Of Unknown Origin

Description

An advertising executive battles a giant, intelligent rat that has invaded his townhouse.

Customer Reviews:

Your Move......Creep.......2007-07-03

Of Unknown origin is one of those long forgotten and fun horror films of the 80s. Stephen King cites this as one of his all time favorite horror movies. Of course, whether or not you can actually consider this a horror film is debatable, but what else would you categorize it as? The plot is quite simple, and that's all part of the appeal. Buckaroo Banzai himself finds his home invaded by a rat after his family takes off for a few days. It starts off as an annoying nuisance, but soon turns into obsession as Weller tries to kill the damn thing. He sorta falls into a sort of temporary insanity that affects his work performance and all those around him(of course I'd go a bit batty if I had to go a few days without Shannon Tweed myself). It starts out simply enough with some damaged furniture and wiring. Traps naturally don't work, neither does the exterminator or pretty much any other conventional means. By the time we reach the climax of the film, Weller's decked out in a helmet(with flashlight of course), kneepads and a homemade spiked club ready to enter a duel to the death with the invading rodent, practically destroying his home in the process(you're reminded time and again that Weller practically built the house himself as to make the damage all the more shocking). We only see the rat in a few quick shots. These are shots of an actual rat at various angles to give the illusion that it's larger than the average rat. It's kinda hard to get an idea of how big the rat actually is until one scene where it slips under the covers of Weller's bed. Then we can see it's about the size of a basketball or small dog. Like I said before, it's a fun film. The simple premise, the unintentional quirkiness, and a good performance by Weller all add up to a fun and entertaining time. Rediscover(or discover) a fun, forgotten film.

Robocop vs. Ratzilla..........2007-06-18

Bart Hughes (Peter Weller) has a vermin problem of a most severe nature. When his wife (Shannon Tweed!!!!) and son go away for a vacation, a rat the size of a dog makes its presence known. At first, it only eats through a few cereal boxes, but as the days go by, the über-rat increases the damage quotient while driving poor Bart crazy! Since traps and poisons are useless, Bart declares war on the beast, which culminates in a house-destroying game of whack-a-rat! There's plenty of humor to enhance the horror, and yes, Ms. Tweed dons her birthday suit! What are you waiting for??...

WOW! MAN VS RAT VS YOUR ATTENTION SPAN!!!.......2007-04-12

TRAINWRECK APPEAL!!! YOU DO/DON'T WANT TO WATCH THIS MOVIE, BUT THE CHEESIER IT GETS, THE MORE YOU HAVE TO WATCH TO SEE JUST HOW THIS CRAZY THING CONCLUDES. WHAT ELSE CAN I SAY, I ONLY RECOMMEND FOR THE DIE-HARDS!

A Struggle For Survivial. A Struggle To The Death........2006-07-09

Way back in the 1980s and 90s I used to go to the video store and rent all of the horror films.

Most weren't that great but there were a few that stood out in my mind.

Recently I started thinking about this movie and I couldn't remember the title. Finding it started to become an obsession for me.

I remembered it because of its uniqueness and dark humor.

Fortunately this guy who lives in N.Y. city knew the title and he told me.

The mysterious visitor that invades this guy's house represents the struggles that we all go through I guess at times.

Jeff Marzano

Recommended further viewing:

Godzilla (U.S. and Japanese Versions)
Godzilla 2000
Godzilla vs. Destoroyah
Horror Hotel
I Was A Teenage Werewolf
Into The Fire
IT ! (The Terror From Beyond Space)
Invasion Of The Saucer Men
Mad Doctor Of Blood Island / Brides Of Blood / Beast Of Blood
Not Of This Earth (original)
Phantasm
PSYCHO
The Blob (with Steve McQueen)
The Brain That Wouldn't Die
The Flesh Eaters
The Fly / The Return Of The Fly / The Curse Of The Fly
The Four Skulls Of Jonathan Drake
The Haunting (original)
The Hideous Sun Demon
The Hypnotic Eye
The Incredible Shrinking Man
The Indestructible Man
The Manster
The Night Stalker (TV movie from the 70s)
The Thing (from another world)
The Thing (John Carpenter's remake 1982)
The Thing That Couldn't Die
The Twilight Zone Collections

The old Man and the..........2005-06-24

Peter Weller is a man on his way up fast in the business world. He has personally renovated a NY brownstone and is up for an important position at work. But then two things happen. First his wife and son go off to Vermont to visit her family. Second, a very large rat moves in. What follows is a sort of modern-day retelling of THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA (complete with clips from the movie).

