‘Rats!’ Directors Carl Fry and Maxwell Nalevansky On Their Pitch-Perfect Cringe Comedy
Growing up in the 2000s, I was a big fan of watching terrible YouTube sketches and cringe-y animations involving homicidal animals and creepy dudes with fingers made of salad. They all embodied the humor of the time: gross, weird, cringe, and hysterical to teenagers. Now, with their film Rats!, writer and directors Carl Fry and Maxwell Nalevansky are channeling that humor into something fit for 2025 that’s still cringe, but doesn’t ever punch down or resort to racism to craft its comedy. It’s a refreshing piece of genuine surrealist comedy that isn’t afraid to get freaky.
In the film:
Texas, 2007: Emo-kid Raphael is in jail following an arrest for graffiti. He’s a good guy. It’s just graffiti. So you can’t blame him for the events after his arrest. He’s not responsible for the sting operation, the severed hands, the FBI, Larry the pig, the plutonium deal gone wrong, or anyone who may die due to that deal turning sour. None of it is Raphael’s fault, but it is his problem.
We spoke with Fry and Nalevansky about channeling Adult Swim, never punching down, and the always-hysterical Jacob Wysocki.
Watch the full interview below:
Rats! is out now on VOD. The Blu-ray is now available for pre-order from Vinegar Syndrome.
Categorized:Interviews
