Ben

1972

Action / Drama / Horror / Thriller

17
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 36% · 10 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 36% · 500 ratings
IMDb Rating 5.3/10 10 3878 3.9K

animal attack sequel death sewer rat eaten by rats

Plot summary

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.

Director

Phil Karlson Photo
Phil Karlson

Top cast

Arthur O'Connell Photo
Arthur O'Connell as Billy Hatfield
Rosemary Murphy Photo
Rosemary Murphy as Beth Garrison
James Luisi Photo
James Luisi as Ed
Lee Montgomery Photo
Lee Montgomery as Danny Garrison
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
777.11 MB
1280*682
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 34 min
Seeds 1
1.48 GB
1920*1024
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 34 min
Seeds 6

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by meddlecore 5 / 10

Moderately Entertaining Sequel To Willard.

Ben is, apparently, the sequel to Daniel Mann's Willard, from the previous year.It picks up where the previous story left of.With a young boy, named Daniel- stricken to his home from illness- having befriended Ben, the leader of the pack of rats- trained by Willard Stiles in the previous film.The rats are running havoc through town- having already killed 3 people.And the police and city workers are having no luck tracking the pests down...they are just too intelligent.Seems they have taken to the sewers, to get around the city more efficiently.So the authorities pull out all the stops...flamethrowers and all...to rid the city of this menace, once and for all.Unless Daniel has any say in the matter, that is...While among the better films that qualify for the animal attack canon. It's still only moderately entertaining. And is probably most notable for it's theme song. Sung by Daniel (J. Lee Montgomery) in the film. But recorded by Michael Jackson for the credits- and released on his album of the same name the same year- for which it received a Golden Globe and Academy Awards Nomination.The acting from the kid was pretty good though...and it really makes you wonder where the hell they got all those rats from?! Cause there are loads!!! Worth a watch if you are into rats...or hate them and like to be scared...otherwise, it's passable.5 out of 10.
Reviewed by BaronBl00d 5 / 10

"The Territorial Imperative - Lebensraum"

After all the much anticipated ballyhoo to track down this rather difficult film to find - I was glad I saw it...for now just the one time if you please. Willard, its predecessor, was one creepy, deliciously black film with a unique story and some performances. You know...from actors. Bruce Davison was really quite good in that lead. Then there was Elsa Lanchester and, of course, Ernest Borgnine hamming it up as the mean Mr. Martin. What do we get in Ben? Acting is not its strong suit for sure. The film begins with Willard's demise. Immediately after the police and all the neighbors gawk at - what? There is a dead guy in the attic...anyway...of those neighbors standing outside is a family of three...a mother, a daughter, and a son. They become important once poison becomes the prescribed means to rid the town of the rats. The rats head for the sewers but Ben(not the Ben from Willard that was mean and nasty - but a kinder Ben - yes, he still has people stripped of their flesh by his rat army - but this go round he befriends a small boy with a bad heart who owns and makes his own marionettes, races around a room playing a harmonica, crawls through the sewers with only a slight cough afterward, and, in my favorite scene demonstrating his ridiculousness, composes an Oscar-nominated song in the matter of two minutes or so. Now, in his scenes with the small boy we get "Gentle Ben." Okay, so I am being a bit sarcastic and this film deserves it for it really is not all that good. Lee Harcourt Montgomery plays the annoying youth in a most sickening fashion yet, by the film's end, I was a bit touched by the final scene between a boy and his rat. Back to the film. The rest of the actors of note are Joseph Campanella as a police detective having really little to do. Even less to do is Arthur O'Connell in a role as the city's apparent only newspaperman. He is incredibly wasted though has the film's best lines laced sporadically around either the "rat action" or Danny's interplay with his puppets or rat. The scenes where the rats either kill, attack, or destroy are pretty funny. Nothing was chilling at all. How about the rats at the fitness center? What a hoot! What about the rats in the supermarket? Or when they "attack" sewer workers? Let's be honest - this film does have heart. It really does not have much else going for it EXCEPT that aforementioned Oscar-nominated song...sung by Michael Jackson and coming in the film with possibly less then five minutes. Before that it is word-sung by Danny, quickly tooted out on a harmonica, and given bits here and there in the film's score. Meredith Baxter of Family Ties fame plays Danny's sister and has a somewhat meaty role.
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