TeenzTen An action-packed slog

Livestonth I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Foreverisacastironmess A surprise even to me, I ended up liking this a lot, it's straightforward yet effective style really worked for me. It was like it had the charming simplicity of a children's spooky show, crossed with something that was much more ruthless and grim, it was like "Are You Afraid of the Dark" with real venom! For me it really blurred the line between what constitutes kid friendly and child nightmare inducing, like you had the blood and gore, not much at all but it was definitely there, you had the nauseating scene of the old lady taking a big 'ol juicy bite out of the fried rat, it had one use of the word s**t! And most noteworthy, it actually had violence and death perpetrated against young children! I'm not gonna pretend it wasn't, the acting was mostly terrible, especially from the kids in the wraparound campfire scenes(Sean Astin not included), and in the story of the kindly janitor who was really a monster in disguise who had an appetite for school bullies! I loved that, bullies and mean teachers simply being devoured, you'd never get that in a movie like this these days, it's not P.C. enough! A lot of the stuff that goes down in this picture is more than a little out there! I did find it to be moderately unnerving at points. Like when the kid goes to the school bathroom and the spindly fanged beast crawls out of the toilet, I sure wasn't expecting something so spooky and threatening to appear! And the story with the fat kid I liked best because I found something interesting and almost sympathetic about him, how his parents had opposite opinions about him, and how he only seemed able to communicate with other kids by playing sick pranks on them. I loved the bizarre visuals of his twisted little model town populated by dead flies, that was so striking and creepy! Very neat and weird, never seen anything like that. Nice grisly ending too, with the sadistic boy getting the 'wings' pulled off him in return! The effect of the giant flies was funky, but to me it was kinda scary all the same. And the movie's ending was quite mean-spirited also, those boys asked to know the truth and they certainly got it! I'm not saying this was a brilliant film or anything, it could've benefited from a third story although I reckon the vignettes could serve as that, but it was overall a fun scary time, its overtly dark elements make it notable amongst most other child horror movies that I've seen. No real Boo! type scares, it's more about gross sight gags and monsters coming to get you, which is fine and dandy with me from time to time. Oh my, the kinds of interesting tales that kids can tell... Give it a shot!

BA_Harrison One of my earliest horror related memories is of reading a comic (I'm guessing it was a reprint of old EC tales) in which a kid who enjoyed pulling the wings off flies ended up having both of his arms torn off (I recall that he may have even been given giant fly wings as replacements, although I may have made that bit up over the years). This story seems to be the inspiration for the second of the two main tales in kiddie-centric horror anthology The Willies, whilst the first, about a boy who discovers a monster in the school bathroom, appears to have borrowed heavily from an early Stephen King short story called 'Here There Be Tygers'. Even the short stories in the pre-credits sequence are based on familiar urban legends—meaning that the film doesn't rate very well for originality. Writer director Brian Peck also loses points for the poor structuring of his film, with the second story in particular long outstaying its welcome.As highly derivative and poorly paced as the film may be, however, The Willies is still just about worthwhile thanks to its tongue-in-cheek approach (loved the Goonies in-joke), nicely developed characters (the solid cast includes future hobbit Sean Astin, and James Karen and Clu Gulager from Return of the Living Dead), some hokey creature effects, and above all, a genuine sense of fun. Plus, it's hard for me to hate too much on a film that, despite being aimed predominantly at a younger audience, actually proves rather disturbing at times: fly-boy Gordy (Michael Bower) surveying his macabre dioramas featuring dead flies is nice and twisted (the Church even has a dead fly attached to a crucifix!) and his fate is as gruesome as it should be (which reminds me... if anyone can shed any light on the name/issue number of that comic I read many moons ago, please drop me a message—I'd love to read that story again).

Lawrence Wade (imdb-761) I have the feeling that this movie was supposed to be bad. And, like the cult classic Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, it revels in being a bad movie. It has fun with it. As a result, the viewer has fun with it.B-movie or not, this is the second best horror-comedy I've ever seen, between Ghostbusters and Blithe Spirit (1945).It feels like the entire Growing Pains cast and crew were bored one weekend and decided to make a movie. As a Growing Pains fan myself (the show was full of tongue-in-cheek jabs at sitcoms), I spotted dozens of GP guest stars. If you liked the Growing Pains Halloween episodes, you will enjoy this.Jeremy Miller is the reason I wanted to see this movie. His "Ben Seaver Scream" always cracked me up (in fact, it was my favorite part of Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star). Unfortunately, he did not scream the entire movie.SPOILER WARNING, but it really doesn't matter anyway.... you know what's coming, but you'll still like it.Kids are sitting in a tent telling stories. Sean Astin and Josh Miller (looks like he might be Jeremy Miller's little brother) are mostly credible, though it looks like they could have used a few more takes.The better stories are the shorter ones. My personal favorite is the dog in the microwave story. The music as the dog is being dried in the microwave is wonderfully inappropriate and is the viewer's first demonstration that the movie is a very good comedy - a low-budget spoof on low-budget horror movies. The clock we watch to show time elapsing is the ultimate in campy kitsch - I searched long and hard to find one just like it for my own kitchen. And there was attention to detail - the props guys hacked a couple of panel lights onto the microwave; as an electrical engineer, they reminded me of a nuclear power plant's control room. The whole scene is like a surreal combination of live-action Simpsons episode mixed with Eerie, Indiana.There's a deep-fried rat at Tennessee Fricassee Chicken. The camera work is a beautiful homage to amateur video - you'll see what I mean. The next story involves an insufferable brat who is bullied, finds a monster in the school bathroom, and starts feeding it the bullies. Jeremy Miller is one of the bullies. In the midst of silly B-movie, we see a glimpse of Miller's powerful but underused acting talent as he meets the monster - big, wide eyes, frozen in fear, no trace of the "I-can't-believe-we're-doing-this" humor otherwise justifying the entire production. For that one second of screen time, you really believe in the monster. And then cut to feathers flying out of the bathroom stall as the monster chews through his down-filled jacket.Finally, the boy with the flies. Disturbing, horrible, awful. And it works only because of things like the shameless Growing Pains plug, Spivey's Miracle Manure, dioramas of a different world, and my personal favorite: a mic boom reflected in a window, reminiscent of the little trollies under the tomatoes in Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.This movie is absolutely horrible. And that's why you'll love it. When (if) it's released on DVD, sign me up for a copy.

gridoon Grim instead of amusing, mean-spirited instead of playful, boring instead of interesting. It won't give you "the willies", but it just may gross you out or send you to sleep. And it will certainly make you wonder: "what were they thinking?" (*1/2)