The police have discovered Willard's diary in which he details his interaction with the rodents and claims there are hordes hiding in the basement of his house; their former sanctuary overrun by human first responders, Ben and his fellow rats are mourning the loss of their home and their king. The rats flee into the sewers while Ben cruises the neighborhood where he meets a young boy named Danny. The two hit it off immediately and soon the kid has a friend. The police are sweeping the area with traps and poison and conducting door to door searches, but Ben now has a new protector. As the investigation gets closer to home the rats prepare for a stand-off to defend their territory.

Screenwriter Gilbert Ralston returns with an all-new adventure for a boy and his rat with Ben. As is the case with most sequels, the story is bigger, the body count higher and the set pieces more elaborate than in its predecessor. Director Phil Karlson (Walking Tall) heads this sequel that begins minutes after the events of Willard end and handles the jump in scale nicely. The first half of the picture is a bit of a slog as audiences are pushed into accepting the boy as a sweet, lonely kid looking for friendship, but the second half moves briskly. Lee Montgomery (Burnt Offerings) stars as Danny and is quick with a song and conducts an impressive marionette show, but is a bit too wholesome for his own good. Joseph Campanella (Mannix) heads the police investigation and elevates the material beyond that of a man looking to catch rats. Rosemary Murphy (The Hand) and Meredith Baxter (Family Ties) play Danny’s mother and sister respectively, and both are believable in their roles of protective family members.

Ben is the sympathetic lead this time around and while the humans are not exactly nasty as they were in Willard, audiences will still pull for the rats to succeed in their quest for sovereignty. The rodents are very well trained and the sequences of them en masse are harrowing, especially for anyone with a fear of rats. Ben works more often than not, but when viewed as a double feature with the original film, it pales in comparison. That being said, this is by far the best killer rat movie featuring a theme song by Michael Jackson you are likely ever going to see. Completists will rejoice with this new release from Scream Factory timed to coincide with similar treatment for Willard, as both pictures have been stranded in legal limbo for decades.