As Peter becomes aware of the rat and begins to try and deal with it, he slowly becomes obsessed with freeing his home of the unwanted invader. Obsession grows and Weller sinks deeper and deeper. Work begins to suffer and his secretary and boss begin to worry about him. But whatever the hardship, Weller, like the Old Man, will not let up for a moment. I found the ending of the movie to be quite satisfying with the final lines very neatly tying the whole tale up neatly.

Some may think of this as horror, some suspense, and some tragedy. There are definitely elements of all three involved but any such label would bee to simple for what this movie really is. This is not a very well-known film but it deserves more exposure.

Average customer rating:

Alien Underwater.
Mentally challenged film -it's a challenge to watch it.
great movie for a late night
Lots of fun!
I think I have a little heartburn I can feel it in my throat

Unknown Origin
Starring: Roddy McDowall , Alex Hyde-White , Melanie Shatner , Don Stroud , and Rodger Halston
Director: Scott P. Levy
Manufacturer: New Concorde
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0001KNHQI
Release Date: 2004-05-11

Customer Reviews:

Alien Underwater........2004-11-17

That's what I have to say about this one. It's fun to watch if only to see Roddy McDowell and Shatner's daughter in this film. It also stars the first Mr. Fantastic, Alex Hyde-White, from the Corman unreleased Fantastic Four movie. Also appearing in this quick sci fi movie is the Richard Biggs, the doctor on Babylon 5. It's fun to watch the low budget version of alien here. It even has an andriod character that's very much like Data in Next Generation. I have to say it's a keeper because it has so many familiar faces in it.

Mentally challenged film -it's a challenge to watch it........2004-06-23

I went ahead and bought this movie because Roddy McDowall is in it, and I was curious about it being a rip-off of John Carpenter's fantastic movie The Thing. After all, the movie Leviathan was a rip-off of Carpenter's The Thing, and it's pretty decent. Man, was Unknown Origin waste-stink-awful. McDowall was ok in it for the most part, but this is like a horribly gone wrong made for the Sci-fi channel movie (in fact, it is a made for TV movie and it would not surprise me if it was done for the sci-fi channel). Some people have claimed that decent writing helped it to overcome its obvious micro budget. I don't see that at all. It's one thing to do what Leviathan did, it's a whole different thing to lift whole lines and direct concepts from Carpenter's The Thing. If these film makers were not sued, they pry should be. But even with lifted lines and concepts, it could have been watchable for some I guess. This film has more problems than that. Horribly cheesy dialog, very hokey looking sets, terrible glaring costumes, bad lighting and bad camera work made for an awful, awful movie. I'm not sure but I get the feeling that these filmmakers maybe knew better, were somewhat experienced, but needed a fast buck. This is horrible stuff. This is a mentally challenged Wing Commander-ish spoiled cheese fest.

This movie is not to be confused with 1983's Of Unknown Origin staring Peter Weller. Incidentally, Peter Weller was good in the above-mentioned Leviathan, as well as in Screamers. Check them out instead.

great movie for a late night.......1999-11-20

what can anyone say Roddy McDowall is always great and this is no exception...the film moves fast and has some very scary and funny moments...The cast was all good and different...loved Taylor "Rodger Halston" and his cat nip or what ever, he was the babe of the movie and should have end up with the girl. Also great to see Don Stroud he's been around along time and always does a great job. A great movie for the budget and the fear factor was right there.

Lots of fun!.......1999-02-20

Terrific, "Alien" underwater homage about creature who takes over bodies and minds of undersea mining crew. Hearkens back to the days of the best of 60's drive-in horror flicks! Lots of fun and genuinely creepy at times.

I think I have a little heartburn I can feel it in my throat.......1999-01-22

This movie was about a crew under the ocean who come across something which turns out to be a vampire bug.This creature sucks the life out of eveyone, one at a time and has the crew guessing who it's in next. The ending is a shocker and look out eveyone above It's coming for you! Roddy McDowall was as usual a GEM! LOVE YA RODDY,Anna Marie

Average customer rating:

Your Move......Creep
Robocop vs. Ratzilla...
WOW! MAN VS RAT VS YOUR ATTENTION SPAN!!!
A Struggle For Survivial. A Struggle To The Death.
The old Man and the...

Of Unknown Origin [Region 2]
Starring: Peter Weller , Jennifer Dale , Lawrence Dane , Kenneth Welsh , and Louis Del Grande
Director: George P. Cosmatos
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Horror | Genres | DVD | Video

( O ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
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ASIN: B0000AGVO8

Customer Reviews:

Your Move......Creep.......2007-07-03

Robocop vs. Ratzilla..........2007-06-18

WOW! MAN VS RAT VS YOUR ATTENTION SPAN!!!.......2007-04-12

A Struggle For Survivial. A Struggle To The Death........2006-07-09

The old Man and the..........2005-06-24

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