Of Unknown Origin (1983)

a review by Evan Landon

When I first started watching Of Unknown Origin, I was excited because I am a huge fan of both George P. Cosmatos and Peter Weller, who would later team-up again for 1989's Leviathan. The latter being one of my favorite movies of all-time, my interest was definitely peaked. Unfortunately, Of Unknown Origin is no Leviathan.

What Of Unknown Origin is, however, is a fever dream of a stressed out man who begins a personal battle with a rat as his family deteriorates due to his overcomitted approach to building his career which happens to be... well, building buildings. I thought it would be about aliens or something, but no, the title refers to how rats are defined in the dictionary. Yup. The entire movie is about his battle between himself and an almost supernatural rat infesting his newly renovated brownstone house. If you don't know what a brownstone house is, it's a style of house mostly found in the Northeast United States and Canada that is made from a Triassic-Jurassic prehistoric sandstone. Interesting, right? Not really. Neither is this movie.

Based off of a 1979 book called The Visitor by Chauncey G. Parker III, it was adapted for the screen by Brian Taggert who did not take too many liberties with the original property, but did infuse a bit of his own experiences with his own stepfather to round out the main character. I say main character, but Peter Weller really is the only character. Well, him and some crazy close-ups of a greasy rat that may or may not have been in the same scenes as him. This is listed as Shannon Tweed's first movie too as his wife who leaves for vacation at the beginning, so she is barely even in it.

Speaking of Peter Weller, he actually won an award for his tour de force performance here, uneasily walking a fine line between a man possessed and a middle-aged man going through a crisis that comes off almost comically. The way Cosmatos pitched it to Weller was that of a survival story. Weller said his character and the rat paralleled each other and that it was "the ambition of the guy with his job draws comparisons to the guy who is trying to kill this rat at the expense of his house. The theme of it all is to survive at all costs." I think they both put way too much thought into it.

Of Unknown Origin is fun in a campy, absurd way, yet its overall appeal in that sense is betrayed by the way it seems to take itself way too seriously. You never get a chance to see how big the rat truly is, but it beats the shit out of Weller on multiple occasions and kills his cat. If they had ended it where it was all in his head, that would have changed the ending, but at least it would have been more memorable. Seeing him all decked out in hockey gear with a bat with nails in it just like Negan's “Lucille” from The Walking Dead is a treat though, I will admit that.

Pulling in a paltry $1.1 million (U.S.) versus a budget of $4 million (CAD), Of Unknown Origin remains relatively unknown to this day, just like it was to most audiences upon its release which is never something to celebrate, yet here we are.

Stephen King does say it is one of his favorite horror movies of all time though, but I think that says way more about him than it does about this film.

2 Out Of 5