Of Unknown Origin (1983)

Director
George P. Cosmatos

Main cast
Peter Weller; Jennifer Dale; Lawrence Dane; Kenneth Welsh; Louis Del Grande

Genres
Horror

Description
Bart Hughes has a pretty good life, a beautiful wife, a young son, a good job with promotion prospects, and a renovated brownstone in New York. When wife and kid leave for a vacation, Bart stays behind to work on a project that will earn him that promotion, unaware that a certain inhabitant of his basement has other plans for his time. Bart goes a bit bonkers trying to kill this rat, destroying most of his house in the process. Certain allegorical elements tie the household conflict to the "rat race" in his office, but the main event is certainly the night-and-day contest of wills between man and rodent.


Similar movies

Morgan and his friends are on a hunting trip on a remote Canadian island when they are attacked by a swarm of giant wasps. Looking for help, Morgan stumbles across a barn inhabited by an enormous killer chicken. After doing some exploring, they discover the entire island is crawling with animals that have somehow grown to giant size. The most dangerous of all of these, however, are the rats, who are mobilizing to do battle with the human intruders.
Dr. Akom and Dr. Roger are planning a family vacation at the beach, but their trip turns to tragedy when three people from their family turn up missing. After the bodies are discovered, the Doctors examine the remains of their family members and determine a giant crocodile had ripped through their bodies. They set out to destroy the crocodile at all costs, Dr. Akom hires an expert to kill the beast but it is too large to be hunted and trapped. Soon the giant, ravenous crocodile devours dozens of the local people and after a long search they find the monstrous crocodile, and do everything to blow it to bits.
A collection of short stories. In one a woman who leaves her house late at night to drive to the store while a killer is loose encounters some problems. In the second an arcade whiz kid's obsession with a game leads to deadly consequences. In the third a small town priest loses his faith and decides to leave town, but in the desert is stalked by a mysterious black pick-up truck. In the final story, a family's problem with a rat is larger than they think.
Brought back from a doomed space mission, an army of giant rats develop a big appetite for Los Angeles residents.
A growth hormone experiment gets out of hand, when the the resulting giant man-eating rats escape, reaking havoc on the unsuspecting campus. Much blood-letting follows.
A gigantic serpent is captured on a remote island and shipped to an American college for experimentation.
An alien space craft lands in the desert. The alien takes over the minds of some of the local humans and animals and is able to see through them. The animals attack and the terror begins.
When a strange virus quickly spreads through a safari park and turns all the zoo animals undead, those left in the park must stop the creatures before they escape and zombify the whole city.
Twenty-three year old, Thomas Finley was arrested for the murder of his nineteen-year old sister, Samantha, as well as the murder of fifty-two year old, Edgar Lauren, a Professor and paranormal investigator.In the early morning hours, Police were called to the scene by Thomas Finley himself. He was found inside with his sister's body cradled in his arms.After questioning, Thomas was taken into custody. In his police statement, Thomas claimed that the victims were attacked by a demonic entity of unknown origin. Days later, he committed suicide.It is the opinion of those closely related to the family, that this video found at the scene be shown to the public as a final testament to what actually happened inside the Finley home in those final days.
One hundred years after a nuclear war has devastated the planet, society has been reborn into two factions; the underground society and the scavangers above in the wastelands. A group of scavangers on bikes come across a town infested with flesh eating rats, and soon the gore is spilling everywhere.
PCP is unexplainably released into the Frankfurt water supply and sends the zoo inhabitants crazy. One evening after a malfunction of zoo security the gonzo critters rampage through the city eating and killing whatever they fancy, wreaking a night of bloody terror. It's up to regular Italian-trash whipping girl Lorraine De Selle and obnoxious Super Mario lookalike zookeeper John Aldrich to sort it out.
