UnowPriceless
hyped garbage
Smartorhypo
Highly Overrated But Still Good
StyleSk8r
At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.
Foreverisacastironmess
A surprise even to me, I ended up liking this a lot, it's straightforward yet effective style really worked for me. It was like it had the charming simplicity of a children's spooky show, crossed with something that was much more ruthless and grim, it was like "Are You Afraid of the Dark" with real venom! For me it really blurred the line between what constitutes kid friendly and child nightmare inducing, like you had the blood and gore, not much at all but it was definitely there, you had the nauseating scene of the old lady taking a big 'ol juicy bite out of the fried rat, it had one use of the word s**t! And most noteworthy, it actually had violence and death perpetrated against young children! I'm not gonna pretend it wasn't, the acting was mostly terrible, especially from the kids in the wraparound campfire scenes(Sean Astin not included), and in the story of the kindly janitor who was really a monster in disguise who had an appetite for school bullies! I loved that, bullies and mean teachers simply being devoured, you'd never get that in a movie like this these days, it's not P.C. enough! A lot of the stuff that goes down in this picture is more than a little out there! I did find it to be moderately unnerving at points. Like when the kid goes to the school bathroom and the spindly fanged beast crawls out of the toilet, I sure wasn't expecting something so spooky and threatening to appear! And the story with the fat kid I liked best because I found something interesting and almost sympathetic about him, how his parents had opposite opinions about him, and how he only seemed able to communicate with other kids by playing sick pranks on them. I loved the bizarre visuals of his twisted little model town populated by dead flies, that was so striking and creepy! Very neat and weird, never seen anything like that. Nice grisly ending too, with the sadistic boy getting the 'wings' pulled off him in return! The effect of the giant flies was funky, but to me it was kinda scary all the same. And the movie's ending was quite mean-spirited also, those boys asked to know the truth and they certainly got it! I'm not saying this was a brilliant film or anything, it could've benefited from a third story although I reckon the vignettes could serve as that, but it was overall a fun scary time, its overtly dark elements make it notable amongst most other child horror movies that I've seen. No real Boo! type scares, it's more about gross sight gags and monsters coming to get you, which is fine and dandy with me from time to time. Oh my, the kinds of interesting tales that kids can tell... Give it a shot!
Wizard-8
The first mistake that "The Willies" makes is staying at a PG-13 rating. Not only will adults feel the horror in this movie is watered down, but so will the kids and teenagers this movie is aimed at! The next mistake is with the movie starting off with three very short stories which are urban legends that EVERYONE has heard of before - no surprises. The movie's subsequent two stories - which take up most of the movie - aren't very entertaining as well. As it has been noted by other user comments, the story of the bullied boy and the monster in the bathroom was obviously inspired by the Stephen King short story, "Here There Be Tygers". There is a monster that doesn't look bad for a movie that had a very low budget, but that's just a few seconds of entertainment. The second story, about a boy obsessed with flies, goes on forever. It could have easily been cut down, but it would still have the problem that the twist at the end is very predictable. Aside from the creature effects, the only thing entertaining about "The Willies" is one in-joke that references the movie THE GOONIES, which Sean Astin also appeared in.
Lee Eisenberg
"The Willies" is sort of an "Urban Legend" for kids trying to gross each other out. Sean Astin and two other boys are camping out and tell each other a bunch of nasty stories. This was actually the first time that I'd ever heard of the woman microwaving her dog; I was surprised when I later learned that it's a fairly common urban legend. The movie itself first portrays a school where the janitor (James Karen) turns out to be a hideous monster...fortunately, not totally malevolent. The next half portrays a boy who gets a little too obsessed with bugs.Yes, it's probably one of the sillier movies out there. But it knows that it is just that, so there's no problem. Sean Astin shows the same flair that he'd shown in "The Goonies" and would later show in the "Lord of the Rings" movies. Worth seeing.PS: In case you don't recognize James Karen, he most recently starred in "The Pursuit of Happiness". He also starred in "All the President's Men", "Poltergeist" and "Return of the Living Dead" 1 and 2.
Backlash007
~Spoiler~ The Willies is a film that I would have had a greater appreciation for if I discovered it when I was 10. It's just too silly, only a kid could enjoy it. The first part of the movie sets up our wraparound story concerning Sean Astin and his cousins telling spooky stories in a tent. My favorite line is spoken here towards Astin's character: "Wait...this isn't that dumb story about the time you and your friends found that pirate ship in an old cave?" You gotta love Goonies references. The first actual story is the best one, by leaps and bounds. It's titled Bad Apples and concerns a janitor that goes from school to school devouring bullies. The second story, Flyboy, goes on forever! This one involves a kid that has a truly creepy obsession with flies. It could have been easily skimmed down and we could have had a real anthology here instead of just the two stories. An interesting bit of trivia about The Willies is all of the Return of the Living Dead alumni. It features Dana Ashbrook who starred in RotLD 2, Clu Gulager puts in a cameo, James Karen stars as the janitor, and Brian "Scuz" Peck wrote and directed the film. Also, keep an eye out for all of the Growing Pains kids.
