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.