When a series of unexplained vicious animal attacks strikes his community, Sheriff Jim Tanner and his assistant Barbara trace them back to a Dr. Hyde, a former military researcher whose government funding for a dinosaur cloning project was cut. When the Pentagon discovers Hyde obtained foreign backing to continue his experiments, they send in a strike team to save Tanner and Barbara and stop Hyde.
A poor writer discovers that a species of rats has banded together to impersonate humans and supplant them unnoticed, in a manner reminiscent of the transformations in Eugene Ionesco's Rhinoceros, or the covert conspiracy of pod-people in The Invasion of the Body Snatchers. This film's story is based on a book by the Soviet writer Alexander Greene.
A defense attorney begins to suspect that her client, who is charged with the murders of a vacationing family, might be more than meets the eye.
On the trail of a missing friend who had been experimenting with mind-altering drugs, a young journalist - aided by a rogue counter-culture writer, The Silence of The Lambs -- finds herself drawn into the dangerous world of top-secret government chemical research and the mystery of a disturbing radio signal of unknown origin. A fast-paced thriller blending fact and fiction, Banshee Chapter is based on real documents, actual test subject testimony, and uncovered secrets about covert programs run by the CIA.
A rural town becomes prey to a strain of carnivorous black slugs spawned from toxic waste dumping and it's up to the local health inspector to stop them.
Think of it as Willard in the hood, the debut feature from director Leslie Small finds a Isaiah Washington playing a kindly man who turns maniacal with revenge and enlists the help of some man-eating rodents. Living in a rat-infested apartment building, Max is pushed to the edge when his handicapped brother is killed due to the conditions of the inner-city slum. With the rats as his willing soldiers, Max sets out to avenge the senseless death. Hood Rat also stars rapper-turned-actor Ice-T.
At a boarding house, a vicious dog gets loose from his chain and chews up a tenant's ass that was teasing him with a piece of raw meat. As a result, the dog is shot to death. Another tenant, a very high strung book editor, is picked on a lot. Soon he starts having dreams that the dog has returned and dead chewed up tenants begin popping up everywhere.
A police detective investigates a series of brutal murders which are committed by an ancient creature in the form of a beautiful woman who is spawned from a Native American mythology in this horror-comedy.
A lonely boy becomes good friends with Ben, a rat. This rat is also the leader of a pack of vicious killer rats, killing lots of people.
A giant crocodile is terrorizing Thai villagers. A group of adventurers set out by boat to track it down and kill it.
There's a big drought in Africa. Food and water are scarce. 90,000 wild baboons suddenly start attacking humans and eating them in order to survive. Some people find themselves being hunted by the starving monkeys and must do whatever they can to stay alive.
A sorority house is terrorized by a stranger who makes frightening phone calls and then murders the sorority sisters during Christmas break.
A pack of Rottweilers, bred and trained by the U.S. military to kill humans, escape to ravage the peaceful mountain resort town of Lake Lure. It is up to the local sheriff to protect his small community.
A man with an unknown disease travels to an island with his girlfriend where his relatives once lived, hoping to find a cure to his illness. While it was thought that his relatives were all dead he actually finds them to be living underground. However because they have been inbreeding for all these years they don't look right, plus they have developed a pretty bad eating habit. Will he chose his girlfriend or his people?
In the Australian outback a vicious wild boar kills and causes havoc to a small community.
During its return to the earth, commercial spaceship Nostromo intercepts a distress signal from a distant planet. When a three-member team of the crew discovers a chamber containing thousands of eggs on the planet, a creature inside one of the eggs attacks an explorer. The entire crew is unaware of the impending nightmare set to descend upon them when the alien parasite planted inside its unfortunate host is birthed.
A Scottish girl is being adopted by the judge who has condemned all the members of her family to death. But as she remembers all of this she commits a lot of atrocities.
Investigating the mysterious deaths of a number of farm animals, vet Rack Hansen discovers that his town lies in the path of hoards of migrating tarantulas. Before he can take action, the streets are overrun by killer spiders, trapping a small group of towns folk in a remote hotel.
