Welcome to Willits

I caught this garbage on Amazon Prime where it was hiding under the title ALIEN HUNTER. I admit that the image of Dolph Lundgren on the cover was enough to sucker me in, but then I'm a big fan of B-movie action. This turns out to be a zero budget indie comedy in which a bunch of slackers find themselves menaced by the usual alien greys. It's dialogue-heavy but severely lacking in incident; the dialogue tries to be funny but isn't, and Lundgren is limited to appearances on a television set for the majority of the running time. A hopeless production, then, made by people who have no idea what makes a movie tick.

The concept was really good...the acting and effects weren't all that great, and it could've been a lot better if it left the audience wondering if the aliens were real or really just a figment of a drug induced imagination. I did, however, enjoy the movie, and for a low budget film, the story line was really interesting. I think it's worth watching if you're into low budget, syfy type movies.

It is not smart like some people say, it is a very poorly made film. Some of the actors where great, but the director and editor really messed this up. Curious story with no pay off at the end so it became a terrible story. Guy makes a drug that makes people see aliens. Then kills aliens. The end

Pretty funny how the druggies work together to kill a bunch of young adults camping thinking they are aliens! So serious about it.

IFC Midnight has occasionally produced some pretty terrific horror films, but Welcome to Willits is not one of them. When a group of kids sets up camp in the small town of Willits and goes in search of the town's hot springs, they find instead a huge marijuana farm. What first seems like paradise quickly turns to hell when the farm's crazy owner, Brock, becomes convinced he's under an alien attack. High on crystal meth and armed with a rifle (never a good combination), Brock takes action to protect himself, his niece Courtney, his girlfriend Peg, and his crops. It's just as ridiculous as it sounds, but it isn't without its merits. The good stuff: Bill Sage (American Psycho, Boy Wonder) is an awesome, highly underrated actor who creates a terrific lunatic in Brock. Between flashbacks of being abducted -which may or may not be drug-induced- and hallucinating that each of the kids is an alien, Brock is highly motivated to not only kill, but to utterly dismember his intruders. Like most grade B horror, the violence is too over-the-top to take seriously, but Sage sells it well. Equally impressive are the special effects. The "aliens" are accomplished via practical, surprisingly state-of-the-art costumes, masks, and props which add an unexpected layer of realism to the film - something which wouldn't exist had they used CGI! I also enjoyed the intercutting between the kids as they are and the kids as they appear through Brock's twisted imagination. The bad stuff: How can I praise these things yet still give the film a measly four out of ten stars? The script. Despite the original setup, the dialogue becomes stale and the story never takes off. The tone vacillates between silly and serious instead of committing to one or the other. This is important because dramedy rarely works with horror. Worst of all are the endless plot holes: If Brock and Peg are regular meth users, why is he suddenly seeing aliens now? If his hallucinations are being caused by this particular batch of meth (which is implied at one point), why is he having flashbacks too? Was Brock really abducted or not? Why do the kids look like aliens to Brock while Peg and Courtney look like themselves? Why does Peg seem to see the aliens too yet never has flashbacks of her own? (I've considered that Peg's extreme co-dependence on Brock has made her susceptible to his psychosis much like in William Friedkin's Bug, but thoughts like that run far too deep for a simple movie like this.) Honestly, Welcome to Willits had a lot of potential that was ultimately squandered on a mediocre script. The acting and effects were solid, but not enough to save the film. Good writing is crucial in any genre and too many filmmakers -especially in the horror field- fail to realize that. Horror comedies in particular are notoriously hard to pull off which is why successes like Shaun of the Dead and Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil are so rare and special. Both managed to be hilarious as well as clever and heartfelt. If that's what you want, this film doesn't measure up. On the other hand, if you just want to kick back, pop some popcorn and enjoy a goofy, gory horror flick, you could definitely do worse.

This movie reminds me of the time Lois Griffin said, "I said a bad movie not an abortion".

Went in expecting to bail quickly but this movie is a gem. Engaging, twisted and very entertaining I was scared and laughing which I have not experienced before. Love it, what happened to the possum?

I had a lot of fun watching this movie, and considering the budget and subsequent impossibility of having top actors performing, I think the acting is pretty good. The brothers Ryan did an excellent job writing and directing this movie, and as a previous user wrote, some people are missing the snark.

Welcome to Willits: Directed by Trevor Ryan and written by Tim Ryan I knew it was too good to be true. I watched three movies recently and this one was the third I watched but the second I'm reviewing. The reason for this is simple, I want to get this madness off of my chest. I watched two good movies and then this one came along and threw me for a loop like a close call car accident. This movie is called Welcome to Willits. It takes place in Willits, California. I imagine the director is from this region. The town really plays no part in the story. Having this take place in this particular town set in the Emerald Triangle( huge area of marijuana farms) doesn't play into the story much. This movie is about a crazy man who thinks that aliens are invading and trying to abduct him and perform terrifying and painful experiments on him. Kids on a camping trip looking to score. It sounds like an interesting idea for a horror film. Well Netflix told me that this was a comedy. They lied. This is a weird movie. It starts out with this fake cop show starring Dolph Lundgren for no particular reason. The aliens thing along with the crazy man wearing a tinfoil hat might have been somewhat funny in the writing process but in the movie itself, it really doesn't register that way. They might want to rejigger their algorithm. This movie feels really long and it takes more than half its running time to get to the meat of the story. It is all set up. It forces us to spend a bunch of time with stock characters and following this dull and overused plotline. It's a boring mess of a movie. I want to call a moratorium on kids going into the woods to party and finding something evil hunting them movies. It's enough. We need to a break from this overdone story. I'm going to file it with zombie films. I give this movie an F.

Well, that sucked... bad storyline, horrible special effects.... it doesn't even deserve a review.... That movie was a bad acting ********, and Culkin's little brother efforts to save it were useless. I give it 3 stars only because of him, otherwise it would have been 1star... Save yourself from watching it