Who remembers the movie "Ben"? That rat movie?

[amitten]

I saw it on TV when I was a kid...it was billed as a horror flick. My memories are fuzzy but I remember some weird kid and rats out of control, and I ended up feeling vaguely traumatized and more than a little confused.

I brought it up to a friend lately and she insists she saw it too, and that it was like a sad, emotional tale of lonely woe.

What the hell was that Ben movie, anyway??? Your input, please?

[Servotron]

1. I remember the Michael Jackson theme song (which is traumatizing enough)

Ben, the two of us need look no more
We both found what we were looking for
With a friend to call my own
I'll never be alone
And you, my friend, will see
You've got a friend in me
(you've got a friend in me)

Ben, you're always running here and there
You feel you're not wanted anywhere
If you ever look behind
And don't like what you find
There's one thing you should know
You've got a place to go
(you've got a place to go)

I used to say "I" and "me"
Now it's "us", now it's "we"
I used to say "I" and "me"
Now it's "us", now it's "we"
Ben, most people would turn you away
I don't listen to a word they say
They don't see you as I do
I wish they would try to
I'm sure they'd think again
If they had a friend like Ben
(a friend) Like Ben
(like Ben) Like Ben

[amitten]

3. Good God. But it doesn't satisfy my curiosity. Did you find Ben

to be a horror movie? I remember it as ambiguously creepy...

[amitten]

2. I simply must have your Ben input.

Tell me your impressions about Ben. Tell me!

[chookie]

4. the movie's title was "Willard"

Storyline: Nerd (Willard) gets revenge on the world by siccing rats (of which Ben was one) on them.

From IMDB:"A social misfit, Willard is made fun of by his co-workers, and squeezed out of the company started by his deceased father by his boss. His only friends are a couple of rats he raised at home, Ben and Socrates. (And their increasing number of friends) However, when one of them is killed at work, he goes on a rampage using his rats to attack those who have been tormenting him."

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067991/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnx0dD0xfGZiPXV8cG49MHxrdz0xfHE9d2lsbGFyZHxmdD0xfG14PTIwfGxtPTUwMHxjbz0xfGh0bWw9MXxubT0x;fc=4;ft=211;fm=1

I've been humming Michael Jackson's beautiful song Ben recently in honor of Ben Roethlisberger, who EVERYBODY in Pittsburgh, young or old, gay or straight, left or right, animal vegetable or mineral has a crush on now...

"Ben, the two of us need look no more
We both found what we were looking for
With a friend to call my own
I'll never be alone
And you, my friend, will see
You've got a friend in me
(you've got a friend in me)

Ben, you're always running here and there
You feel you're not wanted anywhere
If you ever look behind
And don't like what you find
There's one thing you should know
You've got a place to go
(you've got a place to go)

I used to say "I" and "me"
Now it's "us", now it's "we"
I used to say "I" and "me"
Now it's "us", now it's "we"
Ben, most people would turn you away
I don't listen to a word they say
They don't see you as I do
I wish they would try to
I'm sure they'd think again
If they had a friend like Ben
(a friend) Like Ben
(like Ben) Like Ben "

[amitten]

6. No, Willard was another rat movie. Ben was like a remake

by Disney based on a similar plot. But my Ben memories remain murky and confused. I long for more opinions on the mystery of Ben...

[Oeditpus Rex]

8. 'Willard' was the original

"Ben" was the sequel.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067991/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068264/

[chookie]

10. Got it!

From IMDB.com

"<1972>A lonely boy, played by Lee H. Montgomery, becomes good friends with Ben, a rat. This rat is also the leader of a pack of vicious killer rats, killing lots of people. The authorities succeed in destroying the rats, leaving the boy in desperate tears ... until he discovers his friend Ben to be still alive!"

[davidinalameda]

5. that movie still creeps me out

I didn't see the remake

[amitten]

7. Yeah...I think there was a very recent remake of Ben.

But I remember the original as strangely unlike any other movie I'd seen. A seriously weird sort of movie.

[henslee]

9. But wasn't it callled Willard? (Ernest Bornine es el hombre.) This 70's

pulp classic had me yelling "Tear him up!" every time I saw a rodent.

[amitten]

11. There was a Willard rat movie, and also a Ben rat movie.

Apparently there is also now a sad little remake of the Ben movie. Why the movie folk find this rat theme so fruitful is beyond me.

And still no one has really answered my question...:cry:

Who has seen the original Ben, and what was your impression?

I am haunted, HAUNTED, by Ben!!!!!!!

[amitten]

12. I am not giving up on Ben. n/t

[amitten]

17. Ben: The Resurrection.

}(

[cally]

13. I saw Ben in one of the old, beautiful theaters

The theater was falling apart so they had matinees for teens on Saturdays and porn at night. I remember going to Ben and being totally freaked out. I had nightmares about rats for weeks.

[swag]

14. Funny movie, as was the original "Willard."

I think the book they were based on was originally called Ratman's Diary. Read it when I was 10. Probably time to read it again.

[mitchum]

15. I read the book at the same age and really enjoyed it...

I always remember that it was the first time I ever saw the word "shat" in print. "Shit" I was familiar with, but "shat"?!

[swag]

16. "Shat." Great word to learn at age 10.

"Mother says there are rats in the rockery."

[bikebloke]

18. I was working in a cinema

Part-time after school thing. When they were playing Ben, it was fun to drift inside the auditorium. Teenie boppers were blubbering over a dead rat.

[amitten]

20. But would you qualify it as a horror movie? Or simply a strange

tale of lonely woe???

I am searching for someone to give a one-sentence summary of the "flavor" of this movie. Because I am unwell.

[LibertyLover]

19. I never saw it

but I do have several pet rats and one is named Ben, from Benjamina, in The Muppets' Treasure Island.