Rats

Rats are disgusting little varmints. They are dirty, rodent scavengers who carry all manner of communicable diseases. Some may regard rats as wingless bats, which are equally foul, but this is something of a misnomer, since the two are not truly related to one another, despite how their names rhyme.

Rats tend to thrive in dark, enclosed places where it is warm. As such, they can frequently be found nesting in sewers, subway channels and other such avenues while they conspire and scheme to take over the world.

One who is tasked with tracking down and capturing the miserable little cretins are called Rat catchers - a thankless job to be sure, but one they every catcher seems to take great pride in.

In film

 * Departed, The: A rat is seen scurrying across the window sill at Billy Costigan's apartment. The implication is that he is ratting out mob boss Frank Costello to a special police task force.


 * Dracula (1931): In the 1931 film adaptation of Dracula, the character of Renfield describes how the eponymous Count possesses the ability to summon hordes of rats to do his bidding.


 * Dracula (1992): The vampire Count Dracula transforms into a tower of rats, which breaks away and scampers off in order to avoid being killed by the forces of Professor Van Helsing, Arthur Holmwood, Jonathan Harker, Quincey Morris and Jack Seward. There are also two rats seen scampering across a wooden beam in Dracula's castle.


 * Interview with the Vampire: Vampire Lestat de Lioncourt shows neophyte vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac how they can survive off of feeding from rats. He kills a rat and squeezes its blood into a wine glass. He laments the flavor, citing how quickly it gets cold.


 * Killer Rats: In the appropriately-named 2003 Tibor Takács horror film Killer Rats, Doctor William Winslow conducts experiments at the mysterious Brookdale Institute on rats, forcing their evolution into that of a breed of super-intelligent, powerful killers.


 * Nosferatu: In the 1922 film Nosferatu by F.W. Murnau, hordes of rats can be seen on the ship that Dracula travels aboard.

Other uses

 * A "rat" is a term used in mobster films to denote someone who is a member of a crime family that has revealed information to a law enforcement agency. Oftentimes, these people are known as informers.


 * Rat is a general term used for an unlikeable person, such as "You dirty rat", or "You rat bastard!".


 * A street rat is an underprivileged individual, possibly even homeless, who makes his or her living on the streets. Aladdin from the 1992 Disney film Aladdin was called a street rat.