George Cosmatos’s Of Unknown Origin, based on Chauncey G. Parker III’s novel The Visitor, is reportedly Stephen King’s favorite, not horror movie, but film outright. Though a minor film of mention, Cosmatos’s work is indeed well written and acted but is by no means a peer to Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho or George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. It is nonetheless a pleasure for it exhibits a very pithy script which, though convoluted, is never gratuitous or self-indulgent.
When Bart Hughes’s (Peter Weller) wife, Meg (Shannon Tweed), and son, Peter (Leif Anderson), depart to visit Meg’s father, they leave behind the paterfamilias, who is diligently working toward a promotion. However, the Hughs’ newly renovated Manhattan residence soon becomes victim to an infestation. Who will Meg and Peter return home to, Bart or the uninvited guest?
Of the many rat invasion/plague films, Of Unknown Origin stands apart from the rest due to three factors: One, the very subtle parallelism and intertexual alignments which, as they symbiotically function, concurrently operate as social commentary; two, Cosmatos’s acknowledgement that the horror cliché of multiplying antagonists necessarily leads to a greater sense of peril is a cinematic non sequitur; and three, Peter Weller’s very impressive performance.
In one of the tightest scripts in the genre, Cosmatos and Parker masterfully align literal and metaphorical antagonists as we watch as Bart battles for a promotion alongside his shrewd, Machiavellian coworker, James Hall (Kenneth Welsh). However, not only does the vermin represent the “rat race” of the business world, but it succinctly parallels Bart’s domestic difficulties, that is, his martial bond, which is slowly losing its hold. Furthermore, as Bart attempts to salvage his life at home and at work, his house is literally destroyed in the process, thus the filmmakers impressively depict how weakly sustained and supported an obviously fabricated household which appears perfect in most every way, crumbles under the slightest of dilemmas.
Impressively, Cosmatos does not permit irony to pass by the wayside as he permits his film to skirt parody at every turn. For example, as Bart “bulks up” in preparation to do battle with his nemesis at home, the rat is likewise seen sweating as it assiduously molests a wire within the walls of the house. Furthermore, Bart results to proportional measures as his antagonist proves to be all the more formidable before the film climaxes with the homeowner donning full-scale attack gear, appearing in nothing less than shin guards, cleats, and elbow pads, thus mocking the typical overreaction that such middle-class mindsets oftentimes resort when even the most minute crisis threatens to upset their happily stable and routine lifestyle. Lastly, as the “epic battle” rages, we catch a brief glimpse of Spencer Tracy diligently trying to procure his prey in John Sturges’s The Old Man and the Sea.
Fortunately, Cosmatos is cognizant of the fact that the seemingly reasonable theory that if one villain is threatening, then multiplying said antagonist, by ratio, increases the tension is cinematically futile, especially in the horror genre. In so doing, many directors lose control of their feature, thus the impact of the terror as their various evil doers chaotically scurry amid the production. For anyone who has undergone an infestation, the person is more than aware that it only requires one nemesis to complicate one’s life. As such, Cosmatos only permits one rat to pose as a threat, thus permitting a polar opposition to be created between the beast and Bart. As a result, suspense is heightened as the camera darts back and forth between the rat and Bart more and more frequently, thus heightening the circumstance as the finale draws near.
Weller, in his first starring role, does an outstanding job presenting Bart as the stereotypical, short-tempered New Yorker. Not since Dustin Hoffan’s character of Ratso in John Schlesinger’s Midnight Cowboy has a character delivered such a resounding taste for the dialect, mannerisms (yes, New York inhabitants have trademark gestures), and insistently resolute personality of an individual who is attempting to survive in the Big Apple. What is more impressive is that Weller does so almost single-handedly, carrying most of film solo.
I cannot concur with Stephen King that Of Unknown Origin stands as not only one of the greatest horror films, but a great feat of cinema in general, thinking perhaps there is a large amount of subjectivity in the horror writer’s declaration as such (perhaps he had a rat problem at some point to bias his critical acumen). However, George Cosmatos does have the right to boast of having worked off of a very impressive script and being the party responsible for Peter Weller’s equally impressive starring debut. All things considered, the film perhaps works better on a subconscious level, for the viewer will have difficulty in ever killing a snake after having watched Of Unknown Origin.
-Egregious Gurnow
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