The Willies

My review was written in January 1991 after watching the film on Prism video cassette.

"The Willies" is an uneven anthology horror opus that shows more creativity in the creatures department than in the writing. It's a video release aimed at younger patrons than usual for the genre.

Tipoff ias to where filmmaker Brian Peck is headed is the preponderance of youngsters in the cast. Pic opens with kids, led by Patty Duke & John Astins' talented son Sean Astin, swapping tales on a camping trip to try and gross one another out.

During a very lengthy pre-credits sequence (lasting 10 minutes), rather lame tales unfold, including a fat lady getting served a fried rat in her bucket of chicken, and a woman unwisely drying off her bathed poodle in a microwave oven.

Film proper has its high point in "Flyboy", a weird tale of a boy (Michael Bower) infatuated with collecting flies. A neighboring farmer invents a spectacular form of fertilizer that creates giant flies, which attack Bower in the scary climax.

Less thrilling is "Bad Apples", in which a stop-motion monster haunts the boys' room at an elementary school.

Technical credits and cast are above average in this not-ready-for-theatrical-release effort.

this movie is basically about two brothers and their cousin who decide to scare each other by telling each other spooky urban legends while camping out.i guess you could compare it the TV shows Goosebumps or Are You Afraid of the Dark,although it's not as good as either of those two.anyway,what follows are two separate tales.the first one is pretty good.it's sort of a black comedy.it is quite amusing,and compelling.plus,it is well written.the second of the tales is not so good.much of the odd behaviour and events are given no reason or explanation.also this tale is boring and feels way too long.the ending makes no sense and doesn't tie into the rest of the story.long story short,the first tale is good-second one-not so much.for me,this movie is a 5/10

This is a fairly good film.I believe it should be rated R for certain reasons.There are disturbing scenes like when the woman eats a dead rat,or a puppy's guts splatter.There are a few very short stories that don't even bother introducing the characters.Then we get to the main stories.The first is about when a janitor turns out to be a monster that kills bad people.This story was rather good,although not an oscar winner by a long shot.The second is just plain disturbing.It's about a kid who's obsesed with dead flys,and it gets more disturbing,you'll have to see to find out,and the ending for the whole movie is twisted.

One of my earliest horror related memories is of reading a comic (I'm guessing it was a reprint of old EC tales) in which a kid who enjoyed pulling the wings off flies ended up having both of his arms torn off (I recall that he may have even been given giant fly wings as replacements, although I may have made that bit up over the years). This story seems to be the inspiration for the second of the two main tales in kiddie-centric horror anthology The Willies, whilst the first, about a boy who discovers a monster in the school bathroom, appears to have borrowed heavily from an early Stephen King short story called 'Here There Be Tygers'. Even the short stories in the pre-credits sequence are based on familiar urban legends—meaning that the film doesn't rate very well for originality. Writer director Brian Peck also loses points for the poor structuring of his film, with the second story in particular long outstaying its welcome.

As highly derivative and poorly paced as the film may be, however, The Willies is still just about worthwhile thanks to its tongue-in-cheek approach (loved the Goonies in-joke), nicely developed characters (the solid cast includes future hobbit Sean Astin, and James Karen and Clu Gulager from Return of the Living Dead), some hokey creature effects, and above all, a genuine sense of fun. Plus, it's hard for me to hate too much on a film that, despite being aimed predominantly at a younger audience, actually proves rather disturbing at times: fly-boy Gordy (Michael Bower) surveying his macabre dioramas featuring dead flies is nice and twisted (the Church even has a dead fly attached to a crucifix!) and his fate is as gruesome as it should be (which reminds me... if anyone can shed any light on the name/issue number of that comic I read many moons ago, please drop me a message—I'd love to read that story again).

This is a very funny movie. It is about these 2 brothers camping out with their cousin played by Sean Astin, they decide to tell scary stories, the first one is about this woman the goes into a chicken restaurant and orders a bucket of chicken and when she takes her first bite she notices that it doesn't taste like chicken she looks and its a big rat that she took a bite out of. the second one is about a old man that goes on a haunted house ride and dies of a heart attack. the next story is about a woman that dries her wet poodle off in the microwave after giving it a bath in the kitchen sink. the next 2 stories are the main stories of the movie. the 1st one is about a monster living above a boys bathroom in an elementary school. The second is about a boy that has a weird hobby collecting flies and doing stuff with them. If your looking for a movie that is funny and scary you should check out the Willies because this movie is funny and scary.