We’re Failing Our Boys… if They Haven’t Seen 1971’s Rat-Obsessed Incel Horror ‘Willard’

On Friday nights, IndieWire After Dark honors fringe cinema in the streaming age with midnight movies from any moment in film history.

First, the BAIT: a weird genre pick, and why we’re exploring its specific niche right now. Then, the BITE: a spoiler-filled answer to the all-important question, “Is this old cult film actually worth recommending?”

The Bait: When Will Weird Pets Fix the Male Loneliness Epidemic?

On February 26, the genre-loving film world celebrates 55 years with director Daniel Mann’s “Willard.” Starring a puppy dog-eyed Bruce Davison as a weirdo outcast, it’s a strangely tragic character study that became a cult classic — following a 27-year-old man who lives with his mother (the immortal Elsa Lanchester, “Bride of Frankenstein”), and in the film, develops a freaky, emotional obsession with rats.

Laughably bad at his human job, inherited by Willard through the passing of his much more successful father, our hero presents with the beleaguered, insecure entitlement of a modern-day incel… at first. But softening in the presence of a beautiful temp agent (Sondra Locke), and amicably getting along with his mother’s wacky cast of friends, the Pied Piper of Rodent Cinema leaves an increasingly likable impression. He’s so paradoxically charming, in fact, the portrait left behind resembles a sweeter cousin to any number of vigilante rejects — from Anthony Hopkins’ tortured ventriloquist in 1978’s “Magic” to Joaquin Phoenix’s noxious avatar for misunderstanding Scorsese in the “Joker” duology.

Elsa Lanchester and Bruce Davison in “Willard” (1971)Courtesy Everett Collection

Adapted by screenwriter Gilbert Ralston from Stephen Gilbert’s “Ratman’s Notebooks,” “Willard” was a genuine commercial success, despite dividing critics with its queasy, hyper-specific psychology. Its popularity immediately birthed a sequel, “Ben,” best remembered today for its improbably sincere Michael Jackson theme song of the same name. That turned into a chart-climbing ballad about friendship and compassion on the radio then. Today, it’s the tonal whiplash of the ’70s crystallized.

“Willard” eventually inspired a glossy 2003 remake starring Crispin Glover. That’s less fun in a lot of ways, but nevertheless suggests this particular flavor of male alienation has been — and may always be — endlessly recyclable. We’ve felt disconnected for a long, long time. If modern men really wants to solve the loneliness epidemic, maybe the the answer isn’t dating apps or AI girlfriend… but rats. —AF

“Willard” (1971) is streaming free on Tubi.

Bruce Davison and his rat co-stars Socrates and Ben in “Willard” (1971)Courtesy Everett Collection

The Bite: Misfit Rat Revenge — Now Served in a Post-Pixar World!

How scary you find “Willard” is largely a question of how afraid you are of rats. And, as a raised child in a post-”Ratatouille” world, I’m afraid the answer for me was always: not a lick. Quite the opposite, in fact! Rats are cute as hell, and all of the furry, tiny-eyed little rodent friends the title character makes in this 1971 cult classic are especially adorable. The regal white Socrates? That’s a star, darling! Even the bigger, darker, meaner Ben is just too gosh-darn precious and cuddle-worthy to inspire any latent ancestral paranoia of the Bubonic Plague — at least, from me. 

Fortunately, despite its sincere lack of terror, “Willard” isn’t a horror movie that needs to scare you to work. It’s a delicious mix of sincerity and camp, seeming to understand (be that only with the passage of time or as it was acted in the room) that its premise is fundamentally clownish. Still, it finds some real emotion within its characters struggles all the same. In its sweetly cloying score and endlessly relatable titular hero, “Willard” lands in the sweet spot between shlocky B-movie thrills and studio horror that no doubt helped it succeed at the box office, where it was the 11^th highest-grossing movie of its year.  

Bruce Davison and Ernest Borgnine in “Willard” (1971)Courtesy Everett Collection

At its core, “Willard” falls into a horror subgenre of violent revenge nightmare/fantasy that’s probably most famously embodied by the iconic Prom Night rampage in “Carrie.” In a film like this, you’re ostensible meant to root against the terror that the central unleashes wrecks on his victims. But in practice, the targets of these pantomime kills are so loathsome and lacking in their humanity that you’re ultimately awaiting their demise with a smile. Ernest Borgnine’s manipulative, bullying boss Mr. Martin is such a relatable awful excuse for a capitalistic leech that his climactic death by rat attack, a real darkest hour for the protagonist (“TEAR HIM APART!”), instead hits like a triumph of just desserts.

When the rats inevitably turn on Willard himself, however, it registers as a genuine tragedy. I was unfamiliar with actor Bruce Davison before this week’s After Dark, and his performance is fundamental to the movie’s success. Rewatched today, through no foreseeable fault of the movie or actor, Davison’s wimpy, anti-social straight white loner character still looks like a caricature but feels darker. In a world where Willard had the internet, he’d find as much solace manosphere podcasts as he did in rats.

But again, Davison is perfect for the part; his awkward mannerisms and pleading sad eyes sometimes giving him a mousy appearance himself. There’s a vulnerability in his hunched-over lanky posture that sells Willard as an everyman even now, and the sadness in his voice as he communicates with his rat companions conveys a fundamental, relatable loneliness. Like Carrie White, who wouldn’t hit theaters for another five years, Willard has to face consequences for his actions. But the magic of his movie is finding yourself hopeful that the meek twenty-something… and his rats…. may indeed inherit the Earth. —WC

Read more installments of After Dark, IndieWire’s midnight movie rewatch club:

• Miss the Golden Age of Weird Netflix? Try ‘Frankenstein’s Monster’s Monster, Frankenstein’
• Found Footage ‘Savageland’ Should Be Mandatory Viewing for I.C.E. Agents
• I Still Know What You Did Last Summer’ Has Slasher Fans Nostalgic for… Jack Black in Dreads?
• Fascist Satire ‘A Boy and His Dog’ Goes Great with Deep Panic and Summer Malaise
• Rail Against ‘Society’ with Brian Yuzna’s Big Beautiful Body Horror from 1992