Willy’s Wonderland (2021) vs. Five Nights at Freddy’s (2023) – Horror Movie Rip-Off

The episode of Horror Movie Rip-Off covering Willy’s Wonderland and Five Nights at Freddy’s was Written by Paul Bookstaber, Narrated by Ryan Cultrera, Edited by Ryan Cultrera, Produced by John Fallon, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.

INTRODUCTION

What came first the chicken or the egg? Yea about that. All we get is in return is more rabbit holes, but how about we decipher this in film terms. It’s another showdown, and with that comes deciding on if the imitator does it better than the originator. Even though prior rip-off segments discussed very similar components between the two, this upcoming showdown is just a down-right spitting image of one another. One of those films is based off a global best-selling video game and has created a massive following. It also just shattered Halloween weekend box-office numbers while simultaneously streaming on Peacock. The next is an indie-styled film that brings an old Hollywood A-Lister back from the dead, and is now again, a prominent force on the silver-screen due to this film’s word of mouth. Nothing like a true-life Hollywood underdog story to have some weight to your showdown. We’re discussing and analyzing two films involving psychotic, blood-thirsty animatronics hellbent on ripping your guts out. Let’s dive in and see which one reigns victorious.

STORY

Five Nights at Freddy’s (watch it HERE) was first adapted into a videogame back in 2015 by creator Scott Cawthin, resulting in worldwide notoriety for its grim, and dark nature involving animatronic animals that murder you. In the film adaptation, Five Nights at Freddy’s tells the story of security guard Mike Schmidt, who loses his mall security gig for mistaking a father for a child abductor and beats the ever-loving piss out of him. Mike suffers from PTSD where his younger brother was abducted in front of him at a local park. For Mike to keep custody of his younger sister, he takes the job at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria, which is an abandoned family entertainment establishment with dancing animatronic animals. Over the course of a few nights, Mike Schmidt discovers that those animatronic animals are alive and stalking the halls at Freddy’s undetected to make their next victim into human confetti via a torturous robot suit. Mike comes to discover the many sinister secrets the animatronics possess, including a direct connection to Mike and Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria.

In Willy’s Wonderland (watch it HERE) we have a drifter that is referred as “The Janitor” by the end of the movie. The janitor’s car breaks down and he is offered in exchange for a free fix by the local mechanic named Jed, to clean up the abandoned family entertainment complex called Willy’s Wonderland owned by Tex Macadoo. They promise the car will be waiting for him once the establishment is cleaned up top to bottom the next morning. The janitor agrees and stays the night cleaning the ins and outs with the help of his special purple soda drink, and some rags, and cleaning spray. The janitor becomes stuck in the crosshairs of furry animatronic creatures who want to eat The Janitor. The janitor meets a group of rag-tags who break into the building to destroy Willy and his furry friends due to their parents being eaten and used as human sacrifices. It’s up to The Janitor to make it out safely before the night is over, while also discovering Willy’s tragic and horrifying past. Writer G.O. Parsons said there wasn’t any similarities when the film was compared to Five Nights at Freddy’s, and that coincidentally he came up with the idea in 2015 when Five Nights at Freddy’s was being developed during the same time.

CHARACTERS

The characters in both Five Nights at Freddy’s and Willy’s Wonderland are interesting, however, it’s Nicolas Cage that gives the best performance out of both. Both characters must be in their haunted, creepy establishments during night-time to watch over the place and both interact with those pesky, evil robots. The Janitor in Willy’s annihilates them one by one, while Mike in “Five Nights” played by Josh Hutcherson is attacked as well as given clues to their backstories through his nightly dozes, you’re not supposed to sleep on the job dude. The janitor in Willy’s Wonderland doesn’t speak for its two-hour run-time, taking a playbook right out of Ryan Gosling’s character in Drive. The janitor just wants to drink his purple soda, play pinball, and relentlessly destroy those creepy animatronics by using fisticuffs, leg stomps, and sticks. Mike in Five Nights at Freddy’s is just a misguided man constantly dreaming about the day his brother was taken. He has that hard shell on the outside but appears a softy on the inside, especially towards his sister Abby who befriends the robots by the time the end credits roll. Even though we get Nicolas Cage as a smoldering, stoic man that you don’t want to cross, he too displays that soft side by helping Liv, the misguided teenager whose parents were devoured as human sacrifices at the hands of Willy and his furry friends. He also likes to dance around while getting high scores on that awesome pinball machine during his much-needed breaks. The janitor displays heart like any good doer when he cleans up a room then destroys it during his melees, and then proceeds to clean it up again. The janitor keeps his end of the deal, living up to his side of the bargain. That Nicolas Cage sure is a saint, isn’t he?

TONE

I think what separates these two films is tone. Five Nights at Freddy’s is a Blumhouse production, which is known for their dark tone in horror as well as suspense. Freddy’s captures the tone of the game perfectly, giving off that creep factor and the production quality shows throughout its scenes. It basks in the darkness, those gloomy and dim-lit hallways for our animatronic friends to lurk about. Willy’s Wonderland is soaked in bright oversaturated colors and doesn’t take itself too seriously but its more energetic and chaotic especially during the fight scenes. Nicolas Cage just smolders, not talking in any of his scenes, drinking mass amounts of soda, playing pinball, and always getting a new staff shirt, that us the viewer is inclined to laugh and take it for what It is. With Freddy’s there is not much humor until the robots befriend Mike’s sister Abby. The animatronics decide to create a fort with her which throws the viewer off, but hey, I’ll move past it and forget about it. Everything else about Freddy’s is serious in tone and more of a tame suspense thriller/mystery.

