More Milligan

THE RATS ARE COMING! THE WEREWOLVES ARE HERE! -1972-Writer/director Andy Milligan presents another period piece horror show featuring another dysfunctional family. This time it's the Mooneys lead by their bedridden father (Douglas Phair), oldest son Mortimer (Noel Collins), oldest sister Phoebe (Joan Ogden) and whiny younger sister Monica (Hope Stansbury; also in BLOOD). They bicker a lot. There’s also a younger brother. The animal like Malcolm (Berwick Kaler;; also in THE BODY BENEATH) who’s kept locked up (he escapes once in a while).He seems to like chickens. Youngest sister Diana (Jackie Scarvellis; also in THE BODY BENEATH) who has been away for some years returns with her new husband Gerald (Ian Innes). It's clear from their first meeting that Monica and Diana hate each other. When Diana meets papa he berates her for her marriage and talks about extensive tests that must be made to start a new bloodline. He also says only Diana can carry on his experiments. Monica is a real cantankerous bitch who beats Malcolm and disrupts dinner. Later Gerald says they should go back to Scotland and Diana confides in Mortimer that she’s pregnant. Then suddenly in the middle of all this a more modern dressed Monica visits a ghoul faced shopkeeper named Mr. McCawber (director Milligan) and buys some flesh eating rats. Back in the other movie Monica attacks Gerald with a knife but a cross seems to stop her. Diana seems to have a aversion to it also. Then Monica plays with her rats and seems to be having a good time until one bites her and she kills it. She tries to get her money back from McCawber but he refuses so she kills him. Later after Phoebe and Mortimer talk about giving up Diana's baby and giving pops his shot, Diana buys a gun from an old gunsmith. This scene is so long and talky and seems only included because the director wanted a showoff role (Milligan plays the gunsmith!). This is followed by another useless long and boring scene where Monica and friend Rebecca talk about a garden snake she found. Monica kills her. It turns out of course that the whole family are werewolves and when the moon is full they transform into badly made up some type of wolf monsters. Except Diana who can change at will and after she and Gerald kill off the clan Diana kills hubby and awaits the birth of their kid. 

This was one of four movies Andy Milligan shot in England. Two years after filming ended, Milligan, at the request of executive producer William Mishkin added the rat segments because WILLARD had just become a big hit.

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