If you’ve ever thought that maybe your local defunct Chuck E. Cheese pizza joint is haunted, then WILLY’S WONDERLAND is the movie for you.
Nicolas Cage has never been an actor to shy away from an unexpected role, and that feels especially true with recent outings such as MANDY and COLOR OUT OF SPACE. Both of these psychedelic indie-horror films are incredibly well made and are already achieving cult-status.
Unfortunately for WILLY’S WONDERLAND, while it brings a touch of the weird, it doesn’t have a strong enough plot to make this a Cult-Cage Trifecta that we might expect to see billed together at an all-night film fest in the future. Without Cage, this still slightly rises above other generic slasher-pics, if only for the obvious Pizza Time Theatre inspiration.
I love supporting indie films and WILLY’S was no different, but there were moments it felt like the entire budget went into Cage’s fee, the costumes of the animatronic characters, and fake blood, leaving things like sound and sound-editing by the wayside. The not-quite 90-minute runtime will keep you entertained and there are some great gags and laughs thanks to Cage’s very physical performance. If your childhood included playing arcade games and jumping into questionable ball-pits on a Saturday afternoon while animatronic anthropomorphic animals sang songs behind you, WILLY’S should give you a few good chuckles and maybe even a scare.
Save up some tokens as WILLY’S WONDERLAND is currently available to rent on most platforms like Apple TV, Fandango, Amazon, and Vudu.
