Almost Fun, Then the Movie Started

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MOVIE REVIEW
Big Freaking Rat
–

Genre: Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi
Year Released: 2020, 2025
Runtime: 1h 25m
Director(s): Thomas J. Churchill
Writer(s): Thomas J. Churchill
Cast: Caroline Abbott, Nino Aldi, Boyce LeGrande, Niko Brooks, Michael Cervantes, Dan Yoon Hyuck Choi, Sheri Davis, Jennifer Elliott, Mark Hoadley, Del Howison, Theresa Ireland
Where to Watch: coming to On Demand and Digital on April 29, 2025

RAVING REVIEW: When a movie hands you a mutant rat and a campsite full of potential victims, it should be a slam dunk for B-movie fun. But instead of embracing its crazy premise and letting loose, this one seems content to spin its wheels in a swamp of dead-end jokes, forced subplots, and forgettable characters. There's a difference between low-budget charm and lack of vision, and unfortunately, this leans hard into the latter. Without a doubt, this all falls on the quantity-over-quality director, Thomas J. Churchill.

The setup is about as straightforward as it gets: a group of staff prepares to reopen a campground, only to be stalked by a giant rat born from toxic waste exposure. It's the kind of premise that almost writes itself, which makes the film’s inability to follow through all the more frustrating. The rat is introduced early, teased in fragments to build suspense, but rather than escalating tension or raising stakes, the movie loses steam every time the creature disappears from the screen, which is most of the time.

Instead of doubling down on the mayhem, the story pivots toward awkward family dynamics, a forced generational divide, and, bafflingly, a gangster subplot that feels like it wandered in from another film entirely. The central trio—a ranger, his tech-obsessed nephew, and his niece—are given just enough dialogue to establish surface-level relationships, but nothing deeper. Conversations are heavy on exposition and light on personality, and attempts at humor usually land with a thud.

The rat may be the title creature, but the script seems more fascinated by forced puns than the monster itself. A subplot involving mobsters looking for an informant (referred to endlessly as a “rat”) overstays its welcome almost immediately. What could’ve been a brief joke is milked across multiple scenes, to the point where it stops being interesting and just becomes noise. It’s a glaring example of how the film confuses repetition with comedy.

The practical effects deserve some credit. There's a tactile quality to the rat puppet that recalls the practical monster effects of an earlier era. It’s crafted with care, even if the staging rarely lets it shine. The attacks feel recycled, and despite being the star of the show, the rat receives so little screen time that it begins to feel like a supporting player, at best, in its own story. When it finally takes center stage, it offers a few fun visuals, but not nearly enough to justify the buildup.

Scenes don’t flow so much as stumble from one awkward moment to the next. A subplot involving underground tunnels hints at mystery but ends up underused and irrelevant. There's no payoff, and the potential for claustrophobic terror is wasted. Even when bodies start to pile up, the tone is too muddled to create suspense, and the kills lack any real impact. The score does nothing to enhance mood, usually working against the tone of the scene rather than supporting it. At times, it feels like the music is reacting to a completely different movie.

What’s most disappointing is how often the film feels like it’s trying to be funny without understanding what makes genre comedy work. It reaches for irony without confidence and leans on clichés without subversion. Even when characters are meant to be over-the-top, their dialogue rarely gives them anything to do beyond yell, repeat a joke, or vanish from the plot altogether.

Even judged by the standards of low-budget creature features, this one struggles. It misses the chance to embrace its concept, and instead of leaning into the chaos, it pulls back, giving far too much space to characters who fail to hold attention, and dialogue that seems to be trying out ideas mid-scene. What could’ve been a trashy good time ends up as a forgettable slog through scenes that feel like filler between monster glimpses.

BIG FREAKING RAT isn’t without a few flickers of “eh moments”—the creature design, a scene or two of rat-fueled havoc, a mildly amusing exterminator—but those are barely rewards for sitting through the rest. This could’ve been fun. It should’ve been fun. However, it ultimately serves as a reminder that a big idea without a plan is just a mess waiting to happen.

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[photo courtesy of LIONSGATE]

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