Willard: The Ratboy Returns

Writer/Director Glen Morgan has two framed film posters in prominent spots on his wall at home; Hitchcock's Psycho and The Birds. When he thought of re-making the 1971 horror cult classic Willard, it was with those two films in mind. Morgan's childhood was ruled by a certain creep factor. "My dad and I watched all the Universal monster movies on t.v. and went to every monster movie. I went to [Willard] when it first came out. We all have the Lawrence of Arabias and Citizen Kanes that influence us but there are always the Willards. It always just kind of hung with me".

Willard Stiles (Crispin Glover), an office clerk at Stiles Manufacturing, only has a job because his late father made it a condition of his partnership with Frank Martin (R. Lee Ermey) who treats Willard horribly. The friendless fellow goes through life unable to connect with anyone. He's haunted by the ghost of his father and takes care of his creepy mother in their dilapidated family home. Willard discovers hundreds of rats in the basement and the little critters become his only friends. Cathryn (Laura Elena Harring), a beautiful office temp, sympathizes with him but he has no idea how to relate to her. When Martin's schemes to wreck Willard's life push him to the edge, Willard relies on the skill of his newfound furry friends to launch gruesome revenge on his enemies.

Morgan and his partner James Wong, who acts as second unit director on Willard, gathered with their stars, Crispin Glover, Laura Elena Harring and R. Lee Ermey at the classic and kinda spooky Chateau Marmont hotel in L.A. to talk about their efforts to re-interpret the horror fest. Both Morgan and Wong ("X-Files" producer/writers) explained why they were attracted to the material. "The story of someone who is alienated or lonely never goes away. I know I related to it or understood", Morgan admits. "We wanted to hit on the alienation of a person and hit it harder that you can become what you hate", explains Wong. "The character of Ben in the original movie wasn't as well-defined as this one. We got an African rat that hasn't been in movies before. It's a much bigger animal than the Norwegian rats that we know and love", Wong smiles. "We just felt that we could improve on the first movie and define the theme better".

The filmmakers wanted to update the effects as well. "The original movie cost, I think, was about 800 thousand dollars and it took fourteen or twenty days to shoot", Morgan comments. "There are rats jumping backwards onto Ernest Borgnine". Wong adds, "With the advent of the technology we have now, we could make the scenes with the rats more horrifying".

Willard's opening titles are impressive and the filmmakers revealed why they were so important. "I knew we were doing a slow start which, nowadays isn't popular with the studio", Morgan stated. "I watched Psycho which started with a very kinetic main title. You don't get to Norman Bates' motel for twenty or thirty minutes. New Line said they wanted a real Tim Burton kind of title. The main titles on House on Haunted Hill were really great. We used a place called Picture Mill that had done the Panic Room titles and we just gave them a lot of room. The titles were a promise of what was to come".

At first, for his lead role, Morgan had in mind Doug Hutchison who was excellent as the sadistic guard in The Green Mile and as a superhuman character on "X-Files". Eccentric actor Crispin Glover (Marty McFly's dad in the Back to the Future film series) was always in the running however and, with studio approval, Morgan and Wong were happy to get him. "Crispin has a reputation that is not deserved", says Wong. "People said we'd never get the film done. He's going to be eccentric or worse. But, what we found is that he's nothing but professional". The spooky duo told us of their first meeting with their lead actor. "Crispin showed up driving a black checker cab dressed in [black suit and vest] and said 'hellooooo', says Morgan. "I thought 'oh Jesus' but within a couple of minutes we just hit it off".

According to his director, Glover stayed in character a great deal and was often isolated on set. "He sort of stayed in his room by himself. I think he went skiing every day but only at night.....there were lights. Crispin looked at the rats as a manifestation of Willard's frustration and hate. If you don't get that in check it will literally eat you". Glover tells it this way, "This is a sad person. There's a reason that the rats become a true bond. I'm not a particularly cheerful person but there are certain friends of mine that I couldn't talk to. I'll tend to laugh about certain things and I felt I couldn't get into that so I stayed to myself a lot and concentrated." Glover also concentrated on singing. He recorded Michael Jackson's original theme song "Ben" for the closing credits. "I had a record out in the 80's and I immediately thought that it was a good idea".

