Willy’s Wonderland

2021 Directed by Kevin Lewis

Horror Marathon 2024 Day 22 Film 46

A man is stranded in a small town after his tires are blown out- and he must clean an abandoned children's pizza place to pay off the bill... if he can survive the night. It's a perfectly schlocky concept and rip off of Five Nights At Freddy’s-- but somehow this film seems to stay more within a weird spirit than the actual film for that franchise.

Nicolas Cage is able to portray the man with a vigorous aggression without speaking a word. In doing so he creates this aura of mystical quality. Why does he drink endless cans of soda for energy? Why is he very specific and particular on how he cleans the space? A lot of time is spent on creating a nostalgic home- only to explode it with splashes of violence as the Chuck E. Cheese inspired animatronics try to kill him.

This is my second time watching the film, and I found myself thinking how stupidly fun a lot of these moments are- and I could see it being a film that you can just turn on and chuckle at for its B-Movie sensibility with small splashes of blood.

There is an outline of a plot about a satanic cult at the place- but any exposition simply stifles the flow of all the Cage's "shamanic" trance he gets to in this role. A group of teens try to set the place on fire, but they are dispatched in cartoonish slasher style ways as they're split up.

But all of that is secondary to what Cage is trying to do with his character. It's as if the man himself has always been there- a nostalgic eternal figure; a figure that smolders with attitude and a boiling rage that could fit within a world of talking demonic robots. Not everything works in the film, but it’s worthwhile just for that moody gonzo performance.