to exist around rats (and vice-versa) without the humans ever being the wiser. They’re everywhere, they outnumber us, and that’s what makes them such a terrifying threat in horror cinema.
To celebrate Shout Factory’s Blu-ray release of Willard, we’re taking a look at eight of horror’s most reviled rats.
8. The Rodentz of Altered Species/Rodentz (2001)
Altered Species is schlocky low-budget horror, but it does feature some fabulous furry villains. In the film, also called Rodentz in some regions, a science experiment to create a cancer cure instead turns its test subjects – three lab rats – into mutant monsters that can regenerate. The rats, including one who is now the size of a dumpster, go on a rampage. Each of the rats has a different reaction to their version of the “cure” and is its own unique monster. Altered Species is no Citizen Kane, but if you’re looking for killer rats and science gone wrong, this is the ticket.
7. The Rats of The Rats (2002)
Mädchen Amick (Twin Peaks) stars in this made-for-TV horror flick about rats who attack and take over a department store in Manhattan. Directed by John Lafia (the guy who wrote the original Child’s Play!), The Rats features massive hordes of rats wreaking havoc on anything and everything they touch. There are tons of typical trashy TV movie tropes to be had here, including a bit of nudity and some very silly gore.
6. The Horde of The Pit and the Pendulum (1913)
One of the most notorious horror stories about rats is Edgar Allan Poe’s The Pit and the Pendulum, in which a man tortured by the Inquisition is saved when rats chew through his bindings. Many of the film adaptations of the story omit this part, but the 1913 version directed and produced by French filmmaker Alice Guy-Blaché featured a whole horde of live rats for its finale. Unfortunately, the rats were killed after the film wrapped, but the treatment of animals in cinema has improved in the century since.
5. Nicodemus and Jenner – The Secret of NIMH (1982)
While The Secret of NIMH isn’t exactly a horror movie, it has given enough children nightmares to qualify. This Don Bluth classic animated feature, about a mouse who must face incredible challenges to save her family, has more than its share of scary moments. It also has lots of rats, including wise old wizard rat Nicodemus (Derek Jacobi) and the villainous Jenner (Paul Shenar). Despite Jenner being the movie’s “big bad”, it’s really humans who cause fear and suffering among their four-legged neighbors.
4. The Giant Rats – The Food of the Gods (1976)
If you’re looking for horror flick with rodents of unusual size, look no further than 1976’s The Food of the Gods. Based on an H.G. Wells story and directed by Bert I. Gordon, this film depicts a group of people on vacation who stumble across an island of giant animals. They are attacked by giant wasps, worms, and more before they meet the truly nasty natives – the giant rats. Utilizing rat costumes, animatronics, and some comical camera tricks, this violent, ridiculous film is one for the ages.
3. One Rascally Rodent – Of Unknown Origin (1983)
Of Unknown Origin pits Robocop against rat. Directed by George P. Cosmatos (father of Mandy’s Panos Cosmatos), this 1983 horror film stars Peter Weller as a man who becomes obsessed with killing a single rat living in his brownstone. When his wife and son leave for vacation, Weller’s character tries to work on a project for a promotion and renovate his home. A rat living in his basement decides to create a little mischief, and the homeowner nearly destroys everything trying to kill the rat. Imagine Mouse Hunt (1997) meets Arachnophobia (1990) and you’re on the right track.
2. Socrates – Willard (1971 and 2003)
In both versions of Willard, the titular character is a lonely and awkward man trying to improve his life. He befriends a little white rat that he names Socrates for its intelligence. Socrates is the closest thing to a hero in Willard, offering Willard comfort and friendship. He destroys a bit of property but never hurts a living creature. Socrates is a good rat, and it isn’t shocking that his death at the hands of Willard’s cruel boss is what sends Willard into a murderous spiral.
1. Ben – Willard and Ben (1972)
Ben is easily the scariest rat to have ever graced the silver screen. He’s a huge rat, portrayed by a Gambian Pouched Rat in the 2003 version of Willard. Ben is as smart as Socrates but a whole lot more ruthless. He initially seems to want Willard’s affection, or at least similar treatment to Socrates. When Willard rejects him, however, Ben helps orchestrate Socrates’ death and the torrent of violence that Willard’s rats inflict in his name. Not only does Ben get the better of Willard, he goes on to have a sequel devoted entirely to his horrifying friendship with a lonely little boy. As brilliant as he is brutal, Ben is a rat icon. Name another rat with a Michael Jackson song written about him. We’ll wait.
I first heard about The Mandela Catalogue through a couple of nephews who were obsessed with the ARG’s sinister mythology. It was only after watching Wendigoon’s in-depth analysis of the series that I realized just how deep this rabbit hole goes.
In fact, I’d already been exposed to the nightmarish visuals of Alex Kister’s YouTube creation for years at that point without even realizing that it was the origin of several viral “cursed images” and spooky memes that had leaked into the wider internet – with this viral element actually being a part of the Catalogue’s overarching narrative.
Flash-forward to 2026 and the unprecedented success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms has led to Hollywood betting on horrific internet properties with existing fanbases, which means that Kister’s unique hybrid of both religious and analog horror is finally headed to the big screen with a script written by Kister himself alongside Tyler Clifton.
