The Rats Are Coming! The Werewolves Are Here! (1972)

"This place isn't conducive to happiness." - Gerald

A cursed family deals with the problems and secrets that plague them.
Starring: Hope Stansbury, Jackie Skarvellis, Noel Collins, Douglas Phair

Link to IMDB

Look at that amazing title! Okay, now it's all downhill from there...

Diana

The year is 1899 and we are introduced to the troubled Mooney family at their manor as the youngest brother, Malcolm, is being beaten on the lawn. He was born a feral simpleton, but often escapes from the attic where his older siblings keep him locked in with live chickens. This first scene is complete disorder, and sets the tone for the incomprehensible madness ahead.
Once again, my mantra was often "What is happening?"
The youngest daughter, Diana, is returning home from med school with her new husband to visit Papa Mooney who is getting closer to death in his old age.
It took me about 60 minutes to piece together these basic facts about the family, because information is constantly being interrupted as the characters argue and complain about everything imaginable. They basically all hate each other, and are always yelling about what's best for the family and Papa's health.

Monica with rat

The movie refuses to say that the family are werewolves, but it's obvious that is what their "cursed bloodline" is referring to. Papa's life work was to find a cure for their affliction, but he was never able to finish his research.
Another daughter, the sadistic Monica, is always full of jealousy and rage, and she stirs up conflict every chance she can. To further terrorize her family, she decides to buy some vicious rats from a demented rat-dealer (yes, that seriously happens.) The next day, Monica gets rid of the rats when they prove to be too much of an annoyance to tend. What!? That's it? No rat action like we were led to believe!!
The movie is not about rats and werewolves, it's more of a soap opera about a cruel family trying to destroy each others happiness. There's barely any plot and no attempt to even find one until near the end when things start to get a bit more demented and violent.
With the night of the full moon approaching, and Diana and Monica scheming to bring each other to ruin, surely we will get some werewolves in this movie! Maybe? Please.

"I don't want any ungrateful rats." - Monica

Every scene is as dry and clumsy as an amateur highschool play. The acting is so bad that it feels like the people are aliens from another galaxy trying their best to act like humans that are acting in a movie. It gives the entire movie an ethereal weirdness that captivated me, because somehow all the unintelligible talking is not completely boring! I couldn't stop watching, as though I was hypnotized by the incoherent vacuum of the family's psychotic melodrama.
This is enjoyable as a cynical oddity of trash cinema, but nothing more.

Would you buy a rat from this man ?

Be sure not to miss:
- Monica names two of the rats Willard and Ben, both from Willard.
- The gunsmith's monologue about getting old. Hilariously dull.
- I saw some cars and light switches in the background (it's supposed to be 1899.)
- Rats, rats, rats enough!

Internet review:
"I found this movie fascinating in the way highway accidents are fascinating." - Mondozilla

Should I watch it?
We've enjoyed worse, but this might test your patience.

Where can I find it?
The promptfile link here. (or on YouTube but the quality is terrible.)

The Rats & The Werewolves gets...