Rent Willy's Wonderland on Amazon Video (paid link)
Written by: G.O. Parsons
Directed by: Kevin Lewis
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Emily Tosta, Beth Grant
Rated: TV-MA
Watch the trailer
Plot
A quiet drifter is tricked into a janitorial job at the now condemned Willy's Wonderland. The mundane tasks turn into an all-out fight for survival against waves of demonic animatronics.
Verdict
Nicolas Cage's involvement certainly makes this exponentially better than it could have been. This isn't a good movie, but Cage's performance is interesting enough to make this bearable. What other actor could perform this role and keep your interest? The story is shallow and cliched. Cage's silent protagonist saves this strange, somewhat artistic movie. At times I think the movie is riffing on bad horror movies, other times I'm just not sure if it isn't one.
It depends.
Review
This certainly is cashing in on the Five Nights at Freddy's horror video game series. The 8-bit style credits seem to support that. There's a lot going on in just the first eight minutes. Nic Cage plays the quiet loner with a flat tire in a small town, there's a kid setting fire to Willy's Wonderland, and the sheriff is the kid's guardian.
 |
| Nicolas Cage plays the silent janitor |
The premise is flimsy. Cage's character is addressed as the Janitor as he's resolute in cleaning Willy's Wonderland, a closed down kids' birthday venue with animatronic animals. Despite the animatronics coming to life and attacking him, the Janitor refuses to stop cleaning. His deal is to clean the place and get his car repair paid for in turn. This character has a lot of tics. The character never speaks, he doesn't skip any breaks, and he loves his off-brand soda. The camera frequently zooms in on Cage's face since his character doesn't speak.
It's clear this is a setup. This is a B movie, and it just wants to get the plot started. The foreshadowing is anything but subtle. The car repair shop has a wall with images of missing children. When has a repair shop ever kept up with missing persons flyers?
 |
| Nicolas Cages plays the animatronic fighting janitor |
I don't know if this movie making fun of B movie horror movies or if it is one. The new Janitor starts cleaning, but nothing actually looks cleaner. When supernatural events occur, he's unphased and goes back to cleaning. If this movie is making a joke, it's almost too faithful to its inspiration. A character gets into an air duct, but we don't see how. For one, in reality ducts aren't big enough for people to crawl in, and if they were they would be unable to support the weight. There's a quick continuity error during a montage, but is that a joke?
At one point there's lengthy exposition as to why these animatornics appear alive. It's unnecessary and boring. That doesn't seem like a joke, which makes me question everything else that could be parody. If this were a parody, I'd think this would have a bigger reaction from the other character during the exposition.
This isn't a good movie, but it's interesting to see Cage's take. He produced this movie and suggested removing all of the janitor's dialog. That certainly gives this otherwise bland movie some intrigue.
No comments :
Post a Comment