IHdb

ON THIS DAY IN HORROR - June 18th

"WILLARD" released in 1971

Imagine what would happen when a meek social misfit manages to train an army of rats to exact revenge on his tormentors? The surprise horror hit Willard is about to show you!

Willard Stiles (Bruce Davison) is a timid man - he is constantly bullied by his boss Al Martin (Ernest Borgnine), lacks the courage to talk to a co-worker he has feelings for, Joan (Sabdra Locke), and still lives with his overbearing and decrepit mother, Henrietta (Elsa Lanchester). After an extremely embarrassing "surprise party", Willard happens across a hungry rat he later names Queenie. Soon more and more rats begin to appear. Lacking the heart to exterminate them, Willard instead takes them in as pets and starts teaching them tricks; the smartest and biggest of the growing number of rats Willard names Socrates and Ben. As his confidence grows, Willard starts to use his trained pets in a series of pranks against the people who have antagonized him. But soon the rats, especially the giant black rat Ben, start to get out of control - resulting in the particularly gruesome death of Martin, after he found and killed Socrates in his office. Fearing he has lost control, Willard desperately searches for a way to stop his once beloved pets before they harm anyone else, especially Joan.

Watch the Willard Trailer!

Starring Bruce Davison and Sandra Locke in one of their earliest starring roles, Willard was directed by Daniel Mann. This film was quite a departure for Mann as he had a reputation for directing comedies and dramas (among them Our Man Flint (1966)) and would remain as the only horror movie in his filmography. However, is was co-star Ernest Borgnine who seemed to have the most difficult time during filming. While shooting his character's death scene, he was smeared with peanut butter to attract the rats so that it looked like they were attacking him - and Borgnine had an intense fear of rats in real life! Perhaps as compensation, the producers offered Borgnine either a higher salary or a percentage of the profits; to which he chose a higher salary.

This may have been his mistake, as Willard became a surprise hit when released, grossing US$14 million (over $85 million in 2016!). In fact the success of Willard quickly inspired a slew of animal-themed horror films to come out of the early 1970s. Roger Ebert, with tongue firmly in cheek, attempted to explain the films popularity in his 2005 review, "Why does wholesome family entertainment fade away, while rats make millions? I've thought long and deeply on this subject, believe me, and I've reached a conclusion at last. People have waited a long time to see Ernest Borgnine eaten alive by rats, and now that they have their chance they aren't going to blow it!"

The original Willard has become a cult classic of B-horror films since it's release, and producer's quickly followed up on the success with a sequel Ben (1972), continuing the story of the leader of the swarm of rats trained by Willard Stiles (I think this is one of the rare few times where a rat was the main star of a film!). Willard was remade in 2005 by producer-writer-director team Glen Morgan and James Wong (Final Destination 1 & 3, Black Christmas, and TV's The X-Files), starring an extremely creepy Crispin Glover as Willard, with R. Lee Ermey, Jackie Burroughs, Laura Elena Harring, and Bruce Davison in a cameo as Willard's father.

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE:    Not available