“The neighborhood is changing . . . “
A plague breaks out mutating bite victims into savage rat-like humans with an uncontrollable hunger for fresh kill.
We’re reaching the end of our series on the After Dark Horrrorfest Movie series. Today’s movie is Mulberry St., a movie about a neighborhood and its monsters.
TITLE:
MULBERRY ST.
Director:
Jim Mickle
Director:
Nick Damici and Jim Mickle
GENRE:
Horror, Neighborhood Story,
DESCRIPTORS:
Horror, New York City, Bronx, Run Down Apartments, Gentrification, Plague, Rats, Mutations.
RATING:
Rated R
SUMMARY:
Gentrification is destroying the neighborhood. The tenants in a run down apartment complex have already been served their eviction notices but for the moment, ex boxer Clutch (Nick Damici) and his friend Coco can only think about Casey’s homecoming from military service. Okay, Clutch is also thinking about that nice woman in the apartment below, Kay. The movie is also about Casey, battle scared and withdrawn, who is trying to get home during most of the story.
The story of the lives of the apartment tenants, especially Clutch, Coco and Kay, are played out while reports in the background of city wide rat bites and subsequent aggression of the victims can be seen on the televisions in the background. Slowly, however, the residents of Mulberry St. find their lives endangered as the plague reaches them and by nightfall the street and even the apartment complex is under siege.
The plague is spreading. Massive numbers of mutant human-rodent creatures roam in search of food, making their way through the rickety complex, a place so old that the doors and walls cannot keep them out. To make matters worse, Kay still hasn’t come home from work and Casey is very late — coming home in enemy territory
APPEAL:
I loved this movie. You got to know the characters — already anxious about the impending eviction — while the threat slowly creeps up on them during the course of a day. When the rat-mutants start claiming their victims, you about the fate of the people endangered.
In an interview, the director stated that this was a neighborhood movie. It is. It’s a movie, lovingly depicting a lower east side neighborhood which is already dying when the monsters arrive.
The monsters, rat-human mutations are suitably creepy, especially when they’re mostly hidden in the shadows. A couple of times too much was revealed and the special effects didn’t stand up well to that demand. However, for a low budget movie with an incredibly tight shooting time, the movie was well made and one of the highlights of the Horrorfest series.
Smart dialog, with many funny moments make for memorable characters and scenes that linger in my thoughts weeks after the viewing.
WATCHALIKES:
Mulberry St. has the same gritty intensity as George Romero’s original Night of the Living Dead
You can order either the 2006 After Dark Horrorfest: 8 Films to Die For
NOTE:
I stumbled upon an interview with director and co-writer Jim Mickle and actor and co-writer Nick Damici which gave me fascinating insight into the making of Mulberry St. and why it worked so well on me. Check out this post on The House Next Door blog.
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