Life has become one big trap for 30-year-old Willard Stiles. Haunted by the ghost of his dead father and suffocated by the psychological cord that keeps him tied to his mother in their once stately home, he floats through life, unable to connect with those around him in the movie “Willard.”
An office clerk at Martin-Stiles Manufacturing, Willard (Crispin Glover) only has a job because his late father made it a condition of his partnership with Frank Martin, who reminds Willard of this burden on a daily basis. But Willard has made an eerie discovery: he shares a powerful bond with the rats that dwell in his basement. Suddenly, Willard has friends — hundreds of them.
A beautiful office temp, Cathryn (Laura Harring of “Mulholland Dr.”), brought in by Mr. Martin to cover for Willard’s alleged incompetence, lends an understanding hand. But even she takes a backseat to Socrates, Ben and the rest of the legion of rats that begin to infest the basement of the Stiles home. Because they areseemingly even more vulnerable than himself, Willard is unable to kill the rats.
As the pressures upon Willard build and build, the foundation of his life begins to crack and the walls threaten to come crashing down. When Willard’s world is turned upside-down by tragedy, those responsible must answer to his rapidly growing pack of ravenous, fearsome friends. Beneath the surface a storm is brewing, and a darkness is about to be unleashed.
Glover, best known for his stint as George McFly in “Back to the Future,” pulls off his role well, which is just as socially enept, sweaty and disheveled as McFly. The movie seems like a look at McFly’s life had Michael J. Fox not repaired the past and saved his parents marriage.
The cinematography in the movie is creepy and detailed with many tight face-shots, which makes the audience feel as though they are stalking Willard throughout the film.
“Willard” is not a horror film in the true sense, because there are no attempts to frighten the audience. A nervous feeling is ever present as you wait to see the rats, and you do get that little shiver up your spine as they crawl over everything, but the horror genre’s conventions are noticably absent.
Brought in to provide a bit of comic relief is R. Lee Ermey, who plays Martin, Stiles’ boss. He played the famous drill instructor in “Full Metal Jacket,” and brings a piece of that character into every role he has played since. His constant down-talk and belittling of Stiles is very funny, and is inevitably what pushes Willard to the point where he must take action.
No real love story develops between Stiles and Cathryn, but there is a touching — and disturbing — relationship built with Socrates, Willard’s favorite rat, who sleeps with Willard at night.
From the trailers and commercials, it is hard to get an idea for exactly what this movie was about. But, in the end, “Willard” had a little something for everyone — comedy, a creepy leading man, an excruciatingly old woman who spews things when she coughs, a decent ending and, of course, a few thousand rats.
