Of Unknown Origin (1983)

Of Unknown Origin (1983)
Written by Brian Taggert
Directed by George P Cosmatos


This is a sharp clever apartment thriller which melds Jaws with Willard. The always great Peter Weller plays a corporate executive Bart Hughes, whose wife (Shannon Tweed in her first role) and kid goes off to stay with her mother. After they are gone, Bart soon starts to notice strange going ons in the home and finds himself struggling against a very big rat. The direction is tense and so is the atmosphere, the rat is presumably very intelligent. One scene shows it chewing through wires while Bart’s on the phone. Bart becomes quickly obsessed with killing the creature and buys up tons of equipment to kill it, all the while wreaking havoc on his home.

It’s the type of movie that isn’t unknown, you’ve seen the formula dozens of times, particularly with Hitchcock movies, but what sets this apart is the conviction played by Peter Weller. His believability into spiraling out of control is worth the watch.
It was produced by Pierre David, his name was attached to some of the eighties David Cronenberg movies. It also won Best Actor and Film awards at the Paris International Film Festival. Cosmatos went on to direct the excellent Tombstone years later.