A trip to meet her fiance's family becomes a descent into hell when Marie discovers that her future husband wants more than just a wife... Dying for a rich husband, Marie is thrilled when Thomas brings her home to his family's massive estate. But there is something wrong in the house, and as the days go by and Marie wanders the dim halls, she makes a gruesome discovery. There is a lab underground, and a body, and all that's missing is a brain...
After a bizarre and near fatal encounter with a serial killer, a newswoman is sent to a rehabilitation center whose inhabitants may not be what they seem.
While working in a greenhouse, a man receives an insect bite after touching an exotic plant. Immediately, he falls ill and is taken to an emergency room where the doctors diagnose him as suffering from an unknown bacteria, and a strange parasite which emerges from his mouth as a large slimy wormlike creature. Soon, there are more cases of bacterial infection, but the more immediate problem for the hospital is the wormlike creature which after accidental exposure to a genetic growth stimulant grows to monstrous proportions and starts a reign of terror and bloodshed in the hospitals abandoned wing.
A crew of scientists arrives on a far, cold planet to examine archaic artifacts of unknown origin. They discover that their German enemies already have a ship there. When they seek their help after a failed landing, they only find the Germans’ bodies, obviously slaughtered by one of the archaic creatures, awoken to new life. Now the alien is after them.
A maniac butchers a fashion model on a Caribbean island and leaves the body to be eaten by rats. The model's sister suspects something isn't quite right with the police investagation and decides to go snooping on her own. With her friend, Fred, their investagations lead them to an unknown part of the island where they discover a monstrosity of a rat like man. The creature is killed by Fred, but the true horror of it's nature is just beginning...
An American family on holiday in Africa becomes lost in a game reserve and stalked by lions.
The depletion of the earth's ozone layer causes animals above the altitude of 5000 feet to run amok, which is very unfortunate for a group of hikers who get dropped off up there by helicopter just before the quarantine is announced.
A teenage girl and her little brother must survive a wild 24 hours during which a mass hysteria of unknown origin causes parents to turn violently on their own kids.
A young woman arrives at her grandmother's house, which used to be a funeral home, to help her turn the place into a bed-and-breakfast inn. After they open, however, guests begin disappearing or turning up dead.
The daughter in a family of werewolves decides to put an end to the family curse.
Six young actresses auditioning for a movie role at a remote mansion are targeted by a mysterious masked murderer.
When deadly attacks from the forests beset a secluded retirement community, it is up to a grizzled veteran to figure what the residents are hiding.
Nita lives a middle-class lifestyle with her mom and dad in Bombay, India, and works as a Surgeon in a hospital. She is of marriageable age, & is in love with a struggling Musician/Singer named Ravi, much to the chagrin of her mom, who wants her to marry someone who is wealthy. One day a badly wounded male is admitted into the hospital, is pronounced dead, but recovers, and with Nita's help recuperates and is discharged. He visits Nita's home, introduces himself as wealthy Vikram Chauhan and asks her parents for the hand of Nita, who immediately accept. But Nita wants to marry Ravi and plans to elope with him. On that fateful day, Ravi fails to keep his appointment and a heartbroken Nita decides to get married to Vikram. The marriage takes place with great pomp and ceremony. When Ravi attempts to re-enter Nita's life, she forbids him. Little does she know that Ravi's plans had been sabotaged by none other than Vikram - who is in reality a human during daytime...
Survivors of a tragic shipping collision are rescued by a mysterious black ship which appears out of the fog. Little do they realise that the ship is actually a Nazi torture ship which has sailed the seas for years, luring unsuspecting sailors aboard and killing them off one by one.
Uncle Ted and his bimbo are attacked by a werewolf. Ted survives the attack, but is wounded. Now Ted believes that the only way to get rid of the werewolf inside him is to seek the love of his family. He accepts the invitation of his sister and her young son to park his tin can in their backyard. However, the were-fection has changed Ted, leaving only the fearless hound Thor to protect the husband-less Janet and her progeny.
