[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Willy's Wonderland (2021)

Nicolas Cage's car breaks down outside a remote Nevada town. Unable to pay for the repairs (The garage doesn't take credit cards) he agrees to work the night in kids indoor amusement park Willy's Wonderland. What Cage doesn't know when accepting is that Willy's Wonderland is possessed / haunted (call it what you will) by eight murderous animatronic characters.

I'll say straight away, i had a lot of enjoyment watching Willy's Wonderland. It was everything The Banana Splits Movie should have been. A bit creepy, violent, gory and a whole load of fun.

Nicolas Cage was a revelation in the role of the drifter / janitor. As an A-List Hollywood star his career seemed to be stalling following a series of theatrical flops and a descent into dtv nothingness (see Bruce Willis, Steven Seagal, Jean-Claude Van Damme etal for other examples) was already in motion. However Cage was too good a performer to simply disappear with his flamboyant acting style left, right and centre demanding the viewers attention, thus a series of what could have been ignominious features have turned into very good movies gaining a definite cult following in the process (Mom and Dad, Mandy, Color Out of Space, Grand Isle, Primal and now Willy's Wonderland).

It goes without saying that a manic Nicolas Cage always rules the screen but here he never speaks a word. Not one. It's purely in his performance, his mannerisms and his genuine star quality that Willy's Wonderland works so beautifully coming up with some delightful continuous jokes such as changing his Willy's Wonderland t-shirt, drinking a can of soda and playing a pin ball game after each violently messy showdown with an animatronic rival. I should also add that he makes for an excellent janitor.

There's certainly a cartoonish veneer to the film (After twenty minutes in he's fighting a giant animatronic ostrich) but it's also slickly directed, has decent acting from Cage's co-stars and enough twists and turns in the script to comfortably keep me entertained. Added to this, in true Rob Zombie style, the ending as Cage gets into his car and drives away as Lynyrd Skynyrd's Freebird echoes through the speakers, well it was always going to be a winner with me.