User Reviews

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.

Pretty poor overall. Strangely enough the production values are good, just hamstrung by poor writing and uninteresting characters.

I completely lost interest near the middle and it only got less enthralling from there. I can't even remember the ending as making dinner became more engrossing than the on screen action - pork ribs and roast veggies beat WELCOME TO WILLITS.

There's some pretty weird stuff throughout the film that might hold the interest of some viewers. Some of the makeup was good.

Leave this one for film students who want to take notes on what not to do.

A couple of young guys live in a cabin and grows weed and they dope so much until the man begins to see aliens around. Notwithstanding the dangers of a free-running psycho in the woods, some campers were mistakenly taken to be hideous creatures ... and decapitated by the crazy pothead. It was terrible, the acting, the environment, the weed, the blood orgy, the sex, yes it was sex and it was terrible, like awe. Not to mention, badly dressed, terrible makeup, bad music, bad editing, lights, photography, art direction, all bad. For a bloody thirsty spectator, who does not care about small details, would be fun.

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.

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

I must admit that I had expected quite something else from this movie.

I was under the impression that this movie was about aliens on Earth to stalk and prey upon humans. So I was surprised to find out that it was in fact about drug induced hallucinations about aliens.

Now, with that being said, don't get me wrong. Because this is not a bad movie, I just feel that it was very far from what I had expected and been lead to believe.

The acting in "Welcome to Willits" was quite good for the most parts. And I do always enjoy watching new faces and talents on the screen, and I can't really claim to be overly familiar with the cast in this movie.

The special effects in the movie were actually quite good and really helped the movie along quite a long way.

An enjoyable movie for what it was, for sure, but hardly the type of movie that you will watch more than once.

Dolph Lundgren plays a character you see on TV and is not part of the main plot. A group of young adults and a stoner (Rory Culkin) named Possum (he dropped the "O") camp out in the Emerald Triangle, Northern California known for its pot growers. (Filmed in Louisiana.) Nearby Brock (Bill Sage) and Peggy (Sabina Gadecki) make their own meth using a special formula that allows them to see inter-dimensional alien invaders who they hunt and set traps.

When the two groups come together, things don't go well for the unarmed campers.

The movie had plenty of killing and blood, including cut up body parts. It was more comedy/maybe dark comedy than sheer horror. The drug crazed characters and their ideas are what carried the tale. Kudos to Rory Culkin who plays a stoned Pauly Shore. There were some clever misspoken lines like, "Why do it wrong once when you can right twice." Guide: F-word. Sex. No nudity.

I wasn't expecting much, so I was very surprised that it was quite good, in that low budget horror comedy movie kinda way. And also, another movie that proves camping is stupid... It all begins with some young people, chilling out in the woods, doing those types of things, well it turns out they are camping out on some dudes pot farm. Funny thing, the start of the film plays a old timey type PSA about the dangers of marijuana, and yup there is a fair amount of Mary Jane in the flick, the problem lies in the drug of choice of the pot farmer, Crystal Meth. And so its on this night that the kids be partying that he is tweaking out on meth and mistakes the party goers for aliens, ooops. And yes, the farmer, Brock, does get abducted from time to time, it happens to coincide with his meth use, i don't know if thats important or not, but its during these abductions that Brock is forced to watch a TV cop show, and the characters seem to know more than they should!! And wait is that Ivan Drago in the TV show playing Dolph Lundgren??? Filmbufftim on FB.