Ben (1972) Review

Ben (1972) Review

 

A rarity in the sub-genre of killer animal movies is the worthwhile sequel. Once the premise has been done, the follow-up is usually just a poor imitation, as was the case with such classic examples as Jaws 2, Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid, and Son of Kong (though all of them are not as bad as most sequels of this sort), or the follow-ups are direct-to-video garbage (the Lake Placid and Deep Blue Sea franchises come to mind). But then there’s Ben, which came out a year after Willard and follows the events of that film, but as the title indicates, it’s more focused on the rat who overthrew his master at the end of the first movie: a film that was more of a dramatic character study that just happened to have killer rats in it.

We get a little recap of Willard’s ending, then see the aftermath in the house as the police investigation proceeds, and Ben, the big rat leading the hordes of his killer brethren, lurks about in the shadows. There’s one investigator who repeatedly draws a cigarette then snaps it in half before one of the other guys can light it for him, which is kind of a funny character detail. Ben avoids being caught and finds his way into the life of a young boy named Danny, played by Lee Montgomery. This movie is not the same kind of suspenseful character study that Willard was. We still get to know Danny (and as a young protagonist in a cheap movie of this kind, he’s not too bad, doing the best with what he has to work with) and we see his relationship with Ben develop, but he isn’t the same kind of weirdo as Willard Styles. Danny has a heart condition and no friends, so he’s instantly open to Ben becoming his new best friend, and protects him from the police.

You might be wondering the same thing I was wondering as the movie began: how is this kid going to know the rat is named “Ben” if Ben can’t tell him his own name? Well, the cops find Willard’s journal in the attic where he was killed and publish some pages from it in the newspaper. So, not only does Danny already know who Ben is when he meets him, the whole town knows they have a killer rat problem, and they want the rats exterminated. The scenes of the rats invading places around town, including a grocery store and a women’s gym, are some of the less interesting scenes in the movie, because people just scream at the sight of them and shoo them away for the most part. The scenes of rats attacking people are pretty funny, because they don’t really do much more than crawl on them, but the people react as if they’re being eaten by piranhas and don’t take long to succumb to the attacks.

As I said before, Danny is not the same kind of weirdo as Willard, but he still is a weird little kid. He has a marionette puppet show and does a little dance number with one of them to a song he made called “Start the Day”, then later he makes a marionette of Ben and comes up with a song about him and their friendship. Michael Jackson sings it during the final scene/end credits, and it’s probably what this movie is most famous for. Not many people may remember this little killer rat horror flick from the 70’s, but if they do, a big part of that is likely connected to remembering MJ’s song. Danny is played up to be highly sympathetic, but it doesn’t always work. He’s different enough from Willard though that he doesn’t feel like a carbon copy, even when he gets bullied and relies on Ben to defend him.

Most of the supporting characters are what you would expect. Danny’s sister utters a few good “oh no’s!” and scream-queen-worthy screams at points throughout the movie, and the mom is pretty clueless, but unlike the majority of killer animal movies, the killer animal in question here feels closer to an actual character than any others I can think of. Ben is a rarity in that he actually survived the first movie. There are many, many shots of him sitting and watching and squeaking, and it doesn’t really create much tension, but he certainly has a presence, which at least keeps the viewer’s interest despite the rather slow build-up resulting from the film’s attempts to build suspense. The finale makes the slower first and second acts feel worth getting through, because we get to see Danny and his sister running through the sewers while the police try to roast all of the rats down there with flamethrowers and blow them away with shotguns! As far as I can tell no rats were actually hurt in any of these more violent and intense scenes. I’ll take janky, dated visual tricks that look obviously fake over real animals being harmed just to get a more realistic shot any day.

Ben is not what I would call a superior killer animal movie sequel, but it avoids repeating too much of the same thing from the first movie to be at least worthwhile. I think it’s worth pairing with the original Willard as a 70’s B-movie double feature (which has been done in the past for theatrical re-releases), with the caveat that neither are particularly scary unless you have a phobia of rats—but, by the very end of Ben, you might feel a little sympathy for the furry fiend, whether you have that phobia or not. 

Related: Reviews for original Willard (1971) and remake (2003):

https://cccmovies.blogspot.com/2020/10/willard-original-and-remake-reviews.html