"Five Nights at Freddy's" is an iconic franchise that, regardless of its questionable lore and never-ending sequels, will stand the test of time. It has done so well that fans still anticipate the live-action adaptation from Blumhouse Studios. However, considering the film has yet to even begin filming as of this writing, it's going to take a while before it will ever see the light of day. Because of the long delay, other studios managed to take the opportunity to make their FNAF-inspired films with WB's "The Banana Splits Movie" and now this latest attempt from Screen Media Films. When a mute drifter gets his tires blown out in a small town, he is given a deal to clean up a run-down family entertainment centre known as Willy's Wonderland in exchange to pay for his expensive bill. The drifter takes a strange pride in his work to the point that he's unfazed by the killer animatronics that reside in the building nor the multiple warnings given to him by the local youth. Because as one of the characters quote later in the film; "He's trapped with them, they are trapped with him." The story is simple as a FNAF rip-off can be and the short runtime complements the simplicity. There is a lore and conspiracy revolving the run-down facility, which I won't go into, but I will admit it's far better than what the FNAF games have done for the past years. The tone however doesn't really play up to the story's full potential. It has its fair share of camp and cheese, especially in regards to the drifter, but the film is still a horror-comedy at the end of the day and it is contrived by the genre cliches from it, mainly in regards to the side cast, which I will get into right now.
Nicholas Cage as the nameless drifter/janitor is one of the actor's most unique performances to date, purely by how bizarre it is. The janitor is played up as a mysterious yet charismatic badass who doesn't utter a word and chooses to remain inside the building and clean up the entire place for unknown reasons. Cage plays up the apparent badass and goofy aspects of the character in both the action and montage sequences. He is the true attraction of the film, which is a huge win, especially given how awful the rest of the characters are. Emily Tosta as Liv, the teenage protagonist who wants to save the Janitor and burn the building down, is as generic of a final girl trope as you can get. Granted, I have seen worse characters and performances from the genre, so Liv isn't really a big problem. Beth Grant as Sheriff Elosie does a good job as the bitter and despicable sheriff, but her motivations are rather confusing in wanting the janitor to be killed instead of him continuing to destroy the animatronics. As for the deputy and Liv's group of friends, they are practically "nothing" characters. We all know that a ton of people die in horror films, but at least make an effort in making characters or space their deaths out throughout the movie to keep people guessing for a bit. Not only do Liv's friends all die in a ten-minute span of runtime, but some of them don't even have a chance to get a hint of character or personality. On top of that, their acting ranges from okay to abysmal. It's issues like this that really make the film get bogged down. I won't go over the animatronics much as they don't really have a personality, but I appreciate the creativity given to their designs and representations for being realistic characters in that type of business. Overall, Cage is the only person from the entire cast that's putting effort in saving this film, all without any line of dialogue.
Kevin Lewis isn't really known for his previous work on obscure projects and this venture might not aid him that much. The issue with Lewis's directing is that there's no sense of style or polish aside from the scenes with Cage. For the most part, the film looks rather cheap and uninspired and looks like it was straight out of YouTube. However, the editing by Ryan Liebert manages to go all out on the silliness of the film whenever Cage is on screen. Liebert would have weird uses of lens flairs, colours, and transitions that actually aid the film's enjoyment, aside from one awful strobe-light sequence. The cinematography by David Newbert is also on the same approach as Liebert. Whenever it's centred on Cage and the various scenes and montages, it's actually done well with clever close-ups, distancing and pans. When Cage isn't on screen, it just becomes really amateur and lame. The music by Émoi is actually really good. The 80's synth is a blast to listen to and the original songs created in-universe for Willy's can be ear-worms for some. I hope Émoi can get to do more films, because they did a fantastic job in all fronts. The practical effects and make-up is a mixed bag. On the one hand, the animatronics look perfectly aged and dated with some great gore effects on them during the action sequences. On the other hand, the kills presented in the film, aside from the animatronics, are on a creative dead-end. Most kills just have the animatronics bite or claw at their victims with fair blood effects, but some will be entirely off-screen and one even had their victim breath normally for a dead guy. I wouldn't give too much slack if the budget was so low that this was the best they can do, but the budget was actually a decent $5 million. To put in perspective, the horror-comedy, "Freaky", had a budget of $6 million and that film contained some imaginative and practical gore-filled kills. The team might have run out of money by the time they needed to film the kills, but it's still not a great excuse and look for the film, especially compared to others of the genre with similar budgets. Overall, the filmmaking is both uninspired and full of character depending on the elements.
"Willy's Wonderland" strangely could have been far better than what we got at the end. While the story is a fun hook, the tone can be perfectly cheesy at times, Cage as the nameless and mute janitor is simply a joy to watch, the editing by Liebert is on the same level of strange as Cage, Émoi's score and songs are actually really solid with the setting and 80's synth, and the designs and character of the animatronics feel pretty legit in their appearance and inspirations, the film suffers from the typical tropes of the horror genre, Liz is a generic lead, Sheriff Elosie is weirdly written, Liz's friends are laughably pointless in their brief appearances, the deaths have no budget to them with some having no gore or being off-screen, and Lewis has no direction outside from the scenes including Cage. At the end of the day, if you just want to see a silent Nick Cage killing animatronics and cleaning up a restaurant, you will get some enjoyment out of it for sure. However, that's all you're really going to get, because it doesn't fair well in comparison with other horror-comedies.
Verdict: 5.5/10. Great as a Cage project, pretty average for a straight-up horror comedy. At least it's better than "The Banana Splits Movie"...
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