Willy’s Wonderland

I loved Willy’s Wonderland!!!  Let’s be honest – who hasn’t looked at those giant animatronic creatures and thought they looked possessed. At one point or another, everyone has said that one day those creepy animals were going to come to life and murder people. Apparently, we weren’t the only ones!.

Cage is driving through a random, dusty town, and drives over some spikes in the road. (Suspicious!)  He doesn’t have enough money to get new tires. The town doesn’t have the internet or an ATM, but the local mechanic says he’ll fix it if Cage spends the night cleaning Willy’s Wonderland. Willy’s is an out-of-business rip-off of Chuck E. Cheese. The unusually silent Cage agrees. After meeting the building owner, he grabs some soda from his car and goes inside. The building oner locks him in. (Both suspicious and weird!) He finds a stack of Willy’s Wonderland tee shirts and puts one on. He sets an alarm on his watch so he takes a break, and gets to work. 

And of course, the animatronics are possessed. They are exactly what evil, murderous animatronics should be. They’re happy to have some fresh meat around. They’re extra excited when a bunch of teenagers break-in. The teens are your standard “we’re going to put a stop to this, but we’re gonna have sex too”. One by one they set out to kill everyone, while their crazy soundtrack plays in the background. 

Nicholas Cage owns this movie. Cage knows exactly the kind of movie it is, and yet he plays it like he’s after an Oscar. He gives the role everything he’s got.  He has no name, no backstory, and much to my delight, no dialogue! His character doesn’t seem fazed by anything that happens to him. He just goes about his business and deals with whatever comes his way. He just wants to get the job done, drink his Punch soda, and play some pinball. 

One of my favorite parts of the movie are his scheduled breaks,  The second his alarm goes off he stops whatever he’s doing (no matter what it is!), and goes in the back. He chugs one of his sodas and plays pinball. And he’s into it. He claps his hands and dances his ass off. And the song in the background admittedly slaps a little.

We eventually learn the backstory of Willy’s, and as expected, everyone in town knows about it. Cage is basically a sacrifice. The police are involved too, so no one’s coming to the rescue. All they care about is themselves.  The movie was made with a very small budget and it shows. But I don’t mean that in a bad way. This movie brings all our demonic Chuck E. Cheese theories to life.

If you’re looking for serious horror, amazing special effects, and hoping to be scared – this is not the movie for you. However…if you’re just looking to have a good time with some violence and gore thrown in, you’re in the right place. So grab a drink or a smoke, sit back, and enjoy. And as always – don’t forget the popcorn!