While this news shouldn’t be too surprising if you’ve been keeping up with the ongoing success of The Mandela Catalogue (both myself and Wendigoon having previously predicted that the series would inevitably make the jump to theaters one day), plenty of horror fans are likely confused as to why so many folks are excited for what appears to be a Hollywood adaptation of a series of creepy .jpeg images under a VHS filter.
With that in mind, today I’d like to invite fellow readers to accompany me as I explore the origins of Alex Kister’s viral hit and attempt to explain exactly why we should all be excited about the Mandela Catalogue adaptation!
From High School Writing Project to Internet Horror Phenomenon
The first seeds of The Mandela Catalogue were sown when Kister was still in high school and developed a writing project subverting religious tropes in a world where biblical history had been altered by demonic forces. A little while later, Kister came across an analog horror contest on Reddit and decided to adapt his ideas into a standalone video where he would edit a religious kids’ cartoon –The Beginner’s Bible: The Nativity, to be specific- into something far creepier. This is how the iconic Overthrone video was born, with this viral short film taking on a life of its own as fans demanded more eerie content from Kister.
Though the video was originally meant to be a one-and-done sort of affair, with Kister actually regretting some of its primitive visuals and considering the editing amateurish and “YouTube-Poop-like” when compared to his current standards, fan reaction and free time during the COVID-19 pandemic encouraged the (then) seventeen-year-old filmmaker to continue producing content set in this same world. The Mandela Catalogue name was inspired by the Mandela Effect conspiracy theory, as the series would slowly begin to explore the subtle horror of alternate histories.
Inspired by existential dread brought on by extended periods of quarantine as well as a personal crisis of faith, Kister continued to expand his alternate timeline where the rise of Christianity had been prevented by what was presumably the Devil disguised as the Archangel Gabriel. This alternate course of fictional events led to the existence of certain paranormal anomalies that had come to be accepted as “normal” by the 1990s, which is why most of the series’ supernatural horror is presented in such a matter-of-fact manner.
Most of this background information and religious lore is delivered by increasingly cryptic broadcasts and in-universe PSAs, as well as the occasional found footage video, that often have to be decoded by clever viewers. Of course, it’s the consistently disturbing imagery that made the series so popular – much of which was originally created by Kister on a smartphone!
The Alternates: Horror’s Most Unsettling Modern Monsters
The show’s early episodes mostly take place within the fictional Mandela County in Wisconsin and depict life in a world where demonic entities are capable of using media to enter our reality. This process usually involves scaring victims into killing themselves and then repurposing their bodies as horrific doppelgangers referred to as “Alternates”. This terrifying phenomenon has become so common that local police already have specialized procedures in place to deal with the issue, though this usually consists of simply ignoring calls for help so as to avoid spreading so-called “Metaphysical Awareness Disorder” any further.
Over time, Kister would expand this mythology and incorporate different kinds of Alternates into the mix, though the story never stopped deconstructing religious concepts. The series’ second volume exponentially increased both video quality and the overall narrative scope as we began to follow the lives of characters who had already grown up in this dystopian hellscape where the government is forced to prohibit religion, television, and even mirrors in the hopes of mitigating the damage done by the ongoing invasion of otherworldly entities.
The really interesting part comes into play when you realize exactly how the Alternates make use of scary media in order to spread their demonic influence, with the analog horror of it all being a diegetic part of the story and something of a memetic trap orchestrated by the false Gabriel.
I particularly appreciate how some characters begin to suspect that there’s something wrong with their version of reality and that things weren’t meant to play out this way, especially when Mark utters the haunting line “who have I been praying to all this time?” That’s why I think The Mandela Catalogue is an effective piece of religious horror even if you don’t subscribe to the Christian worldview, as the mere idea of a world where evil has already won is a universally terrifying concept in and of itself. Not only that, but the series’ uncanny analog imagery alone is already worth the price of admission, as you’ve likely already noticed by looking at the pictures accompanying this article.
Why The Feature Adaptation Could Be Horror’s Next Big Success
It’s actually been a whole year since Kister first announced that he had been working on a feature-length screenplay for a Mandela Catalogue movie since 2022, with his proposed story following an ensemble of high-school graduates who uncover a supernatural conspiracy after the mysterious disappearance of a fellow student. This premise sounds similar to narrative elements present in the series’ second volume, but I’m pretty sure that Kister is going to go the Kane Parsons route and make the movie more of a spin-off than a re-imagining of its source material.
While notable Hollywood producers like Aaron B. Koontz, Scott Stuber, and Steven Spielberg himself are backing the upcoming project, I feel like there’s no one better to adapt this deeply personal exploration of faith and the dark side of communication than the person who first came up with it. That’s why I can’t wait to see Kister’s work on the big screen, as I have a feeling that this young filmmaker is the next one on the list about to make cinematic history – especially since this is clearly a passion project that has been in the works for years at this point!
That being said, there’s always a chance that the film could end up unleashing a fresh wave of Alternate incursions, but I guess that’s just a risk we’ll have to take.
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