smug and anal and successful and ambitious detail orient wall street yuppie businessman bart hughes ( exceptionally well play by peter weller in his first lead role ) have his cozy and comfortable life throw out of whack when a large and crafty rat invade his fancy brownstone apartment . when conventional method of extermination prove fruitless and the increasingly primal and obsessive and paranoid bart resort to more drastic vicious and barbarous measure in order to rid himself of this loathsome pest . director george p. cosmatos and who also helm the sly stallone action vehicle rambo represent first blood part ii and cobra and wring plenty of tension out of the creepy premise and expertly maintain a snappy pace throughout and stag the ample jolting shock with a considerable amount of flair and skill . moreover and the smart and trenchant script by brian taggert offer a potent and gripping and provocative allegory on civilized man latent capacity for extreme violence and brutality need the proper stimulus to be activate ( the incredible conclusion with weller chase the rodent around his posh abode while brandish a spiked baseball bat be both disturb and excite in comparable measure ) . weller outstanding intense performance easily carry the picture and with fine support turn by jennifer dale a weller concern secretary and lawrence dane a weller tough and but fair and equally worried bos and louis del grande a the macho building superintendent and gorgeous playboy playmate shannon tweed a weller hot babe wife and and maury chaykin a a jerky co worker . rene verzier beautifully polish cinematography and ken wannberg supremely spookyn hivery score be both on the money effective and impressive . the rat be one genuinely scary and nasty piece of repulsive work . a total powerhouse .