Willy’s Wonderland (Collector’s Edition) (4K UHD Review)

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

In the grindhouse-style film Willy’s Wonderland, directed by Kevin Lewis, Nicolas Cage stars as a nameless drifter who will become known as The Janitor, when he takes on a nightshift job to clean up a family entertainment restaurant (think Chuck E. Cheese) in exchange for the owner’s mechanic fixing his car. The energy drink swilling stranger soon finds himself surrounded by a bunch of bloodthirsty animatronic mascots that come to life, but he seems unphased and highly skilled to take them on. A group of local teenagers, led by the rebellious Liv (Emily Tosta), who realize what is going on at the Willy’s and that the Janitor is meant to be a sacrifice, break in to help him.

Cage manages top turn in the usual sort of over-the-top performance for himself even without speaking a word throughout, but it works to his advantage here. It comes across as a masked rage rather than cartoonish. Willy’s Wonderland is strongest when the ‘gore’ ramps up, and when we say ‘gore’ we mean the splashing of machine oil everywhere, mostly. The incessant carnival-like music sets an atmosphere that works for this material, but overall, this film does not go anywhere, which is sort of the point of a grindhouse film.

Purchase Willy’s Wonderland (Collector’s Edition) 4K Ultra HD Combo on Amazon.com

The Video

Willy’s Wonderland was shot at 2.8K resolution and uses a 2K master. It comes to 4K Ultra HD in a 2.35:1 HEVC 2160p (4K UHD) Dolby Vision encodement. While there is nothing terribly wrong with the overall image, it does lack some crispness and seems to have the gamma set a bit too low, which makes shadows look a little too bright and greyish. What should be a colorful image with lots of contrast comes across as flat and a little washed out.

The Audio

English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 as well as English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo mixes are included. The lossless 5.1 mix is entertaining, but not reference quality by any means. There is a good, solid low end, but not one that is ground shaking. The midrange is full and punchy, but the surround channels are just a little underutilized. Dialogue is intelligible and mostly clean, but I did hear some slight clipping on Ric Reitz’ voice in a couple of the opening scenes.

The Supplements

Willy’s Wonderland comes with a Blu-ray disc with the feature film and bonus features included.

Blu-ray Bonus Features:

• “Inside the Fun” Featurette (1080p; 00:07:38)
• Set Tour with Christian Del Grosso (1080p; 00:02:33)
• “Fresh Meat” Featurette (1080p; 00:01:10)
• “Colorful Darkness and the Demon-Atrons” Featurette (1080p; 00:01:44)
• Character Teaser Gallery (1080p; 00:00:54)
• Character Poster Gallery (1080p; 00:00:44)
• Trailer (1080p; 00:01:50)

The Final Assessment

Willy’s Wonderland is a concept that on paper could have been great but in practice is a disjointed collection of set pieces with a camp Cage performance, the kind we have come to love or hate depending on the context.

Willy’s Wonderland (Collector’s Edition) is out on 4K Ultra HD Combo February 13, 2024 from Shout! Studios/Scream Factory.

Purchase Willy’s Wonderland (Collector’s Edition) 4K Ultra HD Combo on Amazon.com

• Rating Certificate: TV-MA
• Studios & Distributors: JD Entertainment | Landafar Entertainment | Landmark Studio Group | Saturn Films | Scream Factory
• Director: Kevin Lewis
• Written By: G.O. Parsons
• Run Time: 88 Mins.
• Street Date: 13 February 2024
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Video Format: HEVC 2160p (4K UHD)
• HDR Format: Dolby Vision (HDR10 Compatible)
  • MaxLL: 1028 nits
  • MaxFALL: 275 nits
  • Max. Luminance: 1000 nits
  • Min. Luminance: 0.0001 nits
• Primary Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1
• Secondary Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo
• Subtitles: English SDH