Ben

Director - Phil Karlson (Walking Tall, The Hornet's Nest)
Starring - Lee Montgomery (The Midnight Hour, Mutant), Joseph Campanella (CSI, Star Trek: Voyager), and Arthur O'Connell (Night Gallery, A Taste of Evil)
Release Date - 1971
Genre - Horror
Tagline - "Where Willard ended...Ben begins.  And this time, he's not alone"
Format - Bluray (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

      So many amazing films have great sequels.  Frankenstein has Bride of Frankenstein, Night of the Living Dead has Dawn of the Dead, Evil Dead has Evil Dead II, Re-Animator has Bride of Re-Animator, Alien has Aliens, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre has Texas Chainsaw Massacre II, and the list goes on and on.  One film I was surprised had a sequel, yet alone a great sequel, was Willard.  Willard is one of those films that I had always wanted to watch and knew it would be entertaining to an extent but didn't expect it to be life changing.  The fact that is spawned a sequel shocked me.  Hell, I didn't know it existed until Scream Factory announced it's release.  Ben was a new one on me.  Would it be a mild drama for most of the film like Willard or would it pick up where Willard left off taking the viewer into a traditional horror film?  I had to see for myself.
     The film picks up moments after Willard with his death.  The police are on the look out for an army of rats and their leader, Ben.  The police are searching every house, sewers, and any other place you can think of to find the rodents.  What they don't suspect is that a young boy, suffering a terrible illness, has befriended Ben and his rat army.  They protect the young boy and when those that bully him are attacked by Ben and his army it is easy for the adults and the police to trace them back to the young boy.
     I enjoyed Willard but it just didn't feel like a horror film until the last 20 minutes or so.  Honestly, it felt like a depressing dark drama before the bloodshed erupted.  Ben was a faster moving film that genuinely felt like a horror film.  In fact, I enjoyed it a lot more than Willard.  The acting in this one is not the best.  Lee Montgomery is a familiar face though he is a lot younger than his appearance in one of my favorite horror films growing up, The Midnight Hour.  The child actor does a solid job in his performance but there was still a lot of room to grow.  The remainder of the cast is on the same level.  They oversell a lot of the scenes and remind me of a theatrical production.  The story for this one is more or less the same as Willard except the antisocial misfit is a kid with a critical illness instead of a socially awkward adult.  What I really liked about this one is how it looked and felt like a horror film.  The story had better pacing and the some of the scenes stick with me.  Finally, the film has the same type of kills as the first film.  The effects are almost identical and no imagination or creativity is tossed in.  The effect s are minimal as well resulting in some lackluster kills.  Overall, Ben is a worthy sequel.  There is some missed opportunities but the film is better than Willard in my opinion.  I can't recommend this one enough.