SIDEKICKS

It’s a strange coincidence when both protagonists have a sidekick with them, both of which share tainted pasts in their own respective films. Liv in Willy’s Wonderland had her parents murdered and made it a testament to burning the place to the ground when she got older so that no other family has to endure what she has been through. In Five Nights at Freddy’s, Mike meets Venessa Afton who is a cop looking to uncover the truth at Freddy’s and the missing children that disappeared there. By the end of the film, she reveals herself as the child abductor’s daughter. Vanessa has that life guilt attached to her throughout her life, as her father William, abducted and killed those missing children. The bodies are hidden in the animatronics at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. He also was responsible for abducting Mike’s brother, Garrett directly connecting Mike to the establishment. Both Liv and Vanessa display that fierce, tough, woman that can kick some ass when needed, as well as helps the main protagonist on their quest of success and fulfilment even if their moral compasses are not on the straight and narrow.

VILLAINS

We can say both Five Nights at Freddy’s and Willy’s Wonderland are known for their villainous portrayals of the animatronic entertainers on those stages. Both play music, both look insanely creepy, and both have personal vendettas against adults and children alike. In Freddy’s, the robots are the souls of brainwashed children that were abducted, killed, and stored into the animatronics by William Afton which are all under his control. In Willy’s Wonderland, the owner was a cannibalistic serial killer who would bring children and unsuspecting families into a special room where they were killed. When the cops caught on, Willy and his cannibal buddies drank some special punch during a satanic ritual and transferred their souls into the animatronics to create more havoc. The catch is that Tex, Jed, and a local sheriff made a deal with Willy where they would keep “feeding” Willy and his friends passerby’s if they stayed inside the building rather than going out and creating havoc within on the innocent townspeople.

THEMES

Both movies are very simplistic in plot, which is a standard in most horror flicks, but the kicker here is they have some great themes resonating throughout their runtimes. Both play the importance of loneliness as well as entrapment while our protagonists are at Willy’s and Freddy’s. Both being stuck within their positions of employment or agreements and not being able to leave the environments in which they’re imprisoned too mentally or physically. One may lose their daughter if they don’t fulfil their obligations of keeping their job, while the other losing their car unless they clean the building up overnight. Nothing more fearful then being stuck in a position where you’re isolated, locked inside, with blood-thirsty robots looking to devour their human bait. Also, they emphasize the importance of strangers and the repercussions of dealing with them. In Five Nights at Freddy’s, Mike lost his brother Garrett to a stranger, who is later uncovered to be Mike’s career counselor Steve Raglan. Steve Raglan’s real name is William Afton, the child abductor who is the main villain in the film. In Willy’s Wonderland, the janitor is forced to do a deal with two complete strangers, Tex Macadoo, the owner of Willy’s and Jed the local car mechanic. These two individuals eventually try to use The Janitor as a human sacrifice. Unbeknownst to them both, the janitor is a total ass-kicker and foiled their plans by the end of the film by making the animatronics his own personal, mechanical doormats.

ENDING

We have a real Deep Impact vs Armageddon situation here. Is Willy’s Wonderland a blatant rip-off of Freddy’s? It seems so, but it works so well, in fact it does some components better. The premise for both are nearly identical but they go off their own beaten path once the protagonists enter their kid-friendly establishments. Five Nights at Freddy’s is enjoyable and has some good creepy moments involving those animatronics lurking around corners, and moving ever so slightly when you least expect them to, but Willy’s Wonderland just hits all the right notes involving a rage-induced Nicolas Cage. It’s almost like Willy’s Wonderland was the Five Nights at Freddy’s we deserved but instead got a mid-tier, very tame horror flick with Blumhouse’s iteration. Willy’s Wonderland harkens back to those 80s horror movies where it’s so stupid and campy that it’s good. A movie that showcases a very simplistic plot, with a mute Nicolas Cage, kicking all sorts of animatronic ass, while Five Nights at Freddy’s just holds so much back when it looks like its begging to be more. I also enjoyed the melee portions of the film in Willy’s which seemed much more chaotic, totally fitting when you’re battling hellbent robots looking to end your life. I can’t say if the creators of Willy’s Wonderland blatantly ripped off Five Nights, cause maybe it was that perfect time where the stars aligned, and we got both ideas created at the same time. It’s easy when you go with your family to Chuck E Cheese and think to yourself, “hey this would make a great horror concept.” It’s just a shame that Five Nights at Freddy’s took a little while to get off the production ground while Willy’s got the upper hand and came out two years earlier because it’s an indie feature and is easier to get funded and fast-tracked. Let’s just be grateful we have a movie in Nicolas Cage’s filmography that has him silent for two hours, drinks soda pop constantly, and beats the shit out robots in awesome ways with oil fluid drenching him after every encounter. Now that’s a damn good time.

The previous episodes of Horror Movie Rip-Off can be seen below. To see more of our shows, head over to the JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!

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