Full Metal Jacket's R. Lee Ermey, who takes over from 1971's Ernest Borgnine as Mr. Martin, Willard's evil, abusive boss, was especially fond of his scenes with Crispin. "He was a breath of fresh air. If I had been looking for somebody to play Willard and Crispin walked down the street I would have said, "There he is! That's Willard right there!" Ermey plays Martin with no redeeming qualities. "The tougher and nastier and more evil that I can be, the more effective Willard's timidness becomes. Crispin and I realized this and talked about it before we ever set foot on a soundstage. We agreed on everything".

Mulholland Drive's Laura Elena Harring plays the part of Willard's would-be love interest. "I thought Laura was great in Mulholland Drive", Morgan says. "She's classy and could really represent what Willard could have had if he had chosen her". Laura was happy to play a sympathetic, non-glamour role. "Cathryn was a lost soul and was able to reach out to Willard and see the pain that he's going through. When I read the script I felt Willard's pain, so much so that it made me react. I had watery eyes". Glover thought Laura was perfect for the role. "What I thought was important for that character was an empathy and she has that quality. She was so helpful and great to work with."

But, what about the real co-stars of this film, all 550 of them..the rats? Cast and crew members' reactions run the gamut from terror to a desire to cuddle the little critters. Harring didn't have scenes with the rats but was there with them on the set. "I held Socrates one time and breathed right through it and was fine. Ben was bigger and really scary and creepy". The actress admits to having at least two rat dreams after filming. Her fear was cemented by an early experience when she was a social worker in India. "I was in a huge theater, very dark. You could hear these clicking sounds. Finally I put my feet up because I got shivers and then, intermission came and a huge rat came crawling down across the screen. I couldn't stay for the end of the film".

Ermey's rat reaction is a bit different. "Those rats are people friendly. There's a scene when Ben jumps on me and I'd have to grab him. I'm covered literally with 500 rats. They dumped them on me. What I was really worried about was thrashing around and hurting one of the rats. I have critters. I live on a ranch and have horses, cattle, sheep, seven dogs and a barn cat so furry little critters don't bother me. These guys are tame and nice and sweet. The only problem I had was that rats eat their body weight every day and that has to go someplace. After each take, we had to sweep up and I had to shake my clothes".

Glover has written short stories about rats and had no problem either. "The rats are great actually. I really liked them. They were so well trained. There was a cat and dog in the film and those were much more difficult to work with than the rats. Rats are used to patterns. With the food rewards, they were able to make the rats go up and down my arm to a certain point, into a coffin and this was during very emotional scenes for me. The trainers were sensitive to that too. These rats did it perfectly every time".

Morgan and Wong were a little more creeped out. "There were rats all around you and you hear the claws", says Wong, frowning. They were never free completely. The sets were always partitioned. Every rat was labeled and weighed every day. When we crossed the border [into Canada] can you imagine the border guard saying 'What do you have in your truck?' 'Oh, just 600 rats'. They were the cleanest rats in North America. They're aggressive to each other. Ben, the big Gambian rat, couldn't be in the same vicinity as the others. [Trainers] were afraid of them attacking".

Morgan has his own rat tale, "There is a scene in the kitchen and there's an island. I leaned over to give someone a direction and realized there were at least a hundred rats under my arm". There were humorous moments as well. "A scene that got removed is where Willard finds Socrates' mother dead. Crispin was shooting and I could see the whole crew trying not to laugh because, out of frame, there were two rats in the background humping". The black comedy of the film extends to portraits of the first Willard Bruce Davison as he looks today representing Willard's dead father. There is also an unfortunate cat in the film, a cat named "Scully". "We always have inside jokes", Morgan grins. "There was a shot that got cut where Crispin and Socrates are on the bed and Crispin says 'Socrates, I can't find Scully'. Then we come back up and Ben is on the bed. The first screening he says 'Scully, where are you?' And some guy in the audience goes 'She's looking for Mulder'.