Ben is a 1972 American horror film directed by Phil Karlson and starring Lee Montgomery, Joseph Campanella, and Arthur O'Connell.

A lonely boy named Danny Garrison, who has a severe heart condition, lives with his sister, Eve, and his mother, Beth.

However, things gradually take a downhill turn as Ben's colony becomes violent in its search for food, resulting in several deaths.

Eventually, the police go into the sewers and kill the rats with flamethrowers and shotguns after trapping them there, but Ben somehow survives the slaughter and makes his way back to Danny, wounded but alive.

[5] Among the more positive reviews was that of Variety, which wrote that the film has the "same type of suspenseful action" as the original, and that Lee Montgomery "plays his part to perfection".

[6] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film 31⁄2 stars out of 4, and stated, "Ben succeeds as a horror show because it contains the requisite number of rat attacks with the camera holding on victims covered with perhaps two dozen, clinging, scratching, and biting rodents.

[7] Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the film "is equally scary and diverting as Willard while being more serious and ambitious".

[8] However, Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 11⁄2 stars out of 4, writing: "This isn't a thriller but a geek movie.

In a thriller, we're supposed to be scared by some awesome menace to mankind—the Green Blob maybe, or Big Foot, or the Invincible Squid and his implacable enemy, red wine sauce.

[9] Vincent Canby of The New York Times said: "The way in which you will respond to Ben will depend on a number of variables, including how you feel about the possibility of Los Angeles shutting down, trick photography, dreadful acting by a dreadful cast, the decline and fall of Phil Karlson (The Phenix City Story) as a director and a screenplay that never has the courage to acknowledge its comic impulses".