Willy’s Wonderland Is Better By Not Being A Five Nights At Freddy’s Movie – Screen Rant

Willy's Wonderland pits Nicolas Cage against killer animatronics just like Five Nights at Freddy's, but it has the freedom to go its own way.

Nicolas Cage goes up against a squad of killer animatronics that might remind audiences of Five Nights at Freddy'sin Willys Wonderland, but it's ultimately for the best that this movie is not part of the video game franchise. Willy's Wonderlandfollows a new wave of horror movies that really highlight Nicolas Cage at his finest, including Mandy and Color Out of Space. The trailer shows a blend of horror and comedy with the signature visceral brutality that Cage has come to be known for in his horror roles.

Directed by Kevin Lewis and written by G.O. Parsons, Willys Wonderland follows a quiet drifter who is tricked into cleaning up an abandoned family entertainment center in exchange for repairs to his car. Little does he know, however, that the building is haunted by eight murderous animatronic mascots.

Related: Everything We Know So Far About Willy's Wonderland

From the basic description of the upcoming film, its clear that Willys Wonderland is definitely inspired by the popularity of Scott Cawthons horror video game franchise Five Nights at Freddys. However, while a Five Nights at Freddys movie is still on the horizon, Willys Wonderland has the freedom to do its own thing, while still capitalizing on the frightening and comedic premise of killer animatronics in a Chuck E. Cheese-like entertainment center.

Since April of 2015, a movie adaptation of Five Nights at Freddys (FNAF) has been on the horizon. However, as fans can attest, the movie has encountered quite a few roadblocks. The project has ended upscrapping nine different scripts before it was finally cleared for filming, which is now slated to begin in spring of 2021. In addition, and especially with the difficulty FNAF has had coming to the cinema, a number of other movies have come along to try and capture this same sort of premise over the past six years, including The Banana Splits Movie.

However, none of those movies have been really successful at creating the same excitement as the Five Nights at Freddys franchise. Willys Wonderland, on the other hand, has the star power of Nicolas Cage and the precedence of his other horror roles to build excitement for a movie that is sure to be a bloody good time. It also has the ability to do something completely different from Cawthons established video game canon, giving FNAF fans and non-fans alike something to love.

The fact that Willys Wonderland is a separate entity gives it more freedom to try something different without fans immediately comparing every story aspect to an existing intellectual property. While the upcoming Five Nights at Freddys movie will undoubtedly come under scrutiny for its adherence to the extremely detailed lore and world thats been built through the game series and books, Willys Wonderland is free from any such requirement to remain loyal to any source material.

Related: Mandy: Every '80s Movie Reference In Nic Cage's Revenge Horror

A good example of why this is a great move is Paul W. S. Andersons Resident Evil franchise. Anderson tried to take a different approach to the beloved action horror game series, moving away from the canon characters and story events, and, as a result, the films were largely hated by fans of the games due to their tenuous connection to the source material and for largely ignoring the video game lore.For Willys Wonderland, not having source material definitely leaves a lot more room for error, offering a premise that is already fairly popular, but without any guarantee that the direction will be solid. However, being disconnected from a specific franchise also allows the film to be able to go in any direction and be judged only on its own merits rather than how true it is to another beloved piece of media.

Next: Why Five Nights At Freddy's Is Such A Popular Horror Franchise

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Certified horror addict and linguistics nerd, Maisy has been watching, reading, and reviewing horror since she was old enough to get a library card. She is most often found hiding in the woods with her nose in a book, usually horror or weird fiction, or in her bedroom snuggling with her husband and many pets while watching horror movies or playing Skyrim - usually both.Elusive and rarely out in public, Maisy can usually be baited with cheese, punk rock, or the promise of a rousing discussion on sociolinguistics and dialectology, though she has sometimes been known to come out to explore local parks, zoos, and distilleries on occasion.

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Willy's Wonderland Is Better By Not Being A Five Nights At Freddy's Movie - Screen Rant

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero