Mulberry Street (2006)

Ex-boxer Clutch (Nick Damici) is looking forward to the return home of his daughter Casey (Kim Blair), who has just been discharged from the service. She is having trouble getting there because there have been some rail and subway closures getting into Manhattan, due to escalating incidences of rats attacking people and, following suit, people attacking people.

For the most part New York goes on as normal. The other tenants in Clutch's apartment building are dreading rent increases or possible eviction due to the building being bought by a developer. Clutch's unrequited love interest Kay (Bo Corre) is dealing with her troubled teenage son Otto (Javier Picayo), while superintendent Ross (Tim House) is struggling to keep the building from falling down around all of them. When Ross is bitten by an infected rat, he begins to change in strange ways.

He is not the only one. More reports pour in around Manhattan of people attacking people until finally all hell breaks loose. It turns out anyone bitten by the rats or by the infected become ill with a virus that slowly turns them into giant rats themselves. Casey struggles to get to her father, Clutch tries to get Kay home safely from the restaurant where she works and the other tenants try to survive. All the while New York's governor vacations in Bermuda, the mayor skips town and the federal government seems at a loss of what to do.

This movie easily could have been another rote zombie film or a 28 Days Later clone, but instead manages to be an entertaining low-budget horror film. When it gets to surviving the night it has been done before, but the performances of everyone involved elevates it. It is marred by some horrible modern rock songs and an abrupt and vague ending, but the practical gore effects and the wise decision to spend the money on make-up effects makes this exciting all the way through.

Mulberry Street (2006)
Duration: 84 minutes
Starring: Nick Damici, Kim Blair, Ron Brice, Bo Corre
Director: Jim Mickle