A plague upon this film! (Willard (DVD))

Name: Ailran

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Product:	Willard (DVD)
Date:	29.09.05 (113 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Crispin Glover!

Disadvantages: The story and if you don't like rats avoid.

Willard is a strange, strange film. It is the story of Willard Stiles, a young man stuck in a dead end job at the firm his dad founded and used to own. Now owned by his dads partner and guaranteed the job as part of his dads will he has nothing much to live for. He lives at home with his mum, who permanently wants her son to do things for her; he has a hopeless life with no future. His existence changes when his mother thinks she hears some rats in their basement and orders Willard to go down there and sort them out. When he ventures into the basement to find the rats he discovers he has some sort of connection, a kind of power over the rats. He finds in them the family and friends he has never had before and they seem to obey his every instruction.

Willard now becomes even stranger than he already was, and starts taking the first rat, Socrates, with him everywhere. Realising that his control over them can help him get revenge on all those who have put him down during his life, starting off with his boss! But what happens when a bigger rat, Ben, starts to get ‘jealous’ of Willard and/or Socrates?

Crispin Glover, best known as Marty McFly’s dad in Back To The Future and as the mute killer in Charlie’s Angels, is perfect in the part of Willard. Yet another odd character to add to the list he has played. Glover seems to have made a career of playing quirky characters and his own odd looks work in his favour here. He also played a very similar character in Bartleby, Glover obviously loves these kind of challenging parts.

The second good reason to watch this film is the tremendous performance of R. Lee Ermey, still best known as training instructor in Full Metal jacket. He is Willard’s boss and he very quickly manages to make you hate him as much as Willard must do. He is loud, bullying and completely obnoxious!

Thirdly we have Laura Elena Harding, from Mulholland Drive (one of the greatest films ever!), as… … well sort of as Willards love interest. At least I think she is it is not too easy to tell until you see some of the deleted scenes and view a long scene in the office between the two of them. Without that there is nothing in the film to show why she likes Willard and because of this it seems a bit odd that she takes any notice of him.

With a great cast and an intriguing idea, even if it is a remake of a 1971 original, you would think that this psychological horror would strike all the right buttons. Even while watching it and getting more and more disappointed you feel the same, the acting is great and it just looks superb. Apart form a couple of dodgy CGI effects the swarm of rats that Willard commands look suitably creepy and even sent a shiver down my spine a couple of times.
But, and it is a big but, it just doesn’t work. The story is incredibly slight and very predictable and the script just doesn’t really do enough to explain things. The ‘romance’, or is it just a friendship, between Willard and Cathryn just does not even spark let alone ignite!
I think the main thing missing from Willard is that nothing is really explained enough. Apart from the relationship between Willard and Cathryn there is also little said about his mother and him or about why the boss dislikes him so much.

If you want to see a horror that is a bit different then maybe this is worth seeing, but I certainly wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. I’m just glad I bought it at a bargain price in America and it only cost me just a slight bit more than it would have done to rent it!

If you want to see Glover playing a weird, loner individual then I would recommend Bartleby before this one.

Running Time: 100 minutes
Certificate:

DVD Extras:

Double sided disc with both Widescreen and fullscreen versions of the film

12 deleted scenes with commentary

Film commentary with Glenn Morgan (writer/Director), James Wong (Producer), Crispin Glover and R. Lee Ermey

The Year of The Rat – A documentary on the making of the film.

Rat People – Friends or Foes, a documentary on rats

Music Video – Crispin Hellion Glover singing Ben, with commentary. He is just as odd as a singer as an actor!

Trailer, TV spots DVD rom features (script to screen and trivia challenge)

Summary: Nice idea, not executed well enough though.