bart hughes ( peter weller and in a likable and creditable star debut ) be a manhattan yuppie who live in a nice and re furbish brownstone . a wife meg ( the gorgeous shannon tweed and in her feature film debut ) and son peter leave to spend some time with her father and bart orderly and structured life take a turn for the bad and and at a very inopportune time and a a major project be go down at work . a relentless and seemingly indestructible rat have invade his domicile and make his life a living hell . while this effective little tale delivers the good shock and suspense require for a tried and true horror story and it operate on more than one level and a it equate bart drive for success in his professional life with his need to prove his superiority to this upstart rodent . he ultimately will have to get in touch with his inner primitive nature in order to come out on top . not only that and he have to struggle to hold on to his sanity a the rat seem to be make all the good move . underscored by ken wannbergs solid and spooky music and the film feature some great animal action . lot of repellent closeup of the rodent performer help to maintain the creepiness factor of the picture and and there be some great sequence a the rat run amok throughout the place ( the moment when the infernal thing pop up out of the toilet be a fantastically orchestrate shock . ) . director george p. cosmatos keep the tension at a high level and the action move at a steady pace . weller anchor the film nicely with his believable performance and ably support by such fine actor a lawrence dane and kenneth welsh and louis del grande and jennifer dale and and maury chaykin . film in montreal and filling in adequately for new york city and with an intelligent script by brian taggert base on the novel the visitor by chauncey g. parker iii . positive .