The Horror Show
Welcome to Willits
by Trevor Ryan
I love movies that tell a story so well it questions what you see. I love it when a film lays out a story in front of you and then destroys it like Godzilla takes out Tokyo. Welcome to Willits is a great example of this, luring you in with questions and suspicion all while making you wonder if what you see is real.
Welcome to Willits is an interesting take on an alien abduction story. The movie starts off just slapping you in the face with bizarre visuals. A tube TV showing clips of Reefer Madness, Night of the Living Dead, and some fake cop TV show starring Dolph Lundgren. Just when you're trying to make sense of all that, it cuts to our lead, Brock. Brock is having his brain probed by the craziest looking aliens! Suddenly, he wakes up and is in his van with his wife Peg and niece, Courtney. Courtney goes in a convenience store to get her uncle some booze. She runs into a nice fella, Jeremiah, and his friends, Zack, Klause, Besh, and Cassie, who are looking for some local hot springs. They are pretty generic. They pick up a hitchhiker named Possum. Possum is the best character in this movie. The two groups go their separate ways… for now.
The film flips between the campers and the family. The campers are doing what campers in every horror movie do, booze, drugs, sex, and Possum's weird stories of Bigfeets and UFOs. Possum is the best. The family is having a much more stressful night as Brock explains to Courtney that he is being hunted by aliens. Apparently, Brock has made this powerful meth that opened pathways in his brain. These pathways allow the grays to find him and torture him. He smokes meth and sees aliens. This is an insane story. There is no way he's actually seeing these things. It has to be the drugs, right? Right??
This is where the movie starts to mess with your brain. It keeps you guessing if it's reality or if it’s just a meth head's hallucinations. They give you a definitive answer, but you still question it. It's kind of great!
The acting is alright. Brock and Peg are the perfect paranoid meth heads. They are entertaining, heartbreaking, and scary. The campers are kind of forgettable. All of them, except Possum. Have I mentioned how much I love Possum? The practical effects in this are probably the best I've seen in a long while. There is a scene with a shard of glass and an eye and it's so gross. I loved every gore filled minute.
Welcome to Willits was an idea that had been done a billion times before, but this time it was done with style. It's on Netflix now, so grab your tinfoil hat and check it out. You won't regret it.
Robin Thompson, HMS
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