A day/night in the lives of an eclectic group of characters, who live in a crumbling apartment complex soon to be possibly condemned on Mulberry St, are focused on as a societal collapse is imminent, threatening NYC due to a crisis of infection from wide-spread rodent bites. Manhattan soon is overrun by infected citizens who are slowly transforming into human rodents! Once the citizens are completely infected by the rat virus, they attack anyone in their path, longing to feast on their flesh.
Characters like Clutch(Nick Damici), a former boxer seen often jogging on the streets(also the one his fellow neighbors in the Mulberry St apartment put their trust in), his daughter Casey(Kim Blair), recently returning from a tour in Iraq carrying a facial scar she's self-conscious about, Kay(Bo Corre), a Polish-American single mother who works at a local pub nearby, are just a few the film isolates as the outbreak takes shape.
While the influences of Night of the Living Dead(characters trapped in an apartment complex as infected humans await them outside)and 28 Days Later..(the "giddy-up" rat-humans, shaky cam style and running humans trying to escape as the predators pursue them)are undeniable, I still found "Mulberry St." a pulse-pounding thrill-ride. The rat-humans are shot quite the same way as the "rage-infected" human zombies of 28 Days Later(& 28 Weeks Later)..the camera doesn't really completely eyeball them, because they move so fast, in such a frenzied state like wild animals starving for supper, that we don't exactly identify with them. And, once they are on the rampage, our regular working-class heroes are often on the move, or trying to find shelter or weapons to protect themselves. Appropriately grim with a rather downbeat climax as governmental biological teams finally arrive after night closes, with many of the cast members either dead or turned. The shaky-cam will undoubtedly turn some people off(..or turn their stomachs), but it gives the film an immediacy that I felt keeps the viewer on edge. I can see why director Mickle opted for the shaky-cam technique..it does give the film a documentarian closeness with those characters focused on. There are shots within the apartment which give "Mulberry St" a claustrophobic dread while outside, there's too much space(..and often a deadening silence on desolate streets with rat-humans eating silently, always listening for sounds of fresh meat) as bodies lie all over the place. Larry Fessenden has a funny cameo as a running civilian who locks the gate on a fellow citizen, later suffering the consequences when he himself needs help. I think "Mulberry St" is a rare film in that the characters, and the actors portraying them, are multi-dimensional.
Characters like Clutch(Nick Damici), a former boxer seen often jogging on the streets(also the one his fellow neighbors in the Mulberry St apartment put their trust in), his daughter Casey(Kim Blair), recently returning from a tour in Iraq carrying a facial scar she's self-conscious about, Kay(Bo Corre), a Polish-American single mother who works at a local pub nearby, are just a few the film isolates as the outbreak takes shape.
While the influences of Night of the Living Dead(characters trapped in an apartment complex as infected humans await them outside)and 28 Days Later..(the "giddy-up" rat-humans, shaky cam style and running humans trying to escape as the predators pursue them)are undeniable, I still found "Mulberry St." a pulse-pounding thrill-ride. The rat-humans are shot quite the same way as the "rage-infected" human zombies of 28 Days Later(& 28 Weeks Later)..the camera doesn't really completely eyeball them, because they move so fast, in such a frenzied state like wild animals starving for supper, that we don't exactly identify with them. And, once they are on the rampage, our regular working-class heroes are often on the move, or trying to find shelter or weapons to protect themselves. Appropriately grim with a rather downbeat climax as governmental biological teams finally arrive after night closes, with many of the cast members either dead or turned. The shaky-cam will undoubtedly turn some people off(..or turn their stomachs), but it gives the film an immediacy that I felt keeps the viewer on edge. I can see why director Mickle opted for the shaky-cam technique..it does give the film a documentarian closeness with those characters focused on. There are shots within the apartment which give "Mulberry St" a claustrophobic dread while outside, there's too much space(..and often a deadening silence on desolate streets with rat-humans eating silently, always listening for sounds of fresh meat) as bodies lie all over the place. Larry Fessenden has a funny cameo as a running civilian who locks the gate on a fellow citizen, later suffering the consequences when he himself needs help. I think "Mulberry St" is a rare film in that the characters, and the actors portraying them, are multi-dimensional.