The new Nicolas Cage grindhouse-style horror flick, “Willy’s Wonderland” (Screen Media Films) premiered on Friday and it doesn’t disappoint. It was a fun, gory horror story—a roller coaster ride from beginning to end. The film is directed by Kevin Lewis and the screenplay was written by G.O. Parsons and produced by Nicolas Cage himself for his production company, Saturn Films. Some fans call it a “Five Nights at Freddy’s” ‘Chuck E. Cheese’ parody, but it’s very original and so much more than that. It’s a ‘time-travel’ back to the 80s-90s when amusement centers were the leading trend.
IndieWire confirms that director Kevin Lewis was fighting for his life from Covid two weeks before the initial release of “Willy’s Wonderland.”
Nic Cage plays a silent, ‘hunky’ weird bad-ass ‘Cagey’ loner who loves his fast Chevy and guzzles up all the ‘energy drinks’ he can handle. He unexpectedly gets caught in a “booby trap” in a small town when his Chevy breaks down because of spikes in the road. He has no dialogue in the film and is awesome in it! Talk about Oscar buzz—Nic could very well win his second Oscar or at least be nominated for one. His first Oscar was for the 1996 film, “Leaving Las Vegas.”
He agrees to spend the night as a ‘janitor’ cleaning up an abandoned family amusement center in exchange to repair the damages on his car.
According to Variety, the Willy’s creepy theme song was inspired by Chuck E. Cheese and Santa Cruz Boardwalk.
Little does he know, the family fun center has a dark history. The former owner was a satanist; who believed that it was so-called ‘fun’ to murder their customers there. In order to survive, he is forced to fend off demonic animatronic monsters while trying to keep his end of the bargain to clean up Willy’s just to get his car back. The bad-ass janitor doesn’t play nice and wins every battle against the evil robotic mascots. As the mascot ‘Willy the Weasel’ says in his tagline, “Hey kids, do you know what time it is? It’s birthday time!”
The film has many surprises and ‘twists and turns’ in it. My two favorite scenes are ‘The Pinball Dance’ (Too bad “Pinball Wizard” by The Who didn’t make the cut to play in the background.) Instead, the ‘Willy’s Wonderland’ theme played in the background during the pinball scene. I never knew that Nic Cage could dance so well and be a ‘pinball wizard’ himself! That man is a handsome, sexy, funny genius! The scene had a “Saturday Night Fever” vibe to it where he mimics John Travolta’s dance moves. My second favorite scene is the ‘Bathroom Horror‘ scene where Nic fights Gus the Gorilla off with a toilet plunger! Hilarious!
Here’s a clip of the ‘God of Pinball’ himself!
I rate this film an A+ for its clever editing, the awesome storyline, screenplay, directing, and Nic Cage’s phenomenal acting with no dialogue! “Willy’s Wonderland” is now available everywhere on VOD and streaming. I definitely see a sequel coming in the near future!