 Making a studio film is a huge collaborative effort, whether it s an epic period blockbuster or a small horror movie about a lonely man and his pet rat. This is a behind-the-scenes documentary that follows the filmmaking process of the feature film, "Willard" through the eyes of a film student, who soon discovers that making movies isn t anywhere near as glamourous as those EPK specials would like the public to believe. "The Year of the Rat" exposes the innards of filmmaking in such a way that even without the glamour, it doesn t make the process any less fascinating or romantic an idea; that we can still find the making of a movie about killer rats an amazing and compulsive act.