A man becomes destructively obsessed with killing a dangerous rat, which has taken residence in his recently renovated house.

I’m going to let you in on a secret, I am deathly terrified of rats!

So bearing that in mind, when it comes to films that contain these rodents, it has an edge over me before it’s begun as it always manages to get under my skin. Despite this I still watch them. it’s part and parcel of being a Horror fan isn’t it, watching something that scares you.

I have to give huge kudos to writers Brian Taggert and Chauncey G. Parker III, they wrote a script that was packed with tension and director George P. Cosmatos lets the story do the talking but under his guidance he manages to enhance it and brings the viewer along for the ride.

The last piece of the jigsaw is Peter Weller, his near enough one man show of his spiral into madness as he battles against the rodent is just fantastic, he really gets to show off his acting chops here and does a great job of carrying the film.

I’d like to state that I don’t think this film gets enough recognition and I have no idea why. It has all the elements you want from a great thriller/Horror but yet it seems very little people actually know about this film and it just boggles my mind.

“Of Unknown Origin” is such a fun film that manages to get under your skin and also entertain you all at the same time. If you haven’t seen it then I urge you to give it a try.

If you want to see the “Of Unknown Origin” trailer then just click on the video below:

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Miscellaneous facts about the film:

Favorite film of Stephen King.

First lead starring role in a film or television production of actor Peter Weller.

Debut cinema movie of actress Shannon Tweed.

The film was made and released about two years after its source novel “The Visitor” by Chauncey G. Parker III had been first published in 1981.

The film won two awards at the Paris Film Festival in 1983. They were the Best Actor award for Peter Weller and the prestigious Grand Prix award for the film’s director George P. Cosmatos.

John Waters has called this film the “greatest rat movie”

In the movie there is a scene where Lorrie (Jennifer Dale) enters Barts (Peter Weller) home and kicks off her shoes.The camera shows an extended close-up of the her stocking feet as she walks through the house to find him. .Jennifer Dale later remarked that it was her favorite part of the movie to shoot because the high heels she was wearing were killing her feet!

The blurb for the film’s source novel “The Visitor” (1981) by Chauncey G. Parker III reads: “Their home was a secure castle – a haven of peace and safety amid the urban rot and threat of New York. Now with his wife and children away for the summer, Bart Hughes’ house was more peaceful still. Until he discovered that he was not alone. That an uninvited guest was in his house. Until the house became a stalking ground where he hunted his inhuman intruder. Until he realised that he was hunted and not hunter. That he was trapped by the Visitor”.

Bart quips “Liberace, huh?” after the rat crawls through his piano. Liberace famously played piano with a candelabra for decoration.

Bart hits the ceiling with a book to try to scare the rat away. The book is very appropriately a copy of “Moby Dick”.

The dissection guide book “A Colour Atlas of the Rats” (1979) by R.J. Olds, and published by John Wiley & Sons Inc., is referenced during the film’s closing credits roll.

Aimée Castle’s debut.

The house featured in this movie also had a brief cameo in the season 2 episode 1 of the Liberians (2014).

Actress Shannon Tweed received an ‘introducing’ credit.

The movie was “originally released in a longer version” according to ‘Rating the Movies’.

The marketing for this film was quite misleading; the posters and taglines made it seem as if the rat was a supernatural creature out to kill the Hughes family and all trailers were carefully edited to remove anything showing or mentioning the rat and was made to appear to be a film about a family being terrorized by a supernatural force, similar to Poltergeist (1982).

In the scene where Lori Wells (Jennifer Dale) enters Barts (Peter Weller) brownstone unannounced, she takes off her high heel shoes before walking through the house to look for Bart, all the while being secretly observed by the rat inhabiting the place. The scene was filmed in total silence in order to increase the tension. Orginally, they were going to have Lori make an offhand comment to herself about how her feet hurt to explain to the viewer exactly why she would have the need to remove her shoes,but decided against it because they felt that any talking would ruin the mood.