Who could possibly have wished for a sequel to Bert I. Gordon's legendary bad trash-film "Food of the Gods"? Nobody, of course, but director Damien Lee thought it was a good idea, anyway, and he put together a belated sequel that stands as one of the most redundant movies in horror history. "Gnaw" is a sequel in name only, as the setting moved to a typical late 80's location (a university campus) and also the cheap & cheesy gore effects perfectly illustrates the 80's. This script hangs together by clichés, awfully written dialogs and plot situations that are not so subtly stolen from other (and more successful) horror classics. Neil Hamilton is a goody two shoes scientist who performs growing-experiments on ordinary rodents in order to do a fellow scientist a favor. Due to some incredibly stupid animal rights activists, the huge and ravenous rats escape and devour pretty much everyone on campus. Following the good old tradition that Spielberg's "Jaws" started, there's an obnoxious Dean who refuses to admit the problem even though severely mutilated corpses are turning up everywhere. During a hysterically grotesque climax, the rats invade the opening ceremony of the campus' new sport complex! "Gnaw: Food of the Gods 2" is terribly bad and therefore a lot of fun to watch! The characters do and say unimaginably stupid stuff (like descending into the sewers unarmed while they KNOW it's infested with rats), the acting is atrocious and there's a genuinely bizarre sequence involving the hero having sex under the influence of growth-serum! I wonder what Freud's theory would be on that! There's a satisfying amount of gore and sleaze and – it has to be said – the music is surprisingly atmospheric. In case you just can't get enough of this junk, there are quite a lot of creature-features revolving on mutated rats, like the Italian schlock film "Rats: Night of Terror", the modest 70's cult film "Willard" and its lame sequel "Ben", the 2003 "Willard" remake starring Crispin Glover and the surprisingly good recent rat-movies by once-famous directors Tibor Ticaks ("Rats") and John Lafia ("The Rats"). Go nuts!

This movie rules. The gore was great and the special effects were spectacular. The acting is great and the script is fantastic. The rats look scary and realistic. By far the best scene in the movie is the swimming pool massacre. Because this scene contained the most money in the entire movie is what makes it the best scene in the film. The rats looked more real than ever and the acting and special effects were great. I recommend this movie to anyone who is into the horror genre. p.s. This movie deserves a much higher rating.

I have mixed feelings about the original "Food of the Gods". It's amazing, but easy to hate at the same time. This one is just good eighties fun and with buckets of blood. It's like "Demons", but with giant wet rats in a swimming pool instead of a movie theater. Poor synchronized swimmers!! The animal rights activists are pretty realistic, I should know. Oh yeah, the effects, both the real rats on mini sets, and the rat costumes, look fantastic.

And that's saying something. Fortunately, unlike the original, the sequel uses a cast of unknowns (save for Colin Fox), so a lot of people weren't lured to it by big name stars.The plot deals with a laboratory experiment gone horrible wrong. Lab rats grow to monstrous size and terrorize the countryside. This concept was handled much better and with a much smaller budget in the 1955 classic "Tarantula." Actually, the rats take a trip over to the local college campus. Apparently, the producers figured showing gorgeous college co-eds getting chomped would make viewers ignore the horrible acting, poor special effects and sorry dialogue, not to mention the fact that the same two songs get used over and over again for the background music.There's a subplot involving a scientist who exposes his kid to the experimental substance and the kid, who's a real brat, grows into an even bigger brat. You'll honestly wish the cops would just shoot the kid. The concept appeared in H.G. Wells' "Food of the Gods" story, but it was, by far, the weakest part of the book, so it shouldn't have been touched upon for this movie.I won't spoil the ending (should you even care to watch the movie in the first place), but I will mention rats intermingling with college kids packed in to see a swimming meet (!), as well as a scene in a subway that might have been meant for another sequel. Since it took 13 years for "Food of the Gods II" to make it to production, that means (gulp!!) part III should be on the shelves at Blockbuster in 2002.