A Rat In The Darkness

AKA Una Rata En La Oscuridad

Director: Alfredo Salazar

This week I’m going to highlight a Mexican horror film… not because it’s good but as proof that it’s not just the Italians that can make bat shit (or should that be “rat shit”) crazy movies.

“A Rat In The Darkness” was released in 1979 and directed by Alfredo Salazar. Now, whilst owning a few Mexican horror movies, my knowledge of the subject is fairly limited. From what I can see, Alfredo Salazar seems to be better known as a writer than a director, having penned quite a few of the “Santo” movies.

“A Rat In The Darkness” is another film I bought at a film fair, based purely on the title and the promise of some haunted house action.

The plot revolves around two sisters who purchase a house together, which has a rat in it, and then they get “haunted” by a transvestite… that’s pretty much it. I have a feeling this review might be a little bit shorter than the previous few…

The film opens with some quite dreary, cheap sounding piano music on a freeze frame of some flowers and a nightie hanging up – at least, I think that’s what it is. I can’t work out how this was deemed to be a good way to start the film, it’s hardly dramatic, but it did make me chuckle, just because it’s so rubbish.

Once the credits are out the way, we meet our two main characters, Josefina (played by Ana Luisa Peluffo, who according to the IMDB, has one of the longest filmographies in Mexican cinema, and was “a pioneer to appear in nude scenes in Mexican cinema in mid-decade”. Whatever ‘mid-decade’ means) and her younger sister, Sonia (played by Anais de Melo, sporting an awful bowl cut). The pair are looking around the house they have just bought. The house, whilst having bags of potential, has seen better days. There is dust everywhere and it’s still full of the previous occupants belongings – and a rat – which makes very un-rat like noises. In fact, it sounds like someone trying to make really bad kissing noises with their lips and I think this might be the noisiest rat I have ever heard. I think he might have some respiRATory (get it?) issues, and I wouldn’t be surprised with the amount of dust in the house.

Considering the rat is the title character, he gets pretty limited screen time, despite giving the best performance, and even then he is just pottering about, minding his own business. I work with animals, and have occasionally come across domestic rats which do not like being handled but by and large they aren’t really scary, even when buckets of them are dropped on peoples heads in Bruno Mattei’s “Rats: Night Of Terror”.

As the pair look around the house, they come across a painting of a woman wearing the nightie from the opening of the film. Sonia seems particularly interested in the painting and starts trying to guess who the woman is, using her supposed clairvoyant skills. Sonia thinks that the house used to be a brothel, owned by the lady in the painting, but she was murdered when her lover found out she had been unfaithful, and the house was then sold cheaply because of this grim tale. Either that, or Sonia says the house could be haunted and the ghost of the woman in the painting lurks in every corner. It’s at this stage that Sonia realises the woman in the painting reminds her of the estate agent who sold them the house, except the estate agent had short blonde hair.

Now, spoiler alert… The painting isn’t of a woman, it’s of a man dressed as a woman. The synopsis on the back of the DVD doesn’t try and hide this, as it mentions the sisters get stalked and molested by a transvestite, but I can’t work out if the filmmakers want this fact to be a big reveal or not. They certainly seem to try and hide that it’s a transvestite, but in the scenes where we actually see the character properly, it’s bloody obvious it’s a man! However, to play along with the film, I will refer to the character in the painting as a woman until it is actually revealed at the end.

Before settling down for the evening, the sisters decide to do a spot of dusting. Cue some more awkward music (this time sounding like the music from the bonus level of “Golden Axe” on the Sega Mega Drive) and a montage of the pair spring cleaning. Is this the worst montage ever put to film? I’m not sure, but “Rocky IV” it ain’t.

After the montage we get more shots of the sisters doing mundane jobs: making a bed, putting books on a shelf, some more dusting. In fact, this film is largely just scenes of Josefina and Sonia doing housework.

Once they have finished cleaning for the day, Sonia informs Josefina of a mild muscle complaint and Josefina offers to give Sonia a massage. “I’ll give you a massage, hand me the ashtray” Josefina says. Ordinarily, someone giving their sister a massage wouldn’t seem weird but Sonia is half naked and the way she reacts to Josefina is almost orgasmic. Maybe it’s different if you’re female… and Mexican.

Massage completed, the sisters begin discussing the past (for the benefit of the audience) and here we find out that Josefina has been a mother figure to Sonia after they lost their mother. They talk about always being together, and Sonia asks Josefina to never stop loving her, which again, wouldn’t seem that weird if it wasn’t for Sonia having her boobs out.

