Willy's Wonderland is a gratifying, entertaining experience from start to finish

(Image courtesy of kakuchopurei.com)

Willy's Wonderland is such a gratifying, entertaining experience from start to finish that it immediately propels the movie into the halls of similar great action, horror comedies with an extremely high re-watch value.

When Willy's Wonderland was first announced, we waited with baited breath thinking it would be another slow-burner Nicholas Cage horror movie like Color Out of Space or Mandy. But surprisingly, it wasn't. The movie straddled the territory of medium and fast-paced action sequences with a good amount of humor thrown into it and paired with a serving of off-screen deaths and blood for taste.

The movie is directed by Kevin Lewis (Braven) and stars Nicholas Cage, Emily Tosta, Beth Grant, David Sheftel, Ric Reitz, Chris Warner, Kai Kadlec, Caylee Cowan, Terayle Hill, Christian Del Grosso, Jonathan Mercedes and Grant Cramer. Aside from Nic Cage and Beth Grant, the cast is made up of relatively unknown people or entertainers with a limited IMDB list, but they really managed to pull it off. 

Chuck E Cheese Willy's Wonderland, where nightmares are born (Image courtesy of Screen Media Films)

Willy's Wonderland tells the story of a quiet drifter played by Nic Cage. He gets his tires blown out on the road just outside Hayesville and is towed to the town's only auto shop. There, the proprietor of the establishment says that he's able to fix his car for $1,000, which to us is a little steep and fairly suspicious just for a flat tire. Nic Cage doesn't have cash on him and they don't accept credit cards, so the owner of the auto shop introduces him to the proprietor of Willy's Wonderland, a once-successful, abandoned family entertainment centre. 

Willy's Wonderland has a whole backstory to it which is explained in several parts throughout the movie. There's the story about the time it was established and the events moving forward, the history behind the murderous animatronics and the backstory behind the towns people itself. All these stories culminate into one big, entertaining storyline that answers all the questions you need to know about Willy's Wonderland. 

(Image courtesy of MSN.com)

The story progresses relatively normal at this point. We're introduced to Tex Macadoo (Ric Reitz), the proprietor of Willy's Wonderland, who tells Nic Cage that they're planning on opening Willy's Wonderland soon and that he'll pay off Nic Cage's debt at the auto shop if he stays the night and cleans the place up. Viewers are also introduced to Liv (Emily Tosta) and her friends who plan to burn the place down that night and also the Sheriff (Beth Grant) who hides a dark secret. 

There are a lot of storylines taking place in the movie, but they're all explained extremely well. The only thing we're not privy to is Nic Cage's character's backstory. Throughout the movie, he doesn't talk but has good fighting skills as well as an addiction to a specific type of soda called "Punch" which he partakes in regularly. 

(Image courtesy of looper.com)

We're not going to spoil the movie because we strongly advise you to watch it since it's a great movie, so we'll just go into the technical reviews. 

The camera angles are sufficient enough for a campy movie like this. It does have some scenes, particularly in the beginning where it utilises the shaky camera technique, but towards the middle of the movie, it doesn't occur as often as at the start. Once you've passed the 10 minute threshold, things taper off and still-angles are used to make the movie seem balanced and easy to follow. 

There are a bunch of off-camera deaths and blood splatters which contributes to the comedic qualities of the movie as well as some pretty choice gore make up.

In terms of the writing for the movie, it's not Pulitzer prize winning material, but it's sufficient enough to give you all the information, all the naturalness, all the mystery and all the humor you need from this movie. 

For creature designs, make up, set designs and all the creativity this movie has to offer, we have to tip our hats in recognition to the people behind this because it's amazing. The designs for the animatronics were spot on to signify a modest, small town, family entertainment centre. They managed to switch between past scenes of clean, friendly looking animatronics to the current creepy versions of them effortlessly. The wounds and set designs were amazing as well. 

(Image courtesy of Screen Media Films)

Honestly, we can't think of any cons to this movie. The duration of the movie was great, it wasn't too long, wasn't too short. The cast's acting was sufficient enough to make the movie work. Nic Cage's acting as a silent, zero lines character kind of worked well since his acting, facial expressions and action sequences worked well for the movie. The animatronic designs, gore and set designs were flawless. The only thing we found that could've been fixed was... nothing really. Willy's Wonderland is a entirely entertaining package of a film. 

If anyone has anything that they didn't like about the movie or anything they thought should be fixed, do let us know in the comments. We'd like to re-watch (yes, we will be watching this movie over and over again) this movie from your perspective. 

All in all, Asian Does Horror gives Willy's Wonderland 👻👻👻👻👻 ghost emojis out of five.