This is not the movie you expect it to be! Take that as you will. Nicolas Cage stars as The Janitor, a man who is travelling through a town and unexpectedly gets a puncture and damages his car. The local garage can fix it, but with no cashpoints or card machines he has to work off his debt, but being a janitor for the night at Willy's Wonderland isn't all it's cracked up to be. Let the horror ensue!
Nicolas Cage is an enigma. This movie is certainly a credit to his long list of acting masterpieces *cough*. His character, The Janitor, ends up in a derelict town after a seemingly accidental puncture on his car whilst travelling by the area. But the hostile, eerie place he finds himself in had other plans for him. In a dramatic turn of events some local teens enlighten the viewer with what really happens in. You see the lost child posters, missing persons etc etc, and a sheriff who quite frankly couldn't give two hoots about their duty to protect the people. In fact, we find out that it is her fault that he's in this mess, in a bizarre plot to capture people to offer up as a sacrifice to this building that has more than a little bit of character.
Willy's Wonderland used to be the go to place for birthday parties, family gatherings and just a good day out all round for the locals, but with a very dark past it now sits empty. With good reason! The Janitor finds himself squaring off against the once beloved animatronic characters of this run down venue, which are creepy af, and are particularly blood thirsty. But are they a match for Cage, whose character is very set on getting this place cleaned up by morning to pay off his repair bill?
I don't want to give too much away about The Janitor, but I do think it could be Nicolas Cage's best performance to date. It's quite nice to watch a movie where he doesn't talk the whole way through telling us everything he does, or come across as a smug so and so. The teenage kids left something to be desired, with a lacklustre performance; which could be down to the writing, and some questionable decisions. When you get to the end you'll just think... why didn't they just burn the place down? But anyways, it is what it is!
Some great music in the soundtrack, some cracking action scenes and a particularly nonchalant Cage make for some good movie material. There is enough of a story to keep you watching, but not much of a deep-dive into the characters. I think this movie is more about enjoying what you watch, rather than the plot! A great movie for adults, but certainly not suitable for the kiddywinkles so be sure to give it a hard pass for family film of the week! I really enjoyed watching it and surprisingly it had a bit of a classic B movie vibe to it, so cheesy and funny whilst trying to be serious in it's genre. Not sure Horror Comedy is the most suitable description, but there are elements of both within this feature film. I think Willy's Wonderland could be more fun to watch after a tipple, but that could just be me. Definitely worth a bash.
Review by CB
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