The 2021 survival horror was directed by Kevin Lewis and written by G. O. Parsons. It’s the story of silent traveller Nicolas Cage, who in need of money, agrees to clean up a shutdown pizza place haunted by demonic animatronic robots. Basically: Nic Cage meets Fight Nights at Freddy’s meets Mortal Kombat.
PLOT:
There’s not much to know about Nic Cage’s character. Especially since he doesn’t speak, nor does he even have a name. He’s a mystery, allowing Cage to focus on the visuals, more than the vocals for once. While travelling to somewhere, his car breaks down. In desperate need of cash, local sheriff Tex Macadoo ( Ric Reitz ) offers to fix his car if he can clean up an abandoned pizzeria ( Willy’s Wonderland ) in the night. Even allowing him to take breaks and drink even more energy drinks than the average college student.
As mundane as it may sound, Cage is actually determined to finish the job. Even once encountered by knockoff FNAF robots, he’s completely unscathed and kills them like he’s a nameless video game character. Umongst completing the demonbot termination, he goes upon his ritual of pinball and…energy drinks, along with chaning his oil-blood-stained shirt.
Later on, a group of college ( ? ) kids plan to burn down the pizzeria, one of them, having a decent heart, warns him. As stubborn as Cage’s character is, he literally does not care, what in the so ever. He goes on, kills more robots and the the other kids ( excluding the main one ) get slaughtered because it’s a horror movie and their characters were stupid and annoying anyway.
By the end of the film, Cage ( whose on about one gallon of energy by now ) mamages to destroy the FNAFbots, and discovers the dark backstory. The robots are being controlled by sacrificed children and the police send in poor folk like Cage to satisfy the hunger and not eat rhe town’s civilians. It’s messed up, it’s weird, it’s 100% inspired by FNAF. If you watched the trailer – What did you actually expect?
CONCLUSION:
Overall, Willy’s Wonderland was a departure from Cage’s long streak of terrible, one-not/ generic films. While yes, he has had a few hits in the mix, like Color Out of Space and the more recent Pig ( 100% rating on RT ), if we’re being fair, his career has not been that great lately. Despite having a character with 0 characterisation, it still felt more developed than some of his other more recent projects.
I got what I expected going in, and then some. Chances are it’ll be a cult classic in a few years. 7.9/10.
-The Screenwriter
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