Mulberry St (2006)

After having seen a few low budget zombie movies a while back, my love for the genre faded and nowadays knowing that a film is both low budget and a zombie movie is liable to put me off seeing it; the reason being that while these films often show great enthusiasm, they can be seriously lacking in creativity. Well you could of course argue that this is not a zombie film as the central monsters are strange rat creatures rather than the classic zombie monsters...but it's basically just the same difference, and arguing that this film is not a zombie film would be as futile as saying the 2002 zombie film '28 Days Later' is not a zombie film. Anyway, what we basically have here is just your average zombie outbreak idea and we focus on an apartment block on 'Mulberry Street'. It turns out that there's something funny going on with the rats under the apartment block and all hell breaks lose when a man is bitten and starts showing signs of...turning into a giant rat. The infection quickly spreads, leading to a fight for life for the survivors.

The film is very short at only eighty minutes and was obviously set on a limited budget; thus meaning that it doesn't have a great deal of scope and we basically just focus on the central characters. This makes for decent enough entertainment, but the film is lacking in several areas and a lot of it feels rather thin. We don't get any details about the actual virus; which isn't that disappointing when you consider the usual reasons behind a zombie outbreak (a virus, radiation from space etc), but since this film has dared to change the formula a little in having people turn into rats; it would be nice to have some sort of reasoning behind it. The film has plenty of action, gore and horror images; but the problem is how it's portrayed. Director Jim Mickle has unfortunately opted to go down the flashy MTv-style photography route, and the result is that it's very difficult to see what is going on, and this kind of kills the film in terms of entertainment value. However, Mulberry Street does at least have enough good points to make it a worthwhile viewing and zombie fans should find something to like.

Fmovies: This film caught me by surprise. It is rare indeed to find well written characters in films today and much less so in horror films. These characters were incredibly well written and it is their relationships that bring so much power to the film.

The film brings the grittiness and fear that made the original Night of the Living Dead a classic and added the intensity and ferocity of 28 Days Later. Now add well written characters to that recipe! The movie takes its time to unfold as you get to know the characters and slowly learn about the mayhem that is beginning to unfold in New York. The film aptly captures that gradual realization as the news stories begin to unfold in a crisis. It takes you from the who cares, the what the heck, and the OMG! As the city falls apart.

Confession: I have never cried in a horror movie before and by the end I was bawling. And I wasn't the only one in the theater. When the lights came on, people were looking around and caught the others who were moved by it all.

Reading about the other film written by Michael Damici (Fast Horses) there seems to be a theme of the unspoken love between men in his work. If that freaks you out, then you won't like the movie much. Otherwise, catch this film!

Mulberry Street was the next stop on my ride through Horrorfest. This is not only the entry that I've been most looking forward to, but the movie that made me want to go to any of the Horrorfest movies at all. And I'm happy to say that it fully lived up to my expectations.

Before I begin the review, I will be hyping this movie. In short and up front, I loved it and it scared me. If you don't think it will scare you from what you may have read about it until now, then see it on my words. Or read the whole review, which will (once again) hype it up, and hopefully you'll still enjoy it as much as I did. Moving along...

The movie takes place in Manhattan, and people are being attacked by rats. First small incidents here and there take place, then those who have been bitten begin to degenerate into a rat-like form (It's a little mix of 28 Days Later, Dawn of the Dead, and... well, Rat Creatures.) 6 tenants of an old apartment complex that has been marked for demolition (as part of an urban renewal program) try to make it through the onslaught of rat people that now prowl the streets, walls, and every ware in between. I know, sounds like a cross between a B-Movie, Willard, and a Sci-Fi Channel Original Movie, but it's actually really good.

To begin with, the characters are excellent, for several reasons. They aren't super-hot teens or stereotypes or anything you'd normally find in a horror movie. They're just regular people, the kind you'd find in, well, the more average part of the big city. They are acted like regular people, don't have any outstanding abilities (ones a former boxer, his daughter is coming back from a vet center after fighting in Iraq (a small subplot of the film is her attempting to get to the apartment complex during all the chaos), and that's about it). And finally, these people don't act like morons or anything. They act like you or me would act in situations like that. Plus, the character development is great. You really start to care for these people (especially the two old guys sharing an upstairs apartment. Love those two), and you want them to make it.

The atmosphere is great. Part of the time it's rather claustrophobic, with the tiny apartments crammed with space, or the restaurants and bars that are shoved into spaces that are half the size of regular shops. Downtown New York City buildings, essentially. The lighting is real and not too bright, and helps build tension. The creatures (or mutated people, or whatever you want to call them) look pretty scary, but you never get a really good look at them (I'll chalk that up to the limited budget of this film. Which is another thing, this film had a tiny budget, and that it pulled off so much is pretty amazing). The music is just right, and climaxes at just the right points.

Finally, this film is scary. I mean really scary. I haven't been genuinely freaked about by a film in a ling time (I mean, I love the Saw movies, but I find them interesting rather than scary. And 1408 had me shaking, but nothing heavy. Hell, August Underground and Cannibal Holocaust were just learning experiments, nothing more). It had some jump scares, but it kept getting freaky even after the jump. It stuck with you, and your were nervous when nothing was happening. It's good stuff when a movie pulls that off. I really haven't been this freaked out by a movie since The Shining (albeit I only first saw The Shining only a couple years ago, but still...)

Not to say there

Mulberry St fmovies. Who ever said that New Yorkers were rude or not funny, I sure as hell didn't. I want to say a few things about this movie I loved it. I absolutely loved this movie, it was one of the best apocalyptic movies since 28 Week Later, and furthermore, it was more of an isolated incident than a major epidemic. I was beautifully done, the acting was beyond superb, very tense and horrorfic and funny. This movie had the look and feel of something much more mesmerizing and sedated than just your typical outbreak story, it had family values, emotional battles, REAL looking people rather than beautiful young teens and some very sad and unexpected moments. This movie would probably be the best Horror Fest movie I have seen. It brought me back to the day when apocalypse movies were abundant and new. Even for a very restricted budget, as the film displays, this film was dynamite.

