Robot Revolution: The one with Nick Cage vs evil pizza-place bots

 

 

Title: Willy’s Wonderland

What Year?: 2021

Classification: Improbable Experiment/ Mashup

Rating: Ow, My Brain!!! (Unrated/ NR)

 

With this review, I’m back to a feature I had already planned to keep going for a while, on robot films. I took a break from this feature to reconsider what I wanted to do to, especially in terms of chronology. I could easily go into the low double digits with movies from the 1970s-1980s timeframe I focused on with my Space 1979 reviews, and there are definitely a few I will get to. I could also go back to the earlier “classics” of the 1950s, or more of the “modern” wave that kicked off this feature. What I decided on was to continue my course with movies that truly span the history of robot films. It was at that point that I happened to watch a very odd movie I have wanted to get to but never found a place for, and I knew I had my next entry. I present Willy’s Wonderland, a movie about a man against 1980s pizza bots gone amok, which also just might be a case of so-bad-it’s-good on purpose.

Our story begins with a couple gruesome deaths for backstory. We then meet a nameless drifter who gets stranded in a small town after suspicious road debris shreds his tires. A leading citizen agrees to fix the car in exchange for one night’s work cleaning up an old pizza parlor. But a spunky young lady is already preparing to burn down the building, and the odd-job guy soon discovers why: The happy Eighties animatronic characters still in the restaurant have a life of their own. As the backstory dumps reveal, they are in fact possessed by the spirits of a serial killer and his cult of followers who once used the establishment as a front for mass murder. To placate the possessed machines, the townspeople have been sending in strangers to feed their lust for blood. Now, the bots are after their intended victim, and the girl and her friends are in the middle. But there’s more to the drifter than meets the eye. It’s man versus machine- and you don’t bet against Nick Cage!

Willy’s Wonderland was a 2021 horror/ fantasy film directed by Kevin Lewis, based on a 2016 short “Wally’s Wonderland” by screenwriter G.O. Parsons. The film was widely regarded as an unofficial adaptation of the Five Nights At Freddy’s video game franchise. Nicholas Cage reportedly signed on during preproduction, with a credit as producer. Other cast included Emily Tosta as the teenager, Beth Grand as the town sheriff and Jessica Graves as the bot Siren Sara. The robots and other effects were created by Molly Coffee. The musician Emoi was credited as composer and the voice of Willy the Weasel. A planned October 2020 release was delayed by the COVID pandemic. In early 2021, the film received a limited US theatrical release and simultaneous distribution for rental and purchase on digital platforms. As of 2021, Parsons was reportedly engaged in discussion of a sequel.

For my experiences, what I find I want to get out there is how much I dislike the term “so bad it’s good”. It’s exactly the description that gets applied sooner or later to many if not most of the films I watch, review, and actively enjoy, but to me, it is the label of outsiders looking in. It’s my further observation that the common denominators of the movies that really earn the title (see Deep Rising, Maximum Overdrive and The Hidden) can easily be reframed as positive qualities: Fast-paced, character-driven narrative; engaging dialogue (often from good actors); and the self-awareness to use genre “cliches” effectively. Needless to say, these things heavily overlap with the filmography of Nicholas Cage, who in hindsight was going off the rails back in the middling 1990s. With that context, I was intrigued as soon as I got word of the present film. I went out on a limb and paid for a digital copy. I was and remain impressed… but even by my standards, this is weird.

Moving forward, the obvious things to say are about its place in the genres it draws on, and this account for certain strengths and many of the cons. Like many supposed “so bad it’s good” its films, this rides the line between satirical and “straight”, a lot less effectively than the “good” examples I have noted. It tries to get much of its humor simply by referencing slasher movie formulas, which does lead to a few good gags at the expense of a surprising amount of outright padding. What’s most debatable are not one but two backstory dumps (so, exactly what I would probably do) around the midpoint. These follow the established tropes of both cinematic and literary horror closely enough to be defensible as satire. At the same time, there’s enough development to give a sympathetic picture of a community that is manipulated, corrupted and simply scared stupid by what is on paper one of the most ludicrous Eldritch Abominations on record. Overall, it goes far enough to address the usual obvious objections why the cursed location hasn’t been boarded up or turned down, but it comes close to “too much ant not enough”. On one hand, this could have been developed into the idea of a malign presence whose power and influence might extend far beyond the setting. On the other, there can be no argument that this could have worked perfectly well with no “explanations” at all.

That brings us to the bots and the completely silent protagonist, who in a very real sense both represent the robot concept. Technically, these are supernaturally possessed machines rather than AI, which I have so far treated as an outgroup here (compare to The Lift). This is further emphasized by their very clear intelligence and open sadism as they play with their prey, especially from Graves both voicing and performing as the fairy bot. On the other hand, their look and movements are unquestionably mechanical, and they very effectively capture the gulf between dream and reality in ‘80s vintage robotics and animatronics. One nice touch is that it’s never entirely clear how much they have decayed from their peak condition and how much of the uncanny-valley creepiness was there all along. Another is that their strengths and vulnerabilities are reasonably balanced, which only heightens the brutality from both sides. (If it comes to that, only Willy himself ever does anything that their human opponents couldn’t.) As already alluded, they’re altogether more human than Cage as the drifter, who not only doesn’t say a word but rarely registers an emotional reaction of any kind. Even more surreal is his evident fixation on taking his breaks at a preordained time, several times leaving others to fend for themselves (usually, of course, badly). It’s a showcase of things that shouldn’t work but do, thanks to both the filmmakers and the actor. It does become remotely believable that this would be the one person who could defeat the bots one on one, even without a “backstory” to explain his evident abilities. The contrast comes to a peak when he faces two of the bots (including the fairy), to an incongruous song that nevertheless fits what’s on screen a little too well.

Now for the “one scene”, I had way too much here not to give at least one honorable mention, which I’m giving to a fight in the bathroom and Willy’s unnerving musical number. (If you’re still asking questions, this probably isn’t for you…) The one I was always leaning to, however, is around the midpoint, when one of the villains corners one of the teens in an arcade room. While the guy hides, we get an unusually good look at the especially odd bot, independently identified as Cammy Chameleon. The head is almost star-shaped, with the buggy eyes sticking out more than usual. When the kid stays in hiding, the bot starts to talk, voiced by Madisun Leigh, otherwise listed as a writer and producer. It’s not the first time we’ve heard speech from the things, but it is by far the longest and most interesting dialogue. (It’s telling that there still isn’t quite the level of characterization we get from the fairy.) The lizard-thing tells the boy that she has been mistreated by her companions. She further insists that she knows about the afterlife and wishes that she could leave the animatronic abomination. That’s enough for the kid to come out into the open and talk, and even the viewer might wonder if there isn’t emotion and a measure of truth behind the very human voice. It’s a fitting capsule of the film as a whole: We know where this is going, yet it’s far more intriguing than it needed to be. The one thing that is a bit on the nose is that before it’s resolved, we cut to a grownup talking about things we already know.

In closing, what I come to is the rating. I haven’t used the “unrated” category of my primary scale since the Revenant Review feature (and ebook) I introduced it for. The real reason this one gets there is that I honestly concluded it didn’t belong here. If there was a “right” place to review this one, it was for No Good Very Bad Movies, not because I consider it “bad”, but because that was the one feature where I would have been prepared for a film that makes as many willfully odd choices as this one. There, I could have given it the highest rating. Here, however, it only gets in by default, and I still simply can’t compare it to anything else. For me, it’s enough to give this film the respect it by all means deserves. With that, I have one more out of the way.