A reality TV crew charter a boat to an island for filming, one which the boat's captain had been to before and attacked by giant shrews, more than fifty years earlier.
A horror comedy centered on a guy who learns that his unusual stomach problems are being caused by a demon living in his intestines.
Altered Species is a 2001 horror film, about a scientist who has found a way to regenerate damaged tissue in the body. He has tried his experiment on rats, but the effects are disastrous. One of them grows to 50 times its normal size, and attempts to destroy the laboratory.
A man living in rural Wisconsin takes care of his bed-ridden mother, who is very domineering and teaches him that all women are evil. After she dies he misses her, so a year later he digs her up and takes her home. He learns about taxidermy and begins robbing graves to get materials to patch her up, and inevitably begins looking for fresher sources of materials. Based closely on the true story of Ed Gein.
On the last working day of Sheriff Wayne, his small town is attacked by blood thirsty ravens that eat human flesh. Meanwhile his wife Cynthia visits a farm where a Mennonite family lives to say farewell to her friend Gretchen and discloses a dark secret about the origin of the fierce ravens.
The mid-70's: A timid young New Yorker leads an uneventful life until he is fatefully exposed to the pulsating rhythms of a brand-new genre of music....disco. Unable to control his murderous impulses that stem from a traumatic childhood experience, Duane Lewis transforms into a dangerous serial killer exiled to Montreal.
A strange animal attack turns a botanist into a bloodthirsty monster.
Desperate for companionship, the repressed Willard befriends a group of rats that inhabit his late father's deteriorating mansion. In these furry creatures, Willard finds temporary refuge from daily abuse at the hands of his bedridden mother and his father's old partner, Frank. Soon it becomes clear that the brood of rodents is ready and willing to exact a vicious, deadly revenge on anyone who dares to bully their sensitive new master.
A dog that is a minion of Satan terrorizes a suburban family.
A Semester at Sea ship is attacked and sunk by a mutated two-headed shark, and the survivors seek refuge on a deserted atoll. The coeds, however, are no longer safe when the atoll starts flooding.
A social misfit, Willard is made fun of by his co-workers, and squeezed out of the company started by his deceased father by his boss. His only friends are a couple of rats he raised at home, Ben and Socrates. (And their increasing number of friends) However, when one of them is killed at work, he goes on a rampage using his rats to attack those who have been tormenting him.
Sang-hyun (Song Kang-ho), a respected priest, volunteers for an experimental procedure that may lead to a cure for a deadly virus. He gets infected and dies, but a blood transfusion of unknown origin brings him back to life as a vampire. Now, Sang-hyun is torn between faith and bloodlust, and has a newfound desire for Tae-ju (Kim Ok-vin), the wife of his childhood friend.
Day of the Dead is a horror film which is nominally a quasi-remake of George A. Romero's classic zombie film of the same name, which was the third in Romero's Dead series. The film is directed by Steve Miner (who also directed Friday the 13th Part 2 & 3 and Halloween H20: 20 Years Later) and written by Jeffrey Reddick.
Two American tourists on a romantic camping trip are brutally murdered. A few days later, during the ancient festival of Samhain, a group of American university students moves into a beautiful cottage, surrounded by a lush forest and a majestic lake They are here to learn about the rituals of the ancient Druids and other Celtic legends. But in the remains of an abandoned copper mine, lives the ancestors of an incestuous clan of cannibals. Stalked by a hulking, disfigured mutant, the students and their chaperone are in for the most harrowing time of their young lives. And keeping their heads on their necks will become their main concern...
Count Dracula's pregnant granddaughter arrives at his castle, along with her husband, who is not a vampire. While she prepares to give birth to a new member of the Dracula line, her husband secretly launches into a series of affairs with the Count's resident "brides."
When a Sumatran rat-monkey bites Lionel Cosgrove's mother, she's transformed into a zombie and begins killing (and transforming) the entire town while Lionel races to keep things under control.

© Valossa 2015–2024