User reviews

Mr. Culkin should have taken the role that this movie offered him. For an actor who is trying to prove something to the industry in Hollywood, this movie is an excellent example. Crispin Glover has had a reputation in the film industry as a strong, yet weird actor. Many of the roles that he has received makes Crispin look crazy if not odd. Here, Crispin shows his serious and comic side. The movie alone holds up as a gritty thriller. A horror movie none-the-less, Willard is an interesting film that we don't see too often. A well made movie with decent production value, the cast adds to its greatness. Much like River's Edge, the audience is left wondering where Crispin Glover came from. No longer a young actor, Crispin has worked his way up to become a veteran performer and a good actor.

Maybe self-parody isn't such a bad word in the case of Willard. While I will state that the film was funny and interesting to watch, it wasn't nearly as twisted or as scary as it could have been. But then again, it's so damn tough to scare the jaded masses of critics and movie goers anyway. However, I did find this film wildly entertaining, especially the likes of Glenn Morgan and James Wong helming the project, two guys who helped put together The X-Files and Space: Above and Beyond (a truly underrated show). The only downside to this film was the editing. It was sometimes dull, and often did little to help the plot move in a smooth fashion. However, the random close-ups of the rat/wombat "Big Ben" were hillarious, making it look like the rat would actually start talking. Also, I give a big kudos to R. Lee Ermey, who went back to his old Full Metal Jacket days, making him a scary and evil bad guy to focus on. Oh, and Crispin Glover plays the loser role perfectly.

New Line had only six weeks to promote this film -- according to the outstanding documentary on the DVD -- and blew it anyway. They were targeting teenage boys when they should have been targeting older people and teenage >girls<.

Glen Morgan directs in a very interesting stylized fashion almost as eccentric as David Lynch or Tim Burton, and Crispin Glover gives a knockout performance in the title role. It's a dark, twisted story, just as it should be; the original WILLARD lightened up the very strange novel, but this one takes several big steps in the direction of the novel. (Not so far as to have Willard Styles wear a rat mask, though.)

The movie does have some awkward elements; the pacing is a bit off, probably because the structure is askew a bit, but overall, it's a fascinating, creepy movie, very well made with fine performances. And either the original ending or the reshot one would have satisfied me.

One of the least successful movies of the year, when it should have been one of the most, is Willard, the remake of the Bruce Davison version. It has everything going for it, and it was really the dismal marketing campaign that brought it to its early demise. If more people had given it a chance, then hopefully it would have been more successful and more people would have been able to see this masterwork. That's what Willard is, it's a masterpiece, at least of the movies of the last ten years or so. No movies have been up to par in so many different levels.

Crispin Glover puts in the best acting performance of the year, and possibly one of the best of all time is the title character. He has a dead-end job at his late father's business, now run by his father's partner, Frank Martin (R. Lee Ermey), who just keeps him on until Willard's mother (Jackie Burroughs) dies. When his mother makes him go look for rats, Willard finds one, keeps it, and names it Socrates. He discovers more, and they do whatever Socrates tells him. However, a huge rat named Ben wants control, and fights with Socrates for power, while Willard uses the rats for his own sociopathic will.

As I said earlier, Willard has everything going for it. I'll go one at a time. The directing, by X-Files alum Glen Morgan (also written by him and co-produced with James Wong) was perfect. He has an obvious style (and probably studied Hitchcock in college), and creates a sense of realism in this implausible movie. Also, Morgan's screenplay has some of the best humor to come out of a movie this year, especially from Ermey and Burroughs. I won't spoil them, although they're still funny on repeat viewings.

The acting, especially by Glover, who isn't a forerunner in big Hollywood names, is spectacular. Glover portrayed a young, aimless man so well. No one can scream like this man can. He's not afraid to let go and let his emotions run him over. He must have some deep repressed memories. Ermey is outstanding, but, then again, when is he not? He just plays an evil character, and that's what he's great at. Laura Elena Harring (Mulholland Drive) does what she can with her very small role. I noticed she tried to repress an accent, but I couldn't tell from where. Sounded Spanish, but I digress. Burroughs is great, although more of her (not really looking at her, though…she's hideous) would have been great.

Morgan takes what could have been disastrous and turned it around to become a truly creepy film. Willard shows the side of every person who wants to do something evil, but can't find the will to do it. That's where Willard succeeds, you end up rooting for someone you normally wouldn't because he's doing something that you desperately want to do.

Willard is a modern masterpiece, one that will thankfully find a huge audience on DVD.

My rating: 8/10

Rated PG-13 for terror/violence, some sexual content and language.

Willard was a decnet movie in my opinion. Walking out of the movie I didn't find it as scary but as more of a black comedy. Crispen Glover was tailor made for the title role. His whole natural look as Willard is what gives the movie it's humor and enjoyment. The film might scare you if you have a fear of rats but other than that it's not for all tastes.