Later that evening, back in their respective bedrooms, the sisters get undressed and Sonia has a bath while Josefina has a shower. I’m surprised they aren’t washing each other given how close these two are, but maybe they do have some boundaries. At this point, we see that there is someone else in the house with them, as two hands appear from the darkness and caress an item of clothing on Sonia’s bed. The mysterious figure is also wearing the same nightie from the painting… could it be the same person?… Yes it is! After that, we get some more shots of the pair doing everyday things: drying hair, combing hair, getting into bed… riveting stuff.

The next morning, we find the mysterious nightie wearing figure watching Sonia as she sleeps, whilst the resident rat makes his way onto the bed and appears to try and wake Sonia up. Sonia just stirs and goes back to sleep though, although I’m not sure how with that noisy bastard squeaking in her ear. Mind you, the sisters haven’t spotted the rat lurking in the house so far, which is slightly unbelievable given that he squeaks louder than they talk.

The scene ends abruptly as we then cut to more exciting scenes of housework: cooking and laying the dinner table. With Josefina in the kitchen, Sonia gets spooked by the sound of someone laughing as she looks at the painting of the mysterious woman. Sonia drops a teacup on the floor, which smashes, causing Josefina to come rushing into the room. “A hand touched my cheek” a petrified Sonia exclaims – no Sonia, that was a rat and that was hours ago. Sonia asks Josefina if she thinks the house actually is haunted, to which Josefina responds by giving her best Tommy Wiseau laugh and saying nothing before we move on to the next scene.

Later that night, there seems to be a mini earthquake (either that or the camera man had the shakes) and Sonia sees the mysterious nightie wearing figure in her bedroom, with a glowing blue light appearing from behind her. The next morning when Josefina acknowledges the house shaking, Sonia denies knowing it happened and seems to be acting very oddly. Has she been possessed by the woman in the painting?

Sonia retreats to her bedroom where she finally notices the rat, minding his own business on a nearby shelf. Sonia throws a book at the rat but he runs away. As Sonia picks the book back up from the floor, she threatens the rat with talk of putting a trap down the next day but her attention is quickly drawn to the title of the book. Sadly, the title is in Spanish and barely visible due to the quality of the DVD so we don’t know what it is but we are led to believe that it is of significance.

Later that night, we see Sonia being kissed and touched by the woman from the painting and clearly enjoying it. It’s probably nice being intimate with someone that isn’t family for a change. This sexual encounter seems to cause another earthquake which awakes Josefina from her slumber. After the shaking stops, Josefina leaves her bedroom to investigate but finds nothing untoward. Sonia is spying on Josefina from a gap in the door, as Josefina is conveniently in the corridor outside Sonia’s room. Sonia slams the door shut after seeing Josefina in the corridor. Confused and tired, Josefina goes back to bed.

The next day, Josefina goes into Sonia’s bedroom to check on her, but Sonia is less than pleased to see her and tells her to leave like a stroppy teenager. The whole day passes by without Sonia leaving her bed. In fact, when Josefina goes to check on her later on, she appears to be getting drunk. Again, Josefina is ordered to leave immediately. That evening, just before Josefina goes to bed, a hand appears behind her and touches the back of her head (in an almost “City Of The Living Dead” style, head grabby way). Josefina screams and runs to her bedroom where she hides whilst the house begins to shake again. This scene is actually quite well handled and the creepy choral music is pretty effective.

Sadly, the films pace virtually grinds to a holt after that bit of excitement, with Josefina getting out of bed, falling down the stairs, passing out, getting up, going back to bed, hearing a high pitched noise, getting out of bed again, we hear the rat squeaking, Josefina looks around the house, a high pitched noise and rat squeaking is heard at the same time now – you get the idea. Some form of action does occur, eventually, when Josefina finds Sonia staring at the painting of the woman again and when confronted, Sonia tries to strangle Josefina as the rat looks on. Josefina manages to get the upper hand by whacking her over the head with a metal tray and runs outside to get help before passing out next to Sonia as the high pitched noise is heard again.

Josefina wakes several house later to find a local doctor, Dr. Salas (played by José Antonio Marros) has been looking after her and Sonia. Sonia is being taken to the hospital to have her head wound treated but Josefina is suffering from nervous exhaustion so stays at the house. Clearly still shaken by recent events, Dr. Salas gives Josefina a sedative and she drifts off to sleep moments later.

