Of Unknown Origin 4K 1983 Ultra HD 2160p

An employee at a reputable firm (Weller) discovers that a giant rat is living in his home. His wife and son have gone on vacation. Forgetting about his important work, the homeowner wages war against the repulsive beast, nearly destroying the entire building in the process. By the time his wife returns, he manages to kill the rat. A truly dreadful piece of nonsense. Shannon Tweed makes her screen debut.

User Review

A decent budget and a B-movie-style plot sometimes go together quite well. This is an excellent example of quality direction, where not only does the solid cinematography do its job, but a single actor is able to carry the entire film on his own. “Carry” doesn’t mean that everything else falls flat or is terribly done—quite the opposite, especially given the plot… Suspense, emotional tension, and unexpected thrills—the film promises to deliver all of this to the discerning viewer.

I’ll long remember one scene where the treacherous rodent is actually absent. In a business-like horror moment, Peter Weller recounts something he read the other day while thoroughly researching the history of rats. Imagine a few proper, smart little men sitting there, eating leisurely, when one of their colleagues begins to list in detail the merits and superiority of rats compared to the plague and famine. An awesome scene.

On the one hand, I was completely wrong when I wrote that there’s only one actor in this movie. Since this is a rat movie, the giant rat gets quite a bit of screen time. One major downside: they never actually showed the rat in its entirety. The camera zooms in on its teeth, claws, and long tail, but, alas, never shows it whole. That’s a shame. As I understand it, the rat itself was inserted into most of the action scenes via editing; otherwise, they would have shown us a model of the massive creature after all.

Info Video

Codec: HEVC / H.265 (87.9 Mb/s)
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1

Info Audio

#English: FLAC 1.0
#English: Dolby Digital 2.0 (Commentary by Director George Cosmatos and Actor Peter Weller)
#English: Dolby Digital 2.0 (Commentary by Bill & Ashley's Terror Theater Podcast)

Info Subtitles