The Rats (UK: NEL, 1974)
Tagline: "The rats have emerged from the darkness."
It's amazing to me that it's already been a year here at Guilty Pleasures that
we've been sorting through the blood, guts, and creepy crawlers. So what
better way to celebrate than taking a look at that granddaddy of 1970's pulp
horror nasties--The Rats by James Herbert. Yes, this was the first. This was
the one became an instant bestseller and launched the "nasty" boom in the
UK. If you read this kind of stuff, then James Herbert probably needs no
introduction. Back in '70's he knocked out one great pulp masterpiece after
another from The Fog to The Spear and to this day, unlike his host of
imitators, he is still at it. Still selling lots of books and doing what he does
Tagline: "The rats have emerged from the darkness."
It's amazing to me that it's already been a year here at Guilty Pleasures that
we've been sorting through the blood, guts, and creepy crawlers. So what
better way to celebrate than taking a look at that granddaddy of 1970's pulp
horror nasties--The Rats by James Herbert. Yes, this was the first. This was
the one became an instant bestseller and launched the "nasty" boom in the
UK. If you read this kind of stuff, then James Herbert probably needs no
introduction. Back in '70's he knocked out one great pulp masterpiece after
another from The Fog to The Spear and to this day, unlike his host of
imitators, he is still at it. Still selling lots of books and doing what he does
best, though these days his work is much lighter on the pulp and gore and probably could best
categorized in the "thriller" or "chiller" (horror combined with action or espionage) genres. One thing that
definitely separates The Rats from everything that came afterword is that Herbert wrote about rats
from a perspective of true fear. Growing up in the East London slums in a neighborhood of old tall
houses and bombed-out rubble from the Blitz, Herbert had firsthand experience dealing with large sewer
rats that haunted old stables and ruined buildings. And from those fearsome childhood experiences
sprang The Rats.
For some crazy reason that I've never been able to understand, James Herbert is not a name you hear
mentioned a lot by horror fans. A bestselling author. A guy who Stephen King once called "the best
writer of pulp horror to come along since the death of Robert E. Howard." Sadly, I think Herbert often
gets lumped in with the Nasty subgenre that he unintentionally began. And that's a shame because this
guy can really write.
The Rats, like all good things, is very simple in its set-up: a new mutant strain of giant black rats has
spread over London. The typical black sewer rat has been crossbred with a large tropical variety and
enhanced by forced mutation by a weird old man in a rotting house. Not only are they taking to the
streets and chewing up anyone they can find, but their bite is deadly and, gasp, they've developed
something of a rudimentary militaristic intelligence. And they are oh-so hungry:
"...the rats drained her body of blood and gnawed her flesh until not much more than bones and
pieces of skin remained. It didn't take long, for there were many of them. Their hunger for human
flesh had been merely inflamed--they wanted more..."
And the thing is, after digging into the stark depths of this book, so do we:
"...the bearded man had risen to his feet, pulling a wriggling body from his face and tearing mostly
hair from his cheek in the process. But as he stood, one of the larger rats leapt at his groin, pulling
away his genitals with one mighty twist of its body. The tramp screamed and fell to his knees,
thrusting his hands between his legs as if to stop the flow of blood, but he was immediately engulfed
and toppled over by a wave of black, bristling bodies..."
Good stuff. Through 175 lean pages, Herbert rubs our noses in one violent, bloody set piece after the
other. Voracious rats swarm a train, They invade a school. They devour a baby, a vermin exterminator
sent to hunt them, and flood a darkened cinema. Each scene is well-rendered, visceral,
and...well...nasty. Herbert is the master of horror set pieces and he has a special flair for creating
them, something that many of his imitators lacked. In so many ways The Rats is the template for
everything that came afterward. From an ordinary man or woman (schoolteacher in this case) who
fights the menace and then finds himself heading up a governmental committee to destroy it, to the set
pieces, steamy sex scenes, and the unpleasant ending where puppies infected with rat-killing virus are
set out at key points in London to destroy the vermin. Many, many of the nasties used this exact
formula.
Did the puppies wipe out the rats? you may well ask. Well, all I'm going to say is that this book
spawned two sequels, Lair and Domain, the former being one of my favorite novels by the great James
Herbert.
