The Five Nights at Freddy’s film has finally begun filming after being in development limbo for almost a decade. The adaptation of the popular video game franchise will star Josh Hutcherson, Matthew Lillard, and Mary Stuart Masterson and is expected to release in 2024 but 2021 saw the release of a film with an eerily similar premise.

Willy’s Wonderland sees Nic Cage go up against evil animatronics in a ramshackle restaurant in a plot that echoes many of the beats of the Five Nights at Freddy’s story. Does the film take inspiration from the franchise, and if so, how does it make the killer animatronic plot its own?

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What is Willy's Wonderland About?

Willys Wonderland Nic Cage Ostrich animatronic

In Willy’s Wonderland, a perpetually silent mystery man (Nicolas Cage), dubbed The Janitor in the credits of the film, is left stranded in the middle of nowhere after destroying his tires on an errant spike strip. Luckily a local mechanic finds him and tows him back to town, offering to fix his car for $1000. In cash. The stranger doesn’t have it and instead is offered the chance to work off his debt by spending the night cleaning Willy’s Wonderland.

Unbeknownst to the silent stranger, he’s a sacrifice to a group of animatronics possessed by the spirits of a cult of serial killers. For years, the people of the town have been tricking unsuspecting strangers into this ritual but this time they have picked the wrong victim. Not long after the mammoth task of cleaning the dilapidated building begins, the energy drink-swilling man is confronted by the animatronic of an ostrich.

Without a word as the ostrich springs to life, The Janitor violently and quickly beats the animatronic to death and rips out its metal spine. Then he simply goes back to cleaning. All without saying a single word. Whenever the alarm on his watch goes off, he stops to have a break and play pinball, one such instance resulting in an 80s-inspired scene where he dances as he attempts to beat the high score. Meanwhile, a group of teenagers led by the sheriff’s “adopted” daughter Liv (Emily Tosta) is trying to destroy the building to end the curse.

As the tenacious teens are drawn into the happenings inside the building, carnage ensues. The Janitor continues to tear through the animatronics wordlessly, as long as he isn’t on his break. If he is on his break, even the teenagers being ripped apart doesn’t bring him out of the back room. The film is a pastiche of the genre, with the deep lore being recounted in a short scene and promptly disregarded by the hero. All he cares about is cleaning up, playing pinball, and getting his car back and not even murderous machines are going to get in his way.

Is Willy's Wonderland Based on Five Nights At Freddy's?

willys wonderland chameleon animatronic

Written by G.O Parsons and directed by Kevin Lewis, Willy’s Wonderland began its life as a short film titled Wally’s Wonderland in 2016. The rights to a full-length feature were optioned with the name being changed due to copyright issues. The project drew Cage’s attention who not only ended up starring in the film but also producing the feature.

Concerning the subject of Five Nights at Freddy’s and the similarities between the two properties, Parsons and Lewis deny that the idea was inspired by the Five Nights at Freddy’s franchise. The original idea came about in 2015, which is when the first Five Nights at Freddy’s game came out but there are often ideas that appear at similar times due to coincidence. Whether Willy’s Wonderland is influenced by Five Nights at Freddy’s is up for debate but even if it is, the film holds its own.

Why is Nicolas Cage Silent in Willy's Wonderland?

nic cage the janitor willys wonderland

Throughout the entirety of Willy’s Wonderland, The Janitor doesn’t speak a single word. Apart from the occasional grunt and guttural yell during the battles with the unholy animatronics, he is silent. Without words and fueled by copious amounts of Punch energy drink, The Janitor is a singularly focused man. His background and purpose are a mystery. Even what’s in the cans is a mystery. During an AMA on Reddit, and reported by SlashFilm, Cage explained his character’s silence and discussed the importance of the audience experience of the film.

"The dialogue for my character in "Willy's Wonderland" was very sparse, so I decided with Kevin, the director, to go full Harpo Marx and take all the dialogue out because I thought that would be a fun acting challenge to see how much I could communicate without words and only with movement and facial expressions. I'm very happy with the results of Willy's Wonderland. It was a good experiment."

When it comes to the Punch cans and the audience’s relationship to the film Cage had this to say, "The can question is an interesting one, and I hesitate to answer it for you, because your relationship with the movie is far more important than my relationship with the movie, and so you as the audience member can imagine and surmise whatever you want to be in that can," said Cage. "That is a far better answer and reason for the can than anything I could tell you. I want your opinion as to what was in the can, because that was the right opinion."

Cage has always openly talked about how he likes to try new things and change up the status quo when it comes to acting and that is what makes so many of his performances memorable. The actor is known for outlandish and sometimes strange choices but it cannot be denied that he is always interesting on screen. Without his intense and expressive silent performance, Willy’s Wonderland could have been a very different film and a lot less fun.

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