Willy's Wonderland (2021)

 

Nicolas Cage fighting demonically possessed animatronics in a dilapidated kids' playground? 

Yes, please!

I mean: a goofy premise, Cage on a roll and just everything silly pumped to the max? Truth be told: you have to be in the right mood to enjoy this, but it's fun albeit nothing spectacular.

Cage plays a man that never speaks, drives around in his souped up car and drinks a ton of energy drinks. When he gets a flat tire near Nowhereville USA (I can't even remember the name of the town and it doesn't matter anyway), he is brought to the local garage, but can't pay the cost to have his car fixed. A deal is proposed where Cage will spend the night at Willy's Wonderland, a sort of amusement park that has been shut down for years, where he will clean up in order to pay off his bill. 

When he is actually locked up, we know there's something really weird going on, especially as a teenager has her heart set on burning this place to the ground. 

Cage keeps an insane schedule of cleaning, drinking energy drinks and playing pinball, but soon the animatronic creatures come to life one by one and want to kill him. It turns out that Willy's Wonderland used to be run by a group of serial killers who eventually performed a cookiecutter Satanic ritual and infused their souls into the creatures, thus escaping death. The town eventually made a deal with Willy to spare the locals if said locals regularly provided Willy with victims from out of town.

But Cage isn't a regular person, as everyone soon finds out...

This is a hoot. It is silly to the max and the exposition dumps are reminiscent of cheesy B films anyway, but just roll with it. Cage doesn't utter a single word the entire film, but he has everything set to maximum. I'm serious: the man's intensity is equalled by none. The subplot of the girl is okay, but only serves to have some more kills and fodder added to pad the runtime. But when Cage goes all nuts on the animatronic monstrosities, it is hilarious. Those puppets are all played by people in costumes, but the heads do have that creep-factor. It is never scary, but sometimes a bit disconcerting. 

Is it the best film ever? Heck no, not even remotely close. But if you want a good time and are able to switch your brain off, this can be quite a lot of fun.