Pros: It's all good here. When you read this one, it's important to remember that this was the first! That
the clichés in this book only became such later by the repetition of others, not Mr. Herbert. This book
rocks from beginning to end and is highly recommended. They made a movie of it, too, called Deadly
Eyes, but I've never seen it.
Cons: None. Get out of here.
Overall: Ghastly, Gruesome, and Gor-ifying! What can I say? The original is still the best. 175 pages of
pure hot-blooded, fast-paced entertainment. Herbert knows how to tell a horror story and reading one
of his books is like sitting around a campfire listening to a good creepy, skin-crawly ghost story. And,
honestly, who doesn't find the idea of swarming rats just a little unnerving?
Five bloody skulls out of five! At last!
Next month's Guilty Pleasure:
"Something horrible is crawling out of your worst nightmares..."
categorized in the "thriller" or "chiller" (horror combined with action or espionage) genres. One thing that
definitely separates The Rats from everything that came afterword is that Herbert wrote about rats
from a perspective of true fear. Growing up in the East London slums in a neighborhood of old tall
houses and bombed-out rubble from the Blitz, Herbert had firsthand experience dealing with large sewer
rats that haunted old stables and ruined buildings. And from those fearsome childhood experiences
sprang The Rats.
For some crazy reason that I've never been able to understand, James Herbert is not a name you hear
mentioned a lot by horror fans. A bestselling author. A guy who Stephen King once called "the best
writer of pulp horror to come along since the death of Robert E. Howard." Sadly, I think Herbert often
gets lumped in with the Nasty subgenre that he unintentionally began. And that's a shame because this
guy can really write.
The Rats, like all good things, is very simple in its set-up: a new mutant strain of giant black rats has
spread over London. The typical black sewer rat has been crossbred with a large tropical variety and
enhanced by forced mutation by a weird old man in a rotting house. Not only are they taking to the
streets and chewing up anyone they can find, but their bite is deadly and, gasp, they've developed
something of a rudimentary militaristic intelligence. And they are oh-so hungry:
"...the rats drained her body of blood and gnawed her flesh until not much more than bones and
pieces of skin remained. It didn't take long, for there were many of them. Their hunger for human
flesh had been merely inflamed--they wanted more..."
And the thing is, after digging into the stark depths of this book, so do we:
"...the bearded man had risen to his feet, pulling a wriggling body from his face and tearing mostly
hair from his cheek in the process. But as he stood, one of the larger rats leapt at his groin, pulling
away his genitals with one mighty twist of its body. The tramp screamed and fell to his knees,
thrusting his hands between his legs as if to stop the flow of blood, but he was immediately engulfed
and toppled over by a wave of black, bristling bodies..."
Good stuff. Through 175 lean pages, Herbert rubs our noses in one violent, bloody set piece after the
other. Voracious rats swarm a train, They invade a school. They devour a baby, a vermin exterminator
sent to hunt them, and flood a darkened cinema. Each scene is well-rendered, visceral,
and...well...nasty. Herbert is the master of horror set pieces and he has a special flair for creating
them, something that many of his imitators lacked. In so many ways The Rats is the template for
everything that came afterward. From an ordinary man or woman (schoolteacher in this case) who
fights the menace and then finds himself heading up a governmental committee to destroy it, to the set
pieces, steamy sex scenes, and the unpleasant ending where puppies infected with rat-killing virus are
set out at key points in London to destroy the vermin. Many, many of the nasties used this exact
formula.
Did the puppies wipe out the rats? you may well ask. Well, all I'm going to say is that this book
spawned two sequels, Lair and Domain, the former being one of my favorite novels by the great James
Herbert.
Pros: It's all good here. When you read this one, it's important to remember that this was the first! That
the clichés in this book only became such later by the repetition of others, not Mr. Herbert. This book
rocks from beginning to end and is highly recommended. They made a movie of it, too, called Deadly
Eyes, but I've never seen it.
Cons: None. Get out of here.
Overall: Ghastly, Gruesome, and Gor-ifying! What can I say? The original is still the best. 175 pages of
pure hot-blooded, fast-paced entertainment. Herbert knows how to tell a horror story and reading one
of his books is like sitting around a campfire listening to a good creepy, skin-crawly ghost story. And,
honestly, who doesn't find the idea of swarming rats just a little unnerving?
Five bloody skulls out of five! At last!
Next month's Guilty Pleasure:
"Something horrible is crawling out of your worst nightmares..."