First off, the acting was equivalent to 28 Days and Weeks, the remake of Dawn of the Dead and Land of the Dead. Unlike its predecessors, Mulberry Street is an isolated outbreak strictly in the Manhattan and New York region. This outbreak was not cause by a virus, or at least confirmed that it was virus, or a zombie outbreak or even a gas, it was simply caused by underground sewer rats. When bitten, people turn into "rat people." They become deformed, grow long front teeth and pointy ears and eat other people. What made this movie scary was that they weren't zombies or enraged people but mutations of the human body running around and viciously attack people. They jump out of nowhere, they puke blood, eat other people and violent manner that all of this is happening. It's scary, when you see these people faces and the way they act before they turn into rat people. Something about this particular apocalypse movie was different from Days, Weeks, Dawn of Dead or Land of Dead, it was pretty scary and very well done for a low budgeter. One of the scarier moments was when the building super, who got bit, started crawling up the inside of the walls and ceilings.

The characters in this movie were not you typical drunken, sex-craved, beautiful teens, but were you typical lower class, medium income New York tenants. That's what I also loved about this movie was it had real people who acted like real people in such situations and with outstanding performances by Nick Damici, Kim Blair, Ron Brice, Antone Pagan and Lou Torres. Another great element that drives this movie is the emotional feel and the chemistry between those characters. A father, along with his flamboyant friend wait for the arrival of his long seen daughter, and just the respect and love they had for each was powerful. The relationship that one of the older tenants has with a bedridden old man who breaths through an oxygen tank is hysterically powerful and the love between that father and a barmaid, whom he has trouble confronting. All of these aspects and more made this film emotionally driven and powerful. There are points were it's almost sad and a good amount of laughs.

Another great and unexpected aspect of this film was the humor. The old guy with the breather is hysterical even the most hectic and horrible situations. There was plenty of humor in this film that lightened the mood including the bar's owner who found a great way to defend himself from the rat people, with none other than a frying pan. Great humor portrayed by one of the more flamboyant tenants who also found a great way for defense involving a lighter and an aerosol can. The humor was abundan

Taking place mostly at a small apartment building in downtown Manhattan whose inhabitants must deal with murderous rats, as well as the zombie rat-people that those they bite devolve into. This low-budget really surprised me (it being a part of the After Dark '8 films to die for' didn't really provoke confidence as most of those films I've seen previous to this one were awful) However this film kept my interests throughout & a testament that supremely low-budget films can be good if the film maker has an eye on the ball, plans it all out ahead of time and has a real passion for cinema. Well acted, but characterization is a tad sparse, however that's all right as the film is tense and tightly made so it's not a huge problem. Nick Damici does a great job both behind and in front of the camera.

My Grade: B

"Mulberry Street" is basically just another forgettable and mediocre creature-feature flick, but I'm rewarding it with at least two extra points because director Jim Mickle and his enthusiast cast & crew clearly went through several harsh ordeals before they could finish their ambitious project. Mickle came to introduce his film at the Belgian Horror & Fantasy Festival and explained how they had to shoot essential footage in the middle of the crowded streets of Manhattan without any official permission to film there, and how all the actors in this film are friends or in some way related to the director, so none of them received any payments. Bearing all this in mind, plus the fact that "Mulberry Street" actually shows the courage and ambition to be a different and largely atmosphere-driven new horror film, I'd say it at least deserves the respect and appreciation of avid horror fanatics and amateur filmmakers all over the world. And the film itself really isn't that bad, neither. A handful of likable characters, all recently evicted tenants of a ramshackle apartment building in Mulberry Str; Manhattan, join together in order to survive a deadly virus that broke out in the city overnight. As a result of constant urban decay, pollution and unbearable heat, the sewer rats of Manhattan are quickly spreading a horrible disease that causes its victims to mutate into a ravenous and bloodthirsty rat-creatures. Once bitten, people rapidly turn into a zombies with the appearance and eating habits of rats, and they only look at their former friends and neighbors as rich sources of food. Clutch, a retired boxer, nervously awaits the homecoming of his soldier daughter, but first he has to protect the other tenants as the rat-zombies are quickly infesting the entire neighborhood. The engaging depiction of the inhabitants of 51, Mulberry Street unquestionably is the biggest advantage of this film. The characters admirably aren't empty-headed junkies or filthy scum, but a close community of hard working and respectable people that are prepared to sacrifice themselves in order to save the others. This is honestly the only film I remember portraying the typical New Yorkers as unsung heroes. Even though the script reveals very few details regarding the lethal rat-virus, the chaotic situation in downtown Manhattan is eerily plausible and the overall atmosphere of "Mulberry Street" is tremendously menacing. Jim Mickle and writer/lead star Nick Damici simultaneously grab the opportunity to process a whole cargo-load of social and political criticism into the screenplay, particularly emphasizing the the war in Iraq and the problematic housing accommodation in big cities. Despite of budgetary restrictions, "Mulberry Street" also features a satisfying amount of blood and gruesome images. The make-up effects on the victims of the rat-virus are quite nasty and the zombie-attacks are uncompromising. Unfortunately the pacing slows down a bit during the second half of the film and the dialogs begin to sound repetitive. But by then, personally, I was already too impressed to allow the minor & understandable flaws to spoil my viewing experience. I really liked this film, as it has real characters and displays a righteously unhappy world-perspective. I doubt "Mulberry Street" will become a film that is easily available, so if you have the opportunity to watch it some time, do not hesitate.