Nighteyes (1982)

aka: Deadly Eyes

Corn grain contaminated with steroids produces large rats the size of small dogs who begin feeding on the residents of Toronto. Paul (Sam Groom), a college basketball coach, teams up with Kelly (Sara Botsford), a local health inspector, to uncover the source of the mysterious rat attacks and they eventually try to prevent the opening of a new subway line as well as find the mutant rats nest quickly, or the rats will run amok in the entire city! Also stars Scatman Crothers.

This film came a widescreen 35mm German import print in very nice picture quality.

James Herbert, who wrote the novel upon which the film was based, was displeased with what the filmmakers did to his novel.

Thirty-five dachshunds and five terriers were used to play the mutant rodents in this film. The dogs had difficulty seeing in the rat costumes, so meat and blood was used to get them to run in the right direction in a given scene. At one point during filming, one of the dachshunds playing the rats died on set, possibly due to suffocation from being trapped in the rat suit. Although the dogs were generally treated well during production, this was an unfortunate exception.