Before you let the advertising fool you, understand that "Willard" isn't exactly your normal horror flick. I know that the marketing people tried to put all the scary bits into the trailer and such, but I urge you to reconsider your views on it.

The movie itself is more of an in-depth character study. It follows the events that lead one man into the pits of insanity, taking you along for the ride. Forget "Psycho," (Which was an awesome film in its own right) though the movie does have Norman Bates/Hitchcock elements. We're taken from lonely, shy, and sad, to hollering, glaring, weeping, and finally, silent. Only one man was tailor-made for this role...and that man was Mr. Glover.

Through every blink, every wide-eyed stare, the audience is drawn into the character. We believe in his connection with the rats, and marvel at his ability to train them. And when he gets even with Mr. Martin, we celebrate.

And I loved the undoubted sexual frustration that Willard is feeling. It's more apparent in one of the deleted scenes on the DVD. But the writer didn't succumb to this frustration; he let it build.

All of this combines to form one of the greatest character movies I have ever seen, and probably will ever see. I must say that this is one movie I will not soon forget...

The movie centers about Crispin Glover a quirky and lone man about thirty years old . He lives with her ill mother and amount of mouses into his home . He has got as enemy to the office chief . Rats will help him to revenge .

The film will have to flee whom don't like the rats because they appear in everyone shots , close-ups , foreground and background of the flick . There are thousand rats and they have been made by animatronics and computer generator specials effects(FX).

Acting by Crispin Glover is excellent , interpreting to Willard as a twisted mind is fantastic , likeness to Norman Bates/Anthony Perkins of Psychosis . R. Lee Ermey as the evil and villain chief is perfect such as his acting in ¨Full metal jacket¨ , Laura Elena Harring (Mulholland drive) is cute .

Direction by Glen Morgan is nicely made , cinematography by Robert MacLachlan is first-rate and Shirley Walker's musical score is gorgeous.

It's a remake to another 1971 film featured by Bruce Davison who only appears in photography as Willard's father into this 2003 film.

Rating 6/10 , average .

I was well aware that this movie existed, however I just never did get around to watching it before now in 2024.

So was it worth the wait? Hardly so. Sure, "Willard" was a watchable movie, but it just wasn't a particularly outstanding or overly impressive storyline. I found it to be a sort of movie with a narrative that would support a single viewing, and I doubt that I will ever return to watch it again. So writers Glen Morgan, Gilbert Ralston and Stephen Gilbert just didn't manage to churn out something that impressed me.

The movie does have a good cast ensemble, and much can be said about leading actor Crispin Glover, but he does carry the role quite well here. The movie also have the likes of R. Lee Ermey, Laura Harring and Jackie Burroughs on the cast list, so there are a couple of familiar faces. I will say that the acting performances in the movie were good.

The effects in the movie were good and still hold up today, some 21 years down the lane.

Watchable for what it was, I think a movie such as director Glen Morgan's 2003 "Willard" is a niche movie, and one that caters mostly to fans of Crispin Glover.

My rating of "Willard" lands on a five out of ten stars.

Willard Stiles (Crispin Glover) is a lonely and deranged man living in an old mansion with his sick mother Henrietta Stiles (Jackie Burroughs). His father committed suicide after losing his own company to his former partner and friend Frank Martin (R. Lee Ermey). Due to a clause in the selling contract, Willard can not be fired from his job while his mother is alive. However, Frank abuses of Willard, humiliating and spending a horrible treatment with him in front of his colleagues. The basement of Willard's house is infested of rats and mice, and Willard capture a beautiful white mouse in a trap. Willard rescues the mouse, calls him Socrates and becomes his friend. Socrates is a leader and the other rats obey him, except the huge Ben. The animals are trained by Willard, who uses them for his revenge. This weird tale about loneliness, friendship, greed and revenge has the same style of most Tim Burton's movies. It is a black comedy very dark, quite gothic, having weird characters, but great performances and good effects. Although dealing with a nasty theme (rats and mice), it is not a disgusting film. It is not recommended for all audiences, but I liked it a lot. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): `A Vingança de Willard' (`The Revenge of Willard')

Glen Morgan, who paid his dues writing episodes of The X-Files, and its assorted spin-offs, and then finally made his big screen debut with his script for the original, Final Destination, has taken his directorial cues from masters of oddity such as Tim Burton, Barry Sonnenfeld (during his Addams Family phase) and George Miller. Morgan manages to create an unforgettable atmosphere that holds its own against, Beetlejuice, Babe: Pig in the City, Addams Family Values or Sleepy Hollow. Like all of those films, this is a dark comedy. Unlike those films, it becomes deadly serious, and that turns into what is nearly its downfall.

