You’ll learn to love them

Willard

Starring Crispin Glover, R. Lee Ermey and Laura Elena Harring

Directed by Glen… Willard

Starring Crispin Glover, R. Lee Ermey and Laura Elena Harring

Directed by Glen Morgan

1/2

Before even seeing the new “Willard,” I gave its makers a good deal of credit – just for getting it made.

The story is an itchy, oily one about a troubled young man and a bunch of rats – his only friends and the doers of his bidding. That it was filmed once, in 1971, is unlikely enough. But again? As a major studio production to be released nationwide? And with Crispin Glover, the weirdest weird actor of them all, bringing the star power? This just doesn’t happen.

Now that I’ve seen the film, though, most of the credit I give it is still just for existing. Just for being a watchable killer rat movie.

Willard Stiles (Glover) is a quiet weirdo with an overbearing sick, old mother and a bully of a boss (R. Lee Ermey, dipping into his “Full Metal Jacket” routine just a bit). His only healthy relationships – “healthy” being a relative term – are with the many rats that inhabit his basement. The principles are Socrates, who becomes Willard’s best friend and the only rat regularly allowed out of the basement, and Ben, the biggest in size and the biggest troublemaker. The rats are just company at first, but when Willard finds that they have a penchant for violence, he enlists them to help him exact revenge.

Glover does a fine job carrying the film. He’s the same as he always is – his natural oddness has been a constant since “Back to the Future” – but he’s still as interesting as ever. He’s an actor who should work more often.

The disappointment is Laura Elena Harring. While it’s good to see her sticking with offbeat cinema – her breakthrough was in David Lynch’s “Mulholland Dr.” – she is wasted here in a small role that director Glen Morgan doesn’t seem to care about.

The film would have been better if the filmmakers had gone all out and made it R-rated – I mean, why go the distance of making a movie about killer rats and then bother to keep it tame? – but they do at least push PG-13 limits with plenty of disgusting sights. Willard’s environment is a mess that keeps getting messier: rat droppings litter every other shot, Willard’s mother coughs blood all over the place, etc.

And there is, of course, an indulgent helping of cat carnage.

“Willard” is no small feat that the film didn’t leave me complaining about CGI – the digital rats actually look convincing for the most part – or the fact that it’s a remake. Hollywood can remake all the ’70s killer-animal-movies they want and you won’t hear me bitching. I’m saying “Alligator” should be next.