“From small things comes great power” is the tagline for the horror remake “Willard” – but whether that power can be controlled is the issue that this film explores. Crispin Glover (“Back to the Future”, “Charlie’s Angels 1 and 2”) plays the title character who is an introverted pushover, bullied by his dying mother (Jackie Burroughs) and his boss Frank Martin (R. Lee Ermey).
He has no friends until he encounters a white rat in his basement named “Socrates”, and soon he befriends and controls a whole army of rats (led by a giant rat named “Ben”). The rats do Willard’s bidding starting with harmless vandalism, but the pranks soon escalate into homicide.
Written and Directed by Glen Morgan (TV’s “The X-Files”), “Willard” follows the same pattern of self-reference that horror films have been doing for 7 years now. Some of the character names, and songs in the film are inside jokes both from “The X-Files” and the 1971 “Willard.”
As a gag, Crispin Glover sings the song “Ben” (a song originally sang by a very young Michael Jackson) during the end credits. Obviously, this is a film marketed towards teenagers (who more than likely have not seen the 32 year-old original), so the jokes fall flat.
Having said that, “Willard” is a very creepy film - not violent or scary, but creepy all the same. Glover and Ermey’s performances make the film enjoyable to watch, but the real stars of the film are the 300+ live rats. Hats off to the filmmakers for using real rats, for if they had used computer generated rats, the film would have been a disaster.
R. Lee Ermey in an interview with myself comments on the rats. “The rats were raised from birth and handfed baby food and peanut butter. They were bathed every day, so they were very clean and docile, but all that food only had once place to go – out. After a few takes the smell was unbearable.” No one on the set suffered any injuries, and by the end of the first day Laura Elena Harring (who plays Willard’s potential love interest in the film), originally terrified by the rats, was holding and petting them.
“Willard” was the first in a series of remakes (that also included the Texas Chainsaw remake and prequel - which also featured Ermey) by New Line Cinema, that were financed by the enormous profits of “The Lord of the Rings” franchise.
Despite its box office failure, “Willard” has the potential for cult status, but with its lack of appeal to younger audiences and general unawareness of the film, that's probably not going to happen.
Starring: Crispen Glover and R. Lee Ermey
Directed by: Glen Morgan
Budget/Gross: $22 mil / $6.8 mil
IMDB Score: 6.2/10
Tomatometer: 65% critics and 49% audiences liked it
No comments:
Post a Comment