The further we get into the film, the darker the movie gets. About halfway through, we're no longer watching a dark comedy, but rather a fairly weak attempt at horror. The film doesn't succeed in scaring you, so the last half of the movie essentially fails. Only those lovable, huggable rats, and Crispin Glover's performance, pull it through. The best, and easily most comedic, scenes in the film feature Willard and his mother, and take place early on in the picture. During these moments, the film oozes of the original Psycho, only this time, "Norman's" mother isn't a corpse. Crispin Glover is the most perversely charismatic crazy to hit the silver screen since Anthony Perkins took on Norman Bates, in the original Psycho.

Willard could have been a classic. As it is, it's a fine little dark comedy that gets mixed up at the end and starts believing that it's a thriller. Oh, and I can't end this review without mentioning how pleasantly nasty the scene with the cat is. Cat lovers, prepare to close your eyes ... kitty's about to get hers! The Truth about Rats & Dogs? Nah ... too easy.

The 1971 version of Willard had at least a surface plausibility, and carefully avoided going over the top with fairly nuanced performances by Bruce Davidson in the title role and Ernest Borgnine as the mean boss. No such restraint is evident in the current version. Crispin Glover is as nuanced as a mannequin, rendering a performance that is at the same time wooden and over the top. The normally fine character actor R. Lee Emery is little more than a cartoon. Everything is so implausible and overdone in this film it was hard to keep from laughing--and many in the audience didn't even try. While the original Willard was definitely creepy, this one tries so hard to be camp it manages to be only sorry. I doubt I'll willingly go see Crisipin Glover in anything again. Yuckers!

If ever Crispin Glover needed a decent role then this was tailor made for him. After refusing to work on BTTF 3 and a terrible performance in Charlies Angels, i got the feeling that he thought too high and mighty of himself. But at last a role that he plays superbly as the victim of constant harassment at work who seeks revenge by taming and using the rats in his basement that he was supposed to get rid of. You can't help but feel sympathy for him ( I know I would like to do that to my Boss!!).

Altogether a very well made film that will give you the creeps, it falls into the watch once only category.

Final Verdict 7/10

Willard is a movie that doesn't really fall into a specific category. Don't expect a traditional horror, but don't expect a B horror comedy either. If anything, it's a very morbid drama. There are some good characters in it that you end up caring for. Crispin Glover does a perfect job as Willard, it's his best performance yet, and R. Lee Eremey is great in the over-the-top role of Willard's boss. But what I found most surprising is how much you actually end up caring for the rats. The 2 lead rats even seem to have personalities.

There are some creepy scenes but nothing that will keep you up at night. It's a fairly predictable movie- you know from his very first scene that Willard's boss is going to get it. But that doesn't matter, the movie's entertaining and interesting, and that's enough. The end leaves a door open for a sequel, and I say bring it on. I'd like to see another Willard.

This is destined to be a cult classic. A movie about a guy and a bunch of rats isn't likely to become a world-wide hit, but I think this will be more popular on video. It's good late night movie.

My rating: 6/10

A remake that virtually keeps the same structure, losing some, or simply confining sub-plots to install a brisk pace and focus more so on Willard and the rats, while steering towards a humorously strange, yet darker tone that was character driven and horror skewed. Well up to a point, because the 1971 cult original had a much downer ending, which I prefered. Anyhow Crispin Glover evokes weirdness and a wired-up intensity like no other and his interactions with the rats (real & CGI) is genuinely affecting watching his timid nature change with the taste of power and control when the rats come on the scene. Then things start to get out of hand when a particular rat (a creepy looking Ben) begins to disobey him. There it becomes a battle with of wits of who's in charge, and Glover along with his mannerisms (which sometimes resembles a rat) were very captivating to watch. Not forgetting Jackie Burroughs' minor turn and of course R. Lee Ermey who commands the screen as the jerk boss making Willard's life hard at work. You can't wait to see his comeuppance - "Tear him up"! Director Glen Morgan's slick, twisted vision crafts few striking set-pieces - nothing quite like the sequence involving Michael Jackson's song "Ben".

WILLARD is a remake done right, if you have to do a remake at all. It takes everything that was unique to the original 70s film, then re-contextualizes it with a different tone. The original film was more grounded and slower-paced, more a character study than a horror film. The 2003 version is a Burton-esque dark comedy, where the main character is mostly unhinged from the beginning. Unlike the original, this isn't so much a descent into madness as he's already halfway there to begin with.

I did have issues with the pacing, which seemed a bit more rushed than the 1971 movie, but the acting is splendid and the direction is strong, blending industrial and gothic aesthetic to perfection.

Really boring movie! The lead actor is good, but then... what is theis movie about? Lonely guy incapable (or not wanting, whatever)to fit makes friends with rats... Whoooa! I can barely wait to see the sequels, and I hope there will be at least 10 of them! Actually what is worse is that there will be people who will be delighted with Willard 8 ('The return of Ben's great-uncle and sister-in-law').

