Not Coming to a Theater Near You

Willard / USA / 2003

In an old television interview, Stephen King commented on the Creepshow segment “They’re Creeping Up On You,” in which the sanitary and self-isolated Upson Pratt (E.G. Marshall) must fend off a sudden roach invasion. According to King, the roaches symbolize minorities invading Pratt’s “sterile” environment, in essence invalidating his attempts at eschewing diversity and change.

Glen Morgan’s 2003 remake of Willard has the same emblematic feel. Willard’s mother, frightened by outsiders, lives in a home with bar-enclosed windows and forces her son to do the same; thus the very shy, very meek Willard befriends a horde of rodents (note the difference between Socrates and Ben) and descends into a paranoid, vengeful madness.

Though entertaining at times, the film reeks of social allegory, from commentary on race to how we live our daily lives (the “rat race” speech, delivered by R. Lee Ermy’s character, is deserving of the jeers it elicited). Though the cinematography is near brilliant at times, and the acting from Ermy and Crispin Glover is admirably contrasted, the film feels too self-enclosed and whimsically dark. When I wasn’t being deluged by obvious visual metaphors, I was torn between feelings of dread and childish amusement.

by Adam Balz | Source: IFC
25 Aug 2006 12:51 PM | Comments (1)

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1. mark / 29 August 2006 / 12:18 AM

   I revisited the original from a friends’ almost fried VHS from a Creature-Feature type recording from the late 70s. Although the film, grainy and hard-to-see at times: There-in lies the true pitiful, emphatic horror the director intended. It’s like Looney Toons animation: they can’t make em’ any more.