Rat torture is the use ofrats totorture a victim by encouraging them to attack and eat the victim alive.[1]
The "Rats Dungeon", or "Dungeon of the Rats", was a feature of theTower of London alleged byCatholic writers from theElizabethan era. "A cell below high-water mark and totally dark" would draw in rats from theRiver Thames as the tide flowed in. Prisoners would have their "alarm excited" and in some instances, have "flesh ... torn from the arms and legs".[2]
During theDutch Revolt,Diederik Sonoy, an ally ofWilliam the Silent, is documented to have placed apottery bowl filled with rats open-side down on the naked body of a prisoner. When hotcharcoal was piled on the bowl, the rats would "gnaw into the very bowels of the victim" in an attempt to escape the heat.[3]
Rat torture appears in the famous case study of a patient ofSigmund Freud. TheRat Man obsessed that his father and lady friend would be subjected to this torture.[4]
Several South American military dictatorships used rat torture: inBrazil during themilitary dictatorship of 1964–1985,[5] inUruguay during thecivic-military dictatorship of 1973–1985,[6] inChile during thedictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973–1990),[7] inArgentina during the so-calledNational Reorganization Process (1976–1983).[8] The report ofCONADEP in Argentina detailed the use of a torture method known as "the recto-scope" (reserved primarily for Jewish prisoners) which consisted of inserting living rats into a victim'srectum orvagina through a tube.[8]Amnesty International documented the case of a woman tortured by the Chilean CNI (National Information Center, successor to theDINA) in 1981, who described being kept in a room full of live rats during interrogation.[9]
Serial killerRichard Kuklinski alleged in a series of interviews that one of his preferred methods of murder was to tie up a victim and leave them in a cave overnight so they could be eaten alive by rats. He would also leave aSuper 8 camera in the cave to film the events. Like many of Kuklinski's other claims, this has been disputed due to insufficient evidence.
On October 16, 2010, inLakewood, New Jersey,David Wax was alleged to have threatened kidnap victim Yisrael Bryskman with rat torture unless he agreed to give his wife aget (Jewish divorce document).[10] He was sentenced to seven years imprisonment for assisting in a kidnapping.[11]
Rats are featured in theEdgar Allan Poe storyThe Pit and the Pendulum. The narrator lies onthe rack and can only watch as ascythe swings back and forth, approaching closer each time, as rats swarm over his body.[12] The narrator later manages to make the rats eat through the straps.
An account similar to the Sonoy torture appears in the 1899Octave Mirbeau novelThe Torture Garden, and psychologistLeonard Shengold has identified this as the possible source of the story that the Rat Man told Freud. Part of the book, an imaginary dialog between a torturer and a beautiful woman who is sexually excited by the accounts, is set in China.[13]
The threat of rat torture occurs inNineteen Eighty-Four.[14] The central character,Winston Smith, is arrested by theMinistry of Love, and undergoes a process of mental reprogramming. The ministry imprisons him inRoom 101 to finalize the reprogramming. Here, Winston must face his greatest fear: rats. A cage filled with hungry rats is placed over his head, their only source of food or escape being by eating their way through Winston's face. At this point, Winston breaks and begs for the method to be used on his loverJulia, a sign that he has finally broken.
InBret Easton Ellis's novelAmerican Psycho,Patrick Bateman inserts a starving rat into a kidnapped woman's vagina through a pipe.[15][16]
In the 2003 film2 Fast 2 Furious, a sequel toThe Fast and The Furious, the main antagonistCarter Verone (Cole Hauser) uses rat torture to force a detective to allow his men to conduct their criminal enterprises unimpeded. He places a rat on the detective's stomach and encapsulates it inside a metal bucket. He then begins to heat the bucket using a blow torch to cause the rat stress, prompting it to try to escape. With no alternative, the rat starts to scratch the detective's stomach as it tries to burrow to escape the increasing heat inside the bucket. Once the detective agrees to Verone's demands, the bucket is removed, revealing an array of deep, bloody scratch marks.
Season 2 of theHBOdark fantasy seriesGame of Thrones from 2012 also uses rat torture by the Tickler on prisoners ofGregor Clegane in Harrenhal.
In thehorror filmSinister 2, asnuff film titled "Sunday Service" depicts a family nailed to the floor of a church as rats are placed upon their bellies. Cups are tied on top to keep the rats in place. Hot coals are placed on the cups, encouraging the rats to burrow through the victims' chests to escape the heat.
In the filmThe Batman, theRiddler livestreams himself killing crooked Commissioner Pete Savage by strapping a device to Savage's head that forced rats from a maze to burrow their way into his face.[17]
In the 2024 filmTerrifier 3, there is a prolonged scene involving rats being forced down Jess's throat to eat her insides.[18]
the Canton Rat torture, in which enormous half starved rats are put into a box with the victim, who is rapidly eaten alive