Willard (1971) by Daniel Mann

Director: Daniel Mann

Year: 1971

Country: USA

Alternate Titles: N/A

Genre: Nature-Run-Amok

Plot:

Working in a dead-end job, a young man living in an oppressive relationship with his mother and his boss who lord their power and authority over him until he finds the rats in his house can obey his commands and uses them to unleash his vengeance against them.

Review:

This here wasn't all that bad of an effort. One of the few things it does right here is give this one a strong and enjoyable need for the work-life to become the need for him to snap. The oppressive attitude and overt bullying tactics here really make for quite the troublesome situation to really make for a necessary time of it all, as there's plenty to work with here as to the berating and verbal abuse he gets hurled at him sets up that section of the film nicely. As well, the home life where he's guilt-tripped into basically being her slave manages to feature plenty of those same tactics to get him into that same setup, where both sections of his life give him some solid opportunities to embark upon his revenge.

Those scenes are where this one really works, as the initial scenes of him unleashing the rats at the party or using them to go after the group that wronged him in the series of attacks on their house or the work office provide the film with some nice action. The two big swarming scenes score well, though, from the group coming upon and taking out the boss in the factory to the big chase through the house itself, which has a frantic sense of chaos. These here give this one some likable qualities, although it does have plenty of flaws.

The biggest issue with this one is the exceptionally bland setup here that doesn't make this in the slightest bit interesting. Since it's all about the idea of the humiliation and getting him up for later, this one doesn't have a lot of action to really get invested in, which makes it feel like nothing is really happening. That goes for the prototypical means of physical and verbal abuse in the form of parental guilt-trips, screaming at him for no reason, or blowing events way out of proportion just to make a point in front of others. These aren't that interesting or exciting, and it manages to really cause this one to stretch out its running time unnecessarily.

As well, this one also doesn't make any rational explanation as to why he goes for the rats as his friend since they show up one day and he makes the best of it. That doesn't give this any kind of reasoning as to why he would take them on, so it just tends to feel silly that he takes on the creatures as his pets. The other big problem is the rushed nature of the finale, which comes way too quickly and doesn't feel justified given the extended nature it should've had. These here really hold this one down.

Overview: **.5/5

A decent, if not overly unspectacular, entry, there's some likable factors with some worthwhile elements that are taken down by a series of issues that keep it down overall. Those with an appreciation for this style of genre fare will want to give this a shot, while most others out there turned off by the issues here will want to heed caution.