Willard (2003)

A young man with an unusual connection with rats, uses them at his own sociopathic will.

Director:

Glen Morgan

Writers:

Glen Morgan (screenplay), Gilbert Ralston,

Stars:

Crispin Glover, R. Lee Ermey, Laura Harring

3 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Crispin Glover	...	Willard
R. Lee Ermey	...	Mr. Martin
Laura Harring	...	Cathryn (as Laura Elena Harring)
Jackie Burroughs	...	Mrs. Stiles
Ashlyn Gere	...	Ms. Leach (as Kimberly Patton)
William S. Taylor	...	Mr. Garter
Edward Horn	...	Colquitt
Gus Lynch	...	George Foxx
Laara Sadiq	...	Janice Mantis
David Parker	...	Detective Boxer
Ty Olsson	...	Officer Salmon

Storyline

This is the story of Willard Stiles who is a social misfit taking care of his ill and fragile but verbally abusive mother Henrietta in a musty old mansion that is also home to a colony of rats. Willard then finds himself constantly humiliated in front of his co-workers and is eventually fired by his cruel and uncaring boss, Mr. Frank Martin, a vicious man whose professional interest in Willard extends to a personal financial one.

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Plot Keywords:

rat | revenge | vermin | work | at work | 

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Taglines:

When the cat is away, the rats will play.

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Genres:

Drama | Horror | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for terror/violence, some sexual content and language

Details

Official Sites:

New Line Cinema [us]

Country:

Canada USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

14 March 2003 (USA)

Also Known As:

A Vingança de Willard

Filming Locations:

Lion's Gate Studios, North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$22,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$56,652 (Hong Kong) (9 May 2003)

Gross:

$107,689 (Hong Kong) (16 May 2003)

Company Credits

Production Co:

New Line Cinema, Hard Eight Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

100 min 96 min (DVD)

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The brand name on the container of nuts Willard first feed to the rats is 'Numm Nuts.'

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Goofs

The gender of the two main rats, Socrates and Ben change through out the film. In some scenes the rats are male and in others they are female.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Willard's Mother: Willard! There are rats in the basement!

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Crazy Credits

Second Unit Chef Dave Carlson's credit is listed as: Cater to the Stars...DAVID CARLSON

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Connections

Featured in The House That Freddy Built (2006)

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Soundtracks

"Ben"
Written by Walter Scharf and Don Black
Performed by Crispin Glover (as Crispin Hellion Glover)
Produced by Crispin Glover (as Crispin Hellion Glover) and Robert Haimer

User Reviews

Genre expectations tainted most viewers

People who hated this movie went to see it with the preconceived notion that rats would be doing a lot bloodier leg work for Willard. What they got was a movie wherein Crispin Glover kisses his best rattie friend and slowly ambles toward insanity.

Willard has flaws, and plenty of them, but they rarely detract from what is, at heart, a psychological parable and subtle love story. Crispin Glover's performance is one of his most genuinely human and believable, evoking ugly emotions rarely seen in Hollywood, while still retaining a manic kind of dignity.

You can hardly fault New Line for marketing Willard as a horror flick, since that is what would inevitably sell better. But Willard is really more of a movie for people who genuinely like rats, not those who fear them. It's a movie for people who find greater horror in failure and abuse and solitude than buckets of blood and gore. Willard is the kind of movie that aims to make you uncomfortable, but not truly horrified. It uses few of the common elements of the horror movie, including graphic violence, deformity, fear of the unknown, and sudden, unexpected movement or loud noises to propel you from your seat. It is slow moving and subtle, and often uses crude humor to detract from the more creepy moments. It shows itself as a juvenile in those moments, a child who has put on his father's suit and is masquerading as a serious adult. It is much like the character of Willard, in that sense, and the coincidence is almost admirable.

The movie is unquestionably more subtle, evocative, and well-crafted than its predecessor; it is also more faithful to the original novel, Ratman's Notebooks, than the version starring Bruce Davison. It's a dubious honor, some might say.

Willard deserves no prizes, but it is well-made to be what it is... not a horror movie, nor a drama, nor a thriller. It's an intimate little movie about a boy and his rat, and it is all the better for it.