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‘Welcome To Willits’ Trailer Battles Comedy and Creatures
We Are What We Are and American Psycho‘s Bill Sage, The Expendables‘ Dolph Lundgren, “Z Nation’s” Anastasia Baranova and “Entourage’s” Sabina Gadecki star in Welcome to Willits, which IFC Midnight has acquired with plans to release in theaters and digital platforms September 22.
Scream 4‘s Rory Culkin and A Nightmare on Elm Street‘s Thomas Dekker round out the cast in supporting roles with Chris Zylka, Garrett Clayton, Karrueche Tran, Serge Levin and Keelin Woodell.
The feature directorial debut of Trevor Ryan, written by his brother Tim Ryan, the film is adapted from their acclaimed 2015 SXSW Midnight Short “Welcome to Willits: After Sundown.”
Combining elements of horror, sci-fi and comedy:
“Welcome to the Willits takes place deep in the Northern California woods, where residents struggle to fight off repeated attacks from mysterious creatures.”
“When local pot farmer Brock (Bill Sage) is caught up with a wayward group of campers, the situation quickly escalates into total carnage. Together with a ragtag crew including his wife Peggy (Sabina Gadecki), niece Courtney (Anastasia Baranova), scruffy drifter Possum (Rory Culkin), wannabe singer/songwriter Zack (Garrett Clayton), resourceful good old boy Jeremiah (Chris Zylka), unemployed stoner Klaus (Thomas Dekker), Klaus’ naïve girlfriend Besh (Karrueche Tran) and ditsy sorority girl Cassie (Keelin Woodell), Brock struggles to maintain his sanity while defending his family from perceived supernatural threats. Dolph Lundgren portrays Derek, a weathered police officer from Brock’s past who comes back to haunt him.“
“Using old-school special effects techniques, augmented with digital finishing touches, Welcome to Willits will be a throwback to great horror and sci-fi films of the past, while also offering a fresh take on the genre,” commented director Trevor Ryan when production commended last year. “The film offers a more complex anti-hero in Brock, a sympathetic figure reminiscent of everyone’s favorite uncle who has a little too much to drink at the family reunion, and who you just wish would get a handle on himself before it’s too late.”
The film is produced by Jordan Yale Levine, Scott Levenson, Jon Keeyes of Yale Productions and Shaun Sanghani of SSS Entertainment. Matthew Helderman and Luke Taylor serve as executive producers alongside Patrick DePeters of BondIt Media Capital, Michael Rothstein, Brandon Baker and Serge Levin.
Get ready for double the fun, protagonists, and body count when Ready or Not 2: Here I Come explodes on streaming next week.
Just in time for the fireworks, the sequel makes its streaming debut on Hulu and Disney+ on July 2.
Directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett are back, along with Samara Weaving, for more hide and slay mayhem.
Picking up moments after the all-out attack from the Le Domas family in the first Ready or Not movie, Grace (Weaving) discovers she’s reached the next level of the nightmarish game — and this time with her estranged sister Faith (Kathryn Newton) at her side. Grace has one chance to survive, keep her sister alive, and claim the High Seat of the Council that controls the world. Four rival families are hunting her for the throne, and whoever wins rules it all.
That means a higher body count and even more explosive carnage. Just how much? A whopping 325 gallons worth, the directors previously told BD.
Sarah Michelle Gellar, Shawn Hatosy, Néstor Carbonell, David Cronenberg, Elijah Wood, Kevin Durand, Olivia Cheng, Varun Saranga, and Daniel Beirne also star.
I wrote in my review for Bloody Disgusting, “More is more in Ready or Not 2. Bigger stakes, larger playing field, a higher (and more gruesome) body count, and even double the protagonists. It’s all designed to deliver maximum crowd-pleasing fun.”
The horror-comedy sequel is written by Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy.
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