Oh, by the way - there is nothing scary in the movie either....

Glen Morgan's Willard isn't your ordinary mainstream remake! Unlike the bombastic and computerized money-making films like …oh, I don't know Texas Chainsaw Massacre, 13 Ghosts and Dawn of the Dead who're merely loud updates of classic horrific tales. Willard is a modest and respectful production that lays the stress on atmosphere and scenery instead of gory effects and good-looking young flesh. Willard is the tale of an extremely introvert middle-aged man (lives with his needy mother, no girlfriend, stuck in a hopeless job) who discover his ability to control and command little rodents…rats in particular. By communicating with these rats, he finally discovers what friendship feels like and it also gives him the opportunity to satisfy his deepest feelings of anger and vengeance towards his boss – Frank Martin. But the mob of rats slowly turns against Willard as he doesn't treat them alike. Thanks to the depressing scenery (Willard's old house, the morbid factory) and the under-exposure at times, Willard often looks like a 40's chiller! There's a good and constant variation of tension and sadistic humor, with the cat-chase as the absolute highlight to state this. Crispin Glover – the man with the most incomprehensible cult following in the film industry – is brilliantly cast as Willard. His goofy – yet spooky – charisma fits his character really well. R. Lee Ermey receives the change to be his old boisterous self again as the dreary factory-owner who's out to destroy Willard life. To conclude the cast, Laura Harding is very charming as the understanding and helpful Cathryn. This film may not show as many bloodshed and eccentric slaughtering as the nowadays public demands, but it surely made an impression on me. Willard is a very atmospheric and often frightening horror storytelling with some adorable fairy-tale aspects and playfully imaginative aspects. Highly recommended. I saw this film at a during a festival-night…after a series of gory slashers. The over-enthusiast public didn't appreciate it that much but I trust in the fact that Willard will build up a solid cult reputation.

I remember seeing the original years ago and it was just nothing like this remake. It was so much better, but then, most older films are. Crispin was great, but this film itself was pretty awful. I didn't find any redeeming qualities to this plot. It didn't even have the charm that the original Psycho had. I wouldn't recommend this movie. There are plenty of better horror films out there.

Gloriously weird, Crispin Glover's performance seems to boil out of the rage-fueled emotionalism of an era before Botox: think Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster, blended with the latter-day fragility and introspection of Sean Penn. This role gives him the room to show off some astonishing gifts.

Glover is the best but far from the only reason to recommend this remake, superior in most ways to the 70s original. (There's some homage along the way, including a tongue-in-cheek set piece done to Michael Jackson's famous warble, "Ben". How time has made that hymn to interspecies love sound creepy!) Writer-director Glen Morgan has crafted a chewy little parable about capitalism, and his sardonic depiction of the real rat race, with a reliably savage Lee Ermey flogging his office employees behind a motivational sign reading "Prudent Aggression," gives the film more than the usual B horror subtext. The production design is sweet, too.

A terribly nice 100 minutes, and one of the best B horrors since Reanimator.

I finally got around to watching it and was pleasantly suprised, it was better than I thought it would be. For one, the camera work was amazing. Great color and graphic work, and the editing effectively added the right amounts of uneasiness, suspense, etc. Crispin Glover was SO excellent in his performance and should receive an Oscar nomination (although he probably won't as snooty Oscar will shun this movie), he was the perfect casting choice for Willard. Jackie Burroughs was effectively repulsive as his mother and R. Lee Ermey for the most part did well although his last scene could of been a lot more dramatic, he doesn't do death very well. The story itself was well done for the most part. The only complaints I have is the cheesy and inappropriate into-like someone else on here said, it made the movie look like it was Beetlejuice or Danny Elfman or something. Definitely not keeping in tone with the rest of the movie. Also, on the DVD, there were the usual deleted scenes along with the original ending. The original ending was sooo much better than the ending that ended up in the film-they should of never listened to the test audience. Even a couple of the deleted scenes would of filled in some minor holes that were otherwise not explained, but it was nothing glaringly overlooked. Overall this is a decent movie and I would recommend it. My score: 6.5/10.

Every weekend i see a movie and this week i decided to see Willard because it looked alright in the trailer, the movie had a certain attitude and gothic look that caught my attention. But i was quite disappointed with the movie, if you think about it, it has nothing to offer at all. For two hours you get to see Crispin Glover touching and talking to rats. Nothing exciting happens, i couldn't even focus on the movie for a few minutes without being bored. During the whole movie, i kept hoping for it to end because even at the beginning i knew it was going to be boring crap. Crispin Glover is able to deliver a nice creepy performance, but that's it. This movie is supposed to be a horror flick but nothing about this movie is scary, especially not the rats, which was the main thing in the movie. Anyways, i would give Willard 4/10