The Rats Are Coming! The Werewolves Are Here!

There is an ancient curse on the Mooney family. When the moon is full, they turn into werewolves. The patriarch Pa is kept alive by the extract of a plant from his daughter Phoebe. The eldest son Mortimer takes care of the family business, while his sister Monica mainly causes mischief. The latter also has to take care of the deformed son Malcolm, who is locked in a room with chickens. All hopes are pinned on the youngest daughter Diana, who has been sent to medical school. When she returns after four years of study, she has her fiancé Gerald with her. The latter has no idea what kind of family he is marrying into.

Andy Milligan's family drama about a dysfunctional family of werewolves offers the usual mix of sometimes amateurish staging, mismatched costumes that don't fit the period at all, and a confused plot. But in the end, that's exactly what makes the film so charmingly entertaining. You need a little patience until the first minimalist made-up werewolf stumbles through the picture and the events unfold in the blink of an eye, but until then you are entertained with wonderful dialogues and crude ideas. The film is considerably more harmless than Milligan's other films from the era and even hit theaters with a PG rating. Note the man with the smoke machine at the right edge of the frame.

Code Red Blu-ray slightly cut

The film was first released by Code Red on Blu-ray on 20 October 2015. On 29 September 2021, Severin released The Dungeon Of Andy Milligan Collection, a box set containing 13 of his films. Severin had access to the 16mm negatives and so the set includes never-before-released extended versions of some of the films. In The Rats Are Coming! The Werewolves Are Here! this is also the case. Included on the Code Red Blu-ray is the known theatrical version and not the shorter Director's Cut. Missing in two places are references to the incestuous connection between Phoebe and Pa from which Malcolm was spawned. In the final third, the picture quality of the Code Red Blu-ray is noticeably worse. Presumably, they had to resort to a poorer theatrical print here.

Anyone interested in Andy Milligan's films should definitely get the box by Severin. The box is very lovingly designed and many of the films are available in extended versions for the first time. The picture quality is excellent and the included book by Stephen Thrower rounds out the release nicely. The +/- $150 price tag on this is more than justified considering where the price range was for previous releases.

Picture Comparison:

Code Red Blu-ray:

Severin Blu-ray:

Runtimes:

Code Red Blu-ray: 91:46 min.
Severin Blu-ray: 92:00 min.

Comparison between the US Blu-ray by Code Red and the US Blu-ray by Severin.

[00:26:26][00:26:31]

On the Code Red Blu-ray, there is a jump cut. This causes the following dialogue between Phoebe and Diana to be lost.

Phoebe: "You don't know what Papa means to me."
Diana: "He means a lot to all of us."
Phoebe: "No."

Severin: 4 sec.


[01:23:33][01:23:40]

On the Severin Blu-ray, Phoebe reveals that Malcom is her child and was fathered by her father.

Phoebe: "Malcom is my child. I had him by Papa."

Severin: 8 sec.


[01:31:38][01:31:52]

On the Severin Blu-ray, the sky is visible longer in the last shot before "The End" fades in.

Severin: 4 sec.