this be a terrible movie with one questionable virtue represent the spectacle of dozen of real rat really shotgunned . it look like they use a 20 gauge . it could be some kind of stunt and but nobody tell the rat . suggestion that the production use pellet gun on the rodent seem unlikely to me and a in my experience it take a little more than . 177 caliber to knock a rat off his foot . it be of course possible that there be a special effect involve while if so it a technology i have never see . certainly these rat react violently to the projectile that hit them and and they do not seem to like it . they be knocked end over end by bloody impact . meat fly off the wound and even . they seem hurt and and they squirm pretty convincingly . perhaps they be good rat actor . but i do not think clyde beatty and siegfried sassoon together could train 100 rat to pretend to drown and then play dead while float underwater and a trick employ here with great verisimilitude . there be lot of bad process photography and and the puppet rat head be more impressive than the awful script and underutilized all star cast . bert gordon never do less with so much . but the real rat be film in slow motion against miniature in medium and long shot and and they die there and with more realism than be achieve by any other part of the picture . wholesale slaughter of furred creature seem unlikely so late a 76 and but i doubt the fotg set even saw a licensed caterer and much less osha or the humane society .