Scream Factory Surprises with Plans to Release Obscure Killer Rats Flick Deadly Eyes
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Dachshunds dressed up as giant rats terrorize Toronto in a nature gone amok thriller from the director of Enter the Dragon. Guilty pleasures don’t get much guiltier than Deadly Eyes, and surprise announcements don’t get much more surprising than Scream Factory’s plan to release this 1982 creature feature.
It really would be an understatement to state that Scream Factory’s announcement Friday afternoon that they have acquired the rights to the early Eighties Warner Bros./Golden Harvest mutant rat b-movie bonanza Deadly Eyes came as a surprise to most everyone.
This slice of Canuxsploitation starring Scatman Crothers (The Shining) and Canadian scream queens Lesleh Donaldson (Curtains) and Lisa Langlois (Happy Birthday to Me) has been toiling in obscurity for so long I don’t think too many people expected to ever see it get an official release in any post-VHS form. This will mark the first time Deadly Eyes (or simply Rats as it is known in other parts of the world) has ever been released on DVD or Blu-ray, whichever Scream Factory has in mind, which they won’t be revealing until sometime in the coming spring.
Synopsis:
Corn grain contaminated with steroids produces large rats the size of small dogs who begin feeding on the residents of Toronto. Paul, a college basketball coach, teams up with Kelly, a local health inspector, to uncover the source of the mysterious rat attacks; and they eventually try to prevent the opening of a new subway line as well as find the mutant rats’ nest quickly, or there will be a huge massacre of the entire city!
Based on the novel by James Herbert (who described this film version as “absolute rubbish”), Deadly Eyes was directed by Robert Clouse, AKA the director of Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon. Martial Arts movies seemed to be Clouse’s forte for a long time there; he also helmed the blacksploitation kung fu classic Black Belt Jones and the notorious cult favorite Gymkata.
Clouse was also no stranger to the nature gone amok genre and directing canines in action, having previously helmed the 1977 Joe Don Baker vs. killer dogs flick The Pack. I hope you didn’t think I was joking about the monster rats in Deadly Eyes being brought to life by putting rat costumes on dachshunds.
Also, ratty hand puppets.
Rats love cheese, and if there’s one thing this killer rat flick has plenty of, it’s cheese. For a taste of the cheese soon to re-unleashed upon the world by the great folks at Scream Factory, have a look at the international trailer below. For more in the meantime, visit the official Scream Factory website, and “like” Scream Factory on Facebook.
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