Like horror icons Christopher Lee or Vincent Price, you have to love that Nicolas Cage has fully embraced his status as a cult actor. Sometimes that results in mind-bending psychedelic gold like Mandy, sometimes just another ridiculous action film like Primal.
Happy to say that the wonderfully demented horror comedy Willy’s Wonderland is a Cage cult movie done right.
It fully delivers on its premise of him facing off with fantastically creepy killer animatronics in an abandoned Chuck E. Cheese-style restaurant, something you probably didn’t know you needed before now.
Cage plays a nameless drifter whose sports car “accidentally” hit a spike strip upon entering the small town of Hayesville, Nevada, something we learn happens to almost any stranger who passes through town. Turns out, cleaning up at Willy’s is the only way to pay the local mechanic for repairs.
Cage’s character, who’s simply referred to as “The Janitor,” doesn’t know that this task is literally a dead-end job. When the first animatronic does come to life, the hilarious part is not that he handily and viciously destroys it, but that he regards it as little more than a distraction so he can get back to his task.
We’re treated to a host of Very Serious Cleaning Montages as The Janitor intently gets on with scouring Willy’s from top to bottom, animatronics or no animatronics.
We don’t learn much about his character, but that’s OK. He’s not here to have meaningful flashbacks or learn and grow.
He’s just here to clean.
And kill.
Meanwhile, local teen Liv (Emily Tosta) is determined to end Willy’s reign of terror and save the latest janitor in the process. Of course, he doesn’t need saving as much as her friends, who are dead set against entering the “gateway to hell,” but soon make all the usual horror movie mistakes once they’re inside.
The rest of the cast is mostly fodder, but character actress Beth Grant — the nice woman who got blown up in Speed — brings the right note of resignation to the role of the town sheriff with questionable ethics.
Willy’s Wonderland was clearly meant to be watched with a large, enthusiastic crowd of horror fans at a midnight movie. When it’s finally safe to return to theaters, Willy’s Wonderland will kill it.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Willy’s Wonderland is now playing in select theaters and On Demand
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Produced by Nicolas Cage, Grant Cramer, Jeremy Davis, Mike Nilon, David Ozer, Bryan Lord
Written by G. O. Parsons
Directed by Kevin Lewis
Starring Nicolas Cage, Emily Tosta, Ric Reitz, Chris Warner, Kai Kadlec,
Christian Delgrosso, Caylee Cowan, Terayle Hill, Jonathan Mercedes, David Sheftell, Beth Grant
