The Rage

Introduction

The film begins in the laboratory of mad Russian Communist scientist Dr. Viktor Vasilienko (Andrew Divoff) who, angry at the way he's been treated by the capitalist society, decides to hold them to ransom by releasing a virus and keeping the antidote for himself, only releasing it when his demands (whatever they are!) are met.
 
Unfortunately, one of his subjects breaks free and stumbles into the woods before dropping dead. The circling vultures do what they do best and therefore become infected by the rage virus.  Several people are infected, including a young girl and her uncle (played in a cameo by genre legend Reggie Bannister) and a group of college students.  The students fight against the vultures, all hopped up on the aggressive serum, and one is beheaded and so only a few escape.
 
Whilst trying to flee the murderous birds, they stumble across the nests, are attacked before finding shelter in what they think is an abandoned warehouse, only to find themselves at the mercy of Dr. Vasilienko.
 

Video

This is not a film that takes itself seriously, nor asks you to take it seriously, so the special makeup effects are a mixture of brilliantly realistic and gory and completely ridiculous, with the same applying for the CGI.  Occasionally the vultures look good but other times scenes with them look like a badly rendered video game.
 
The film is obviously shot digitally as some of it looks great but some scenes suffer from motion blur, edge enhancement and the colours don't look right.
 

Audio

The stereo track is perfectly serviceable and, when Dr. Vasilienko and some of his creations speak Russian or barely legible English, there are burnt-in subtitles.  When filtered through the rears, if you employ Pro Logic II, the volume level alters dramatically - occasionally too loud but sometimes very effective.

Conclusion

There are numerous sub-genres within horror, some films are serious and need to be treated as such, whereas others use more comedic techniques and are great when you have company and snacks.  This is one such 'party' film - it is completely ludicrous, like 28 Days Later but with mad scientists, deformed dwarves and psychotic vultures.  Some of the humour doesn't work and just falls flat but some of it is funny and, together with the gore and outrageous violence, just seems to come together perfectly.
 
The Rage is a bit of a hit-and-miss affair and, if something doesn't work, it's not long before something ridiculous comes along which does and has you laughing and/or grimacing.  It's odd to have two films in a couple of weeks with a starring role for the same actor, but this is the case here with Andrew Divoff giving his all, just as he did with Boston Strangler: The Untold Story, though I much preferred his completely over-the-top performance in this to the uptight detective in Michael Feifer's film.
 
If you don't mind your horror films unsophisticated, occasionally stupid and with bucketloads of gore, then this is well worth checking out.  It won't be to everyone's taste and I can imagine some thinking it's complete rubbish, but I enjoyed it and that's really all I ask for a film like this.  My only reservation is the bare-bones nature of the disc - a commentary would have been welcome - but it's worth a look for a wet weekend.