When she wakes, Josefina finds that the Dr has left so she gets up, has a cup of tea, has a shower, gets dressed and packs some things ready to leave to visit Sonia at the hospital. Just as she reaches for the front door, it suddenly locks itself, along with all the other doors and windows in the house. “Nothing in this house can hurt me!” Josefina shouts as she storms back upstairs. Now wearing completely different clothes to the previous shot, Josefina enters Sonia’s bedroom and says “I’m going to find out what you did to my sister, you wretch!” before going into some sort of a daze on the bed.

Just as Josefina spots the rat, squeaking away to himself in the corner of the room, the woman from the painting appears along with the migraine inducing high pitched noise. She makes her way over to Josefina on the bed and the two begin to have sex. Things get really weird now as we get shots of Josefina dancing around happily in a brightly lit room surrounded with white cloth. Is this meant to be a representation of how good she is feeling? Is it a vision she is having? Of course, it’s never explained, so let’s not worry too hard about it.

At this point in the film, if you hadn’t already guessed that the mysterious nightie woman was a man, then you certainly would after this sex scene. Plus the fact it looks like Josefina is being penetrated from behind also gives it away somewhat.

This makes the next part of the scene even more bizarre, as all of a sudden Josefina seems shocked to feel an erect penis against her body. Did they put the shots in the wrong order?! The scene ends with Josefina coming out of the daze to find she is now all alone. “Imposter! Imposter!” she shouts.

The next morning, Josefina makes her way over to the hospital, where we get a nice cameo by Michael Caine as a doctor. The receptionist informs Josefina that Sonia was released an hour ago so Josefina jumps on a bus to go back to the house. This seems to take all day, as when she arrives back, it is dark and in the midst of a storm. Josefina enters the house and walks up the stairs and into Sonia’s bedroom where she is attacked by Sonia, who flees leaving Josefina laying on the floor as the storm rages on outside.

When Josefina gets up, she wanders around the house, jumping at the slightest noise or flash of lightening, as she tries to find Sonia. Eventually she finds her dead in front of the painting of the woman. Josefina finds some matches and tries to set the painting alight, only for a gust of wind to blow out the match. The box of matches then flies over to the other side of the room, clearly attached to a piece of wire, as Josefina chases after it.

Other items in the room begin “flying” around now, including a poker which very slowly makes it’s way over to Josefina before hitting her over the head a couple of times and then stabbing her to her death. During this time, the rat watches on whilst squeaking away.

The film then jumps forward in time, or at least I think it does, as it just cuts to daytime, but judging that the house isn’t full of broken furniture and two dead bodies I’m guessing some time has passed since the last scene. The house is back up for sale and a female estate agent with short blonde hair is showing a mother and daughter around the property who confirm they would like to buy it.

When the pair leave, it is revealed that the estate agent is actually a man!! We know this because we see his flaccid penis in a scene where he undresses whilst laughing manically. We also see his spotty back… ew. Interestingly, according to the IMDB, the character, played by Ricardo Cortés, is credited as “La mujer del cuadro”, which translates as “The woman in the picture”.

The film ends with the man dressing up again in the nightie before picking up the rat, giving it a kiss, then leaving the room, presumably to start working his magic on the new occupants of the house. Well, I’m glad all of the loose ends got tied up! What was the man’s motivation for doing this? How did he manage to make the house shake and the objects fly around? How did he possess Sonia? What was the book Sonia found about? What was the purpose of the rat, apart from giving the film a title? What happened to the bodies of Josefina and Sonia? The film spent what felt like centuries showing us characters cleaning and other daily chores but they couldn’t find the time to explain any of the above!

On paper, “A Rat In The Darkness” sounds like an absolute hoot, but the reality is nowhere near as entertaining, partly because the film is far too restrained with its subject matter and then when it does turn up the crazy, it’s just a bit naff. Scenes last way too long and I found myself becoming bored, something that never normally happens for me with films like these.

I’m trying to work out if this is worse than Lucio Fulci’s “The Sweet House Of Horrors” but ultimately, I don’t think it is. Sure, “The Sweet House Of Horrors” is never really boring, but it squanders a once great director and some good acting talent on a dull story. Plus it has annoying children and bad teeth and those are cardinal sins. At least “A Rat In The Darkness” has a cute rat in it, it has that going for it.

“A Rat In The Darkness” is a fairly forgettable film and with the premise of a transvestite haunting people in a rat infested house, that really shouldn’t be the case, although that plot description is majorly over selling what actually happens in the film. Maybe “A Wang In The Darkness” would have been a more accurate title. If you want to see what Mexican horror has to offer, sadly this is not the place to start.