Willard (2003 film)

Willard is a 2003 American horror film co-written and directed by Glen Morgan and starring Crispin Glover, R. Lee Ermey and Laura Elena Harring. It is loosely based on the novel Ratman's Notebooks by Stephen Gilbert, as well as on the novel's first film adaptation, Willard (1971), and its sequel, Ben (1972). It was not billed as a remake by the producers, who chose instead to present it as a reworking of the themes from the original, with a stronger focus on suspense.[1]

Willard
Theatrical release poster
Directed byGlen Morgan
Produced byJames Wong
Glen Morgan
Screenplay byGlen Morgan
Based on
Starring
Music byShirley Walker
CinematographyRobert McLachlan
Edited byJames Coblentz
Production
company
Hard Eight Pictures
Distributed byNew Line Cinema
Release date
  • March 14, 2003 (2003-03-14)
Running time
100 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$20 million
Box office$8.5 million

Plot

Willard Stiles (Crispin Glover) is a social misfit taking care of his ill and fragile but verbally abusive mother Henrietta (Jackie Burroughs) in a musty old mansion that is also home to a colony of rats. Willard finds himself constantly humiliated in front of his co-workers by his cruel boss, Frank Martin (R. Lee Ermey), a vicious man who assumed control of the company from Willard's father upon his death by suicide, and whose professional interest in Willard extends to a personal financial one. A co-worker, Cathryn (Laura Elena Harring), has sympathy for the quirky Willard.[2] Cathryn becomes Willard's friend and love interest.

Willard quickly becomes obsessed with his friendship with a white rat he names Socrates. Willard then begins to train and befriend the other rats, including an extra-large one he names Ben. Ben begins to assume a position of "leadership" among the other rats, while Socrates remains Willard's favorite. After he trains the rats sufficiently, Willard takes them to Martin's home, where he orders them to chew up the tires on Martin's Mercedes-Benz. Willard's mother panics when she overhears the rats and later dies by falling down the stairs of the basement. Now Socrates is all he has left. Willard learns soon afterward that the payments on the house have fallen far behind and that the bank will likely foreclose upon the property.

In an effort to cheer up Willard, Cathryn speaks to him about the loss of her own mother, and how what got her through it was the cat she inherited, which she gives to Willard. While Willard is delighted that Cathryn is giving him a gift of friendship, and hopefully love as well, he has reservations about the cat. The cat is soon eaten by all the rats by eating a Flesh of a cat, which leaves Willard burdened with guilt.

Desperately lonely, Willard begins to bring Socrates to work with him. He then finds a note at his desk declaring that he is being fired by Frank Martin. While he is arguing with Martin, begging not to be fired, Socrates is discovered by Ms. Leach in the supply room. Her screams alert Martin, who bludgeons Socrates to death. Willard, his mental state already precarious, is devastated. He turns to Ben, who is more than willing to guide the colony of rats to help Willard avenge himself upon his boss. Willard and his rats confront Martin and, at Willard's command, they swarm onto Martin and kill him. As Martin and the rat army descend the elevator shaft, Willard taunts Martin with his own words when Socrates died, manically grinning as he says, “What’s the matter, Tiger? Scared of a little blood?”

While Ben seems to be loyal, there’s something about him that Willard finds suspect, so he attempts to dispose of him and the other rats by putting poison in the basement. He succeeds in killing some, but Ben remains and turns the remaining rat army against Willard. Willard manages to rescue Cathryn, who is there on a date, and gets her out of the house, but becomes trapped himself. Desperate to save Willard, Cathryn manages to waylay two police officers and immediately brings them to the house, where they are aghast and appalled at what they see. When Cathryn tries to enter the house, and one of the officers bluntly asks, “You wanna be eaten alive?”, it’s then she realizes Willard was responsible for Martin’s death, and there’s no future for them now. As Ben and Willard fight, Willard reveals his true feelings to Ben, how he loved Socrates but hated him. Willard lamely pleads, “I thought that we were friends!” Willard barely escapes with his life and kills Ben (after severing one of his legs), which is witnessed in shadow profile through the upstairs window by Cathryn and the police.

Willard has retreated into a semi-catatonic state and has been placed in a mental institution. Unknown to anyone else, a white rat appears in his cell which looks like Socrates. Believing that the rat is his only friend reborn, the now-scheming Willard (revealing that his semi-catatonic state is faked) tells the rat, "It's not over yet, no! Our time is going to come..."

Cast
  • Crispin Glover as Willard Stiles: An antisocial worker for Martin-Stiles Manufacturing, a business that was originally started by his father but was "stolen" by his boss Frank Martin. Willard is constantly abused by his boss and his beloved mother. He befriends a colony of rats, especially a white rat named Socrates and a big rat named Ben. When Socrates is killed by Martin, he uses his rats to get revenge, transforming into a ruthless psychopath.
  • R. Lee Ermey as Frank Martin: A cruel and uncaring CEO of Martin-Stiles Manufacturing. He constantly humiliates Willard for his late arrivals at work and even kills his pet rat Socrates. He is eventually eaten alive by Willard's rats.
  • Laura Elena Harring as Cathryn: A co-worker and love interest of Willard who sympathizes with him and starts to return his affections - going so far as to angrily quit her job when she learns of Willard's firing, until she realizes his involvement in Martin's murder.
  • Jackie Burroughs as Henrietta Stiles: Willard's ill yet verbally abusive mother who, in her last days, even calls him "Clark" since she hates his real name.
  • Kimberly Patton a.k.a. Ashlyn Gere as Barbara Leach: A cynical secretary for Frank Martin.
  • William S. Taylor as Joseph Garter: A trustee of the Stiles estate who informs Willard of his dire financial straits after Willard's mother dies.
  • Ty Olsson as Officer Salmon: A policeman who discovers that Willard is "nuts".

Bruce Davison appears as Willard's father in a cameo appearance in a portrait above the house's fireplace.

Release

Box office

The film opened at #8 at the U.S. box office, grossing $4,010,593 USD. It fell to #13 the following week, and finished with $6,886,089 in domestic box office and $1,660,577 in foreign box office.

Critical reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 64% based on reviews from 129 critics.[3] On Metacritic, it has a score of 61% based on reviews from 31 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[4] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "D-" on an A+ to F scale.[5]

Awards
  • Crispin Glover was nominated for Best Actor at the 2004 Saturn Awards.
  • Robert McLachlan won the CSC award at the Canadian Society of Cinematographers Awards for Best Cinematography in a Theatrical Feature.
  • The DVD release was nominated for a Golden Satellite award for Best DVD Extras at the 2004 Satellite Awards.
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References
  1. Willard Official Movie Site
  2. "Fall Frights: WILLARD (Film Review)".
  3. "Willard Movie Reviews, Pictures". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2020-02-18.
  4. "Willard (2003)". Metacritic. Retrieved 2020-02-18.
  5. "Cinemascore". CinemaScore. Archived from the original on 2018-12-20. Retrieved 2019-08-30.
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