Willard is a 2003 horror film loosely based on the novel Ratman’s Notebooks by Gilbert Ralston and a remake of the 1971 film of the same name. It was not billed as a remake by the producers, but as a re-working of the themes from the original, with a stronger focus on suspense.
Plot
Willard Stiles (Crispin Glover) is a social misfit taking care of his ill and fragile but verbally abusive mother Henrietta (Jackie Burroughs) in a musty old mansion that is also home to a colony of rats. Willard finds himself constantly humiliated in front of his co-workers and is eventually fired by his cruel and uncaring boss, Frank Martin (R. Lee Ermey), a vicious man whose professional interest in Willard extends to a personal financial one. A co-worker Cathryn (Laura Elena Harring) has sympathy for the quirky Willard. Meanwhile, Willard quickly becomes obsessed with his friendship with a rat he names Socrates. Socrates has competition with a much larger rat named Ben. Nonetheless when Socrates is killed, Ben is more than willing to guide the army of basement rats to help Willard avenge himself upon his slave-driving boss, who has even more devious intentions to inflict on Willard, after firing him. Willard and his basement rats kill Frank Martin. Willard, however, mistrusts Ben and attempts to dispose of him and some rats. The rest of his animal friends are going to be gassed because Willard can’t feed them anymore. But Ben and his rat army return for revenge. Willard escapes with his life and kills Ben by expressing that he only loved Socrates and he always hated Ben like the rest of the rats. But an epilogue reveals that he has retreated into a semi-catatonic state and been placed in a mental institution. There he finds a new white rat, which looks like Socrates and he believes in a rebirth of his one friend. In the end Willard says “It’s not over yet, no! Time is going to come“.
Awards
- Crispin Glover was nominated for Best Actor at the 2004 Saturn Awards for Willard.
- Robert McLachlan won the CSC award at the Canadian Society of Cinematographers Awards for Best Cinematography in a Theatrical Feature for Willard.
- The DVD release of Willard was nominated for a Golden Satellite award in Best DVD Extras at the 2004 Satellite Awards.
