Review Copyright Cassandra Henry, 2003

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"Business is a rat race and I will not allow myself to be devoured by all these other rats because of you." ­ Frank Martin (R. Lee Ermey) CASS' CLIP (WARNING: **spoilers below**) Poor Willard Stiles (Crispin Glover), a 30-year-old nerdy loner, still lives at home with his overbearing and vexing mother (Jackie Burroughs). Everyday she strips away another layer of his self-confidence with comments like "What an awful name, Willllarrrrd. You wouldn’t have gotten picked on if you had a strong name like Clark." Or when he’s in the bathroom too long, she wants to know if his stool "is hard or loose?" Willard’s father, Albert Stiles (Bruce Davison, who was the original Willard in the 1971 movie of the same name), continues to haunt him as his eyes stare down from a portrait hanging above the fireplace mantel where his ashes also lay in an urn. "Willard, there are rats in the basement," mother Stiles yells to him from behind a half-opened bedroom door, down a dimly lit long corridor. Willard checks the basement, and shonuf; at first glance, there are a couple of rats down there. He goes to the store and buys enough rat poison and traps to rid their home of these pesky rats. First, Willard hears squealing then he sees a little white rat scurrying across the basement attached to the sticky poison trap. Willard feels sorry for him, saves the rodent’s life, and promises never to let anything ever harm him again. Not only does Willard befriend this little white rat and name it Socrates, but he also sleeps with it and takes Socrates everywhere he goes, as well as gets all kissy-face with this cute Disney mascot. Of course, when you see one rat, it’s safe to assume that there are more hiding in the background, and such is the case at the Stiles’ rat infested home. Initially, we meet Socrates, his family, and Ben, a huge brown rat, the size of an armadillo. Now, the Stiles gothic-style mansion is overrun with thousands of rats. YUCK! Willard discovers that he has a knack for communicating with these rodents and trains them to rip apart paper, tires, other prey, including humans. Willard loves Socrates, but only tolerates Ben because he’s more vicious and needs to use Ben to lead the other rats to attack on command. [Socrates is white and Ben is black. Is there a subliminal message here?] Willard’s life is no better at work. He is an office clerk who works for a loudmouth and condescending boss, Frank Martin (R. Lee Ermey). Mr. Martin is the sole owner of Martin-Stiles Manufacturing, a company Willard’s deceased father founded. The only reason Willard is employed there is because of a clause his father included as part of a contractual agreement with Mr. Martin. Mr. Martin can’t do anything about it except continue to berate Willard in front of his co-workers, hoping his tactic of verbal warfare will cause Willard to quit. Since Willard has nowhere else to work, he suffers through Mr. Martin’s barrage of daily insults. The only person who seems sympathetic to Willard’s plight is Cathryn (Laura Harring), a temp who Mr. Martin hired to replace him. The combination of Willard’s shyness and Cathryn’s beauty makes it nearly impossible for him to talk to her. When Willard has had enuf of Mr. Martin’s tirades and "prudent aggression" (which is Martin’s motto), Willard feels he has no other choice but to sic his vicious army of rats on Mr. Martin or anyone who dares to belittle him again. What does one killer rat say to another killer rat when it hears Willard grinding his teeth? Dinner anyone? DA 411 Willard is based on Stephen Gilbert’s 1968 novel, "Ratman’s Notebook." [What would make someone write about rats is beyond me]. Director Glen Morgan, intended this 1971 remake to have the look and feel of Hitchcock’s psychological horror movies Pyscho and The Birds. It was still revolting to see all those vile rats regardless of the fact that many of them were computer generated or animatronics. Crispin Glover is brilliant and he is the perfect actor to play the passive aggressive role of Willard. [Think back to his performance in Back to the Future then add rats]. Watching Glover do his thing with his exaggerated body language, wardrobe and even his Hitler-esque haircut, is very entertaining. His relationship with Jackie Burroughs is convincing as the co-dependent son and domineering mother. Her makeup job will make you say, "Damn, yo mama is ugly dude." R. Lee Ermey delivers some of the best one-liners in this movie. "Walt, this is Mickey. I’m coming to join ya." Or,"They’ll do anything I tell them." Willard says. "Well tell them to get the f$%^ outta here," Martin sarcastically replies. [You’ll have to see Willard to understand the context of these lines]. Laura Harring’s role is simply added to allude to the possibility of romance between Willard and Cathryn. Are horror movies also comedies? In the case of Willard , when the audience started laughing at scenes that were intended to be grotesque, then I guess the answer is yes. One can’t really take these movies too seriously, especially when the horror factor lacks creativity. Having a fuse box blow so that the house or a room is in total darkness, until the handy flashlight is found, ain’t original. CASS' CONCLUSION If you see Willard, you’ll meet the real rat pack. WILLARD: back to top Copyright Cassandra Henry, 2003 EMAIL: cass@3blackchicks.com