Willard is an extremely old movie, nearly 50 years old. Yet, even though it was pretty famous in its time and broke some records and influenced a number of movies to come, as also being fueling a genre with not yet many movies, it's rather unknown for most of the younger generations due to an rights issue due to which it wasn't also never released on neither VHS nor DVD. Fortunately this time is over now, and if you want to, you can get this movie in a stunning restoration on BD.

Judging such an old movie is often hard, what was cool effects then might be boring today and also acting and storytelling standards have since long changed. I can totally see how for new viewers Willard might not live up to the praises one might have heard. The movie isn't as thrilling and captive - it's even not an natural horror movie, even though this one influenced them heavily. It's rather a natural drama - the title giving boy "Willard" is in the center of the movie, his social awkwardness, not fitting in and being pushed around by everyone, until he finds his "release" by pushing around creatures of his own.

But there is a lot to this movie that one should take into consideration. First, and this is undesputabel - there are some great actors, most of all Ernest Borgnine, whom you will hate from the minute you see him. And then there is our main character Bruce Davison, who up to then did not have any acting role, kick-starting his career with this one. As for the rats, no tricks where used - they are all real, and in this movie 600 rats where actually used. These where not harmed - plastic rats where used whenever a scene was too dangerous. And because it is not possible to train rats, these could just be lured with tricks (like peanutbutter smears), and so a large number of scenes where improvised, and there are scenes that had 30 to 40 takes.

Willard was the first movie to ever use rats (many other natural horror movies with rats as protagonists followed), and set an precedence for many movies to come.

Given these background facts I am willing to add +1 points to my initial rating which would have been 6 points, totaling in 7/10. Definitely worth seeing if you are interested in movie history.

***A young loner finds that he connects with… rats***

A mama’s boy and meek misfit (Bruce Davison) befriends the rats that live behind his mother old manor and decides to use them to get back at his domineering boss (Ernest Borgnine) who usurped the business from his father. Sondra Locke is on hand as a coworker in one of her earliest roles.

"Willard" (1971) is an odd mundane character study of a timid loner with low key horror and a bit o’ black humor; it has a curious vibe that hints at the insanity of life. Incredibly, it was a minor hit at the box office, the 12th top-grossing movie of 1971, beating out notables like “Escape from the Planet of the Apes,” “Shaft,” “Play Misty for Me,” “McCabe & Mrs. Miller” and “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.” I say “incredibly” because this is a small, absurd, melancholy movie of little consequence, yet not without some interest. The main rats are cute, for instance.

Plus it’s nice to see Locke in her young, pre-Eastwood years. She dated star Davison while filming “Willard,” but not publicly since she was married to her soul mate from high school. The husband didn’t mind, however, since he was homosexual.

The movie runs 1 hour, 35 minutes, and was shot in Los Angeles.

GRADE: B-