Ben main backdrop
Ben main poster

5.9/10 • 118

1972-06-231h 34m

HorrorThriller

Where 'WILLARD' ended... Ben begins. And this time, he's not alone!

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.

Directors
Phil Karlson
Writters
Gilbert Ralston
Characters
Gilbert Ralston, Stephen Gilbert
Editors
Gilbert Ralston, Harry Gerstad

Top Billed Cast

View Credits
  1. Lee Montgomery

    Lee Montgomery

    Danny

  2. Joseph Campanella

    Joseph Campanella

    Cliff Kirtland

  3. Arthur O'Connell

    Arthur O'Connell

    Bill Hatfield

  4. Rosemary Murphy

    Rosemary Murphy

    Beth Garrison

  5. Meredith Baxter

    Meredith Baxter

    Eve Garrison

  6. Kaz Garas

    Kaz Garas

    Joe Greer

  7. Paul Carr

    Paul Carr

    Kelly

  8. Richard Van Vleet

    Richard Van Vleet

    Reade

  9. Kenneth Tobey

    Kenneth Tobey

    Engineer

Reviews1

View Reviews
CinemaSerf Avatar

CinemaSerf

Mar 22, 2025

6/10

I suppose if you are going to make an horror movie, then it’s hard to beat rats as the culprits. The young, imaginative, “Danny” (Lee Montgomery) is a bit of a gentle loner who makes friends with a rat he names “Ben”. He tells his sister all about his new friend, but “Eve” (Meredith Baxter) just assumes he is making him up. Then some odd things start to happen in their neighbourhood, and rumours start to abound that there is a swarm of rats marauding around attacking people. When a grocery store is trashed by these vandalising critters, the police step in and “Kirkland” (Joseph Campanella) has to try and make sense of events that simply don’t add up. The more he looks for the beasts the less he finds, and when one of the lads that bullies “Lee” is reputedly attacked, even that doesn’t shed any light on things. Despite repeated and exhaustive searches of the subterranean pipes, sewers and drains, there is nothing! How are the authorities going to get to the bottom of things? The acting and the dialogue are all pretty mundane, true, but the sights of rats clambering and crawling everywhere, and the idea that there could be one more intelligent co-ordinating their behaviour is a genuinely quite spooky one. Like an army of ants only bigger, hairier, and with bigger teeth! It rather runs out of steam towards the end, but for a while the busy photography and the tension from the score create quite an unsettling atmosphere that might make you check under the bed and lock the windows before you go to sleep at night. The Michael Jackson title song got an Oscar nomination, it was made by Bing Crosby Productions and it’s not as bad as I’d initially feared.

Media

  • Ben poster
  • Ben poster
  • Ben poster
  • Ben poster
  • Ben poster
  • Ben poster
  • Ben poster
  • Ben poster
  • Ben poster

Recommendations

  • Berberian Sound Studio main backdrop

    Berberian Sound Studio

    6.1

  • Adoration main backdrop

    Adoration

    5.9

  • Willard main backdrop

    Willard

    6.1

  • The Dark Half main backdrop

    The Dark Half

    6.0

  • Running on Empty main backdrop

    Running on Empty

    7.5

  • D3: The Mighty Ducks main backdrop

    D3: The Mighty Ducks

    5.9

  • 1492: Conquest of Paradise main backdrop

    1492: Conquest of Paradise

    6.3

  • Halloween: Resurrection main backdrop

    Halloween: Resurrection

    4.6

  • Ben Is Back main backdrop

    Ben Is Back

    6.6

  • Conan the Destroyer main backdrop

    Conan the Destroyer

    6.1

  • The Witches main backdrop

    The Witches

    6.9

  • The Night Clerk main backdrop

    The Night Clerk

    6.2

  • Ben-Hur main backdrop

    Ben-Hur

    7.9

  • Unknown main backdrop

    Unknown

    6.7

  • Project Power main backdrop

    Project Power

    6.4

  • Alien³ main backdrop

    Alien³

    6.4

  • Geostorm main backdrop

    Geostorm

    6.1

  • Bloodshot main backdrop

    Bloodshot

    6.7

  • Batman main backdrop

    Batman

    7.2

  • The Curious Case of Benjamin Button main backdrop

    The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

    7.6

Status
Released
Original Language
English
Budget
--
Revenue
--
Keywords
animal attacksequeldeathsewerrateaten by ratspet ratadoring