Willy's Wonderland: Nicolas Cage plays mute, and it's not even the worst idea in this 'demon park mascot' horror

By Thom Ernst

Rating: C

Nicolas Cage is angry. And his performance in Willy's Wonderland—more acting-out than acting—is a cry for help. 

For years Cage has been the patron saint of angry quirk, able to sustain a career feeding off his trademark weirdness. But the slope he's fallen onto is not just slippery but steep. 

What was once distinct is now familiar; what was once edgy is now parody. Despite a brief reprieve with films like Mandy (2018) and Color Out of Space (2019), both of which successfully harness Cage's outlier approach, he makes a swift and disappointing dip back onto Hollywood's B-list here. 

A silent Nicolas Cage prepares to do battle with cute-but-malevolent amusement park creatures.

In Willy's Wonderland, Cage plays a character known only as The Janitor. The Janitor doesn't have a lick of dialogue throughout. He doesn't even have a back story. We only know that he drives fast, he plays pinball, and he's addicted to high-energy power drinks. 

The concept of casting Cage, an actor whose performance is 70% cadence, as a man who doesn't speak, must have sounded like a brilliant stroke of casting against type when pitched to the studio. But without words, Cage has little to hide behind. 

Pantomime is an insufficient stand-in for his harsh rhetoric. Cage's physical performance breaks down into moments of standing with brooding disinterest and the occasional opportunity to prove he can still dance.  Even the premise of hopping Cage up on energy drinks, an idea full of potential, goes unrecognized. Then again, potential is a concept Willy's Wonderland seems bent on ignoring. 

Willy's Wonderland, once a popular family roadhouse, is now a dilapidated eyesore. Written on its graffiti-filled walls are disturbing accusations of demons and murder. But despite calls to raze the building, there are hopes by some, namely Tex Macadoo (Ric Reitz), to return Willy's to its former glory. 

PROUDLY SUPPORTS ORIGINAL-CIN

Or so that is the claim Tex makes when hiring The Janitor. But like so many back-road hucksters before him, Tex is not entirely upfront about his intentions. Then again, neither is the local sheriff (Beth Grant) nor the town's sole mechanic (Chris Warner).  

The Janitor ends up battling more than years of grime, when an animatronic sloth named Willy and his crew of demonically possessed theme park mascots come to life. What follows is a splurge of metal to flesh carnage where humans get bloody, and robots get oily. It's messy no matter who or what is ripped apart.  

Through it, Cage—or rather, the Janitor—is stoic, unfettered by the attacks. Only a group of teenagers conveniently scripted into the story to add drugs and sex and bad jokes need to worry about becoming robot fuel. 

The idea of creepy side-show Hanna-Barbera rejects coming to life and killing unexpecting travelers sounds fun. It should be. But this cleverly conceived plot is all idea, no story. And it's not entirely original. 

The Banana Splits Movie (2019), which features characters from the ‘60s Hanna-Barbera television show (basically an anthropomorphic version of The Monkees), goes on a killing spree. The sheer audacity of reviving characters from a popular ‘60s children's show and turning them into killers beats any attempt by Willy's Wonderland to do the same.     

Willy's Wonderland follows a string of recent career-defining missteps for Cage. In Primal (2019), he's a big game hunter trapped on a ship with a 400-pound white jaguar. In Jiu-Jitsu (reigning contender for worst film of 2021), he's a disgraced warrior saving the earth from aliens; in true Cage fashion, neither film is as good as they sound.  Willy's Wonderland does not break the trend. 

But if we don't acknowledge Willy's Wonderland as Cage reaching out for help, we run the risk of paving the way for more movies like Willy's Wonderland.

And frankly, It's not a risk worth taking.

Willy’s Wonderland is directed by Kevin Lewis and stars Nicolas Cage, Beth Grant, Chris Warner and Ric Reitz.  Willy’s Wonderland is available on VOD.