Willard

Willard Stiles (Crispin Glover) is a lonely and deranged man living in an old mansion with his sick mother Henrietta Stiles (Jackie Burroughs). His father committed suicide after losing his own company to his former partner and friend Frank Martin (R. Lee Ermey). Due to a clause in the selling contract, Willard can not be fired from his job while his mother is alive. However, Frank abuses of Willard, humiliating and spending a horrible treatment with him in front of his colleagues. The basement of Willard's house is infested of rats and mice, and Willard capture a beautiful white mouse in a trap. Willard rescues the mouse, calls him Socrates and becomes his friend. Socrates is a leader and the other rats obey him, except the huge Ben. The animals are trained by Willard, who uses them for his revenge. This weird tale about loneliness, friendship, greed and revenge has the same style of most Tim Burton's movies. It is a black comedy very dark, quite gothic, having weird characters, but great performances and good effects. Although dealing with a nasty theme (rats and mice), it is not a disgusting film. It is not recommended for all audiences, but I liked it a lot. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): `A Vingança de Willard' (`The Revenge of Willard')

Glen Morgan's Willard isn't your ordinary mainstream remake! Unlike the bombastic and computerized money-making films like …oh, I don't know Texas Chainsaw Massacre, 13 Ghosts and Dawn of the Dead who're merely loud updates of classic horrific tales. Willard is a modest and respectful production that lays the stress on atmosphere and scenery instead of gory effects and good-looking young flesh. Willard is the tale of an extremely introvert middle-aged man (lives with his needy mother, no girlfriend, stuck in a hopeless job) who discover his ability to control and command little rodents…rats in particular. By communicating with these rats, he finally discovers what friendship feels like and it also gives him the opportunity to satisfy his deepest feelings of anger and vengeance towards his boss – Frank Martin. But the mob of rats slowly turns against Willard as he doesn't treat them alike. Thanks to the depressing scenery (Willard's old house, the morbid factory) and the under-exposure at times, Willard often looks like a 40's chiller! There's a good and constant variation of tension and sadistic humor, with the cat-chase as the absolute highlight to state this. Crispin Glover – the man with the most incomprehensible cult following in the film industry – is brilliantly cast as Willard. His goofy – yet spooky – charisma fits his character really well. R. Lee Ermey receives the change to be his old boisterous self again as the dreary factory-owner who's out to destroy Willard life. To conclude the cast, Laura Harding is very charming as the understanding and helpful Cathryn. This film may not show as many bloodshed and eccentric slaughtering as the nowadays public demands, but it surely made an impression on me. Willard is a very atmospheric and often frightening horror storytelling with some adorable fairy-tale aspects and playfully imaginative aspects. Highly recommended. I saw this film at a during a festival-night…after a series of gory slashers. The over-enthusiast public didn't appreciate it that much but I trust in the fact that Willard will build up a solid cult reputation.

The movie centers about Crispin Glover a quirky and lone man about thirty years old . He lives with her ill mother and amount of mouses into his home . He has got as enemy to the office chief . Rats will help him to revenge .

The film will have to flee whom don't like the rats because they appear in everyone shots , close-ups , foreground and background of the flick . There are thousand rats and they have been made by animatronics and computer generator specials effects(FX).

Acting by Crispin Glover is excellent , interpreting to Willard as a twisted mind is fantastic , likeness to Norman Bates/Anthony Perkins of Psychosis . R. Lee Ermey as the evil and villain chief is perfect such as his acting in ¨Full metal jacket¨ , Laura Elena Harring (Mulholland drive) is cute .

Direction by Glen Morgan is nicely made , cinematography by Robert MacLachlan is first-rate and Shirley Walker's musical score is gorgeous.

It's a remake to another 1971 film featured by Bruce Davison who only appears in photography as Willard's father into this 2003 film.

Rating 6/10 , average .

New Line had only six weeks to promote this film -- according to the outstanding documentary on the DVD -- and blew it anyway. They were targeting teenage boys when they should have been targeting older people and teenage >girls<.

Glen Morgan directs in a very interesting stylized fashion almost as eccentric as David Lynch or Tim Burton, and Crispin Glover gives a knockout performance in the title role. It's a dark, twisted story, just as it should be; the original WILLARD lightened up the very strange novel, but this one takes several big steps in the direction of the novel. (Not so far as to have Willard Styles wear a rat mask, though.)

The movie does have some awkward elements; the pacing is a bit off, probably because the structure is askew a bit, but overall, it's a fascinating, creepy movie, very well made with fine performances. And either the original ending or the reshot one would have satisfied me.

Gloriously weird, Crispin Glover's performance seems to boil out of the rage-fueled emotionalism of an era before Botox: think Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster, blended with the latter-day fragility and introspection of Sean Penn. This role gives him the room to show off some astonishing gifts.

Glover is the best but far from the only reason to recommend this remake, superior in most ways to the 70s original. (There's some homage along the way, including a tongue-in-cheek set piece done to Michael Jackson's famous warble, "Ben". How time has made that hymn to interspecies love sound creepy!) Writer-director Glen Morgan has crafted a chewy little parable about capitalism, and his sardonic depiction of the real rat race, with a reliably savage Lee Ermey flogging his office employees behind a motivational sign reading "Prudent Aggression," gives the film more than the usual B horror subtext. The production design is sweet, too.

A terribly nice 100 minutes, and one of the best B horrors since Reanimator.