The Willies (Film Review)

1990 Force Majeure Productions
Written and Directed by: Brian Peck
Starring: Sean Astin
MPAA Rating: PG; Running Time: 91 Minutes
The Nicsperiment Score: 5/10

Sean Astin and two other kids hang out in a tent on a dark night and tell each other scary stories...so scary, they're giving each other...The Willies!
1990's straight-to-video venture, The Willies, is a tween take on Creepshow. The three kids in a tent, led by an older Sean Astin, tell some prelude shorter horror stories (there's a gnarly one where an old lady puts her dog in a microwave) before building to the main course of two novella length stories that take up much of the film's runtime. 

There's simply not a lot to say about this film. It's goofy and dumb and not very scary, but it's a ton of fun, a tentful of early 90s nostalgia in its film-making, effects, general vibe, and choice of actors. While it's never really scary, it is at moments disturbing, particularly in aspects of its young sociopath in training second long story, which features a kid who collects and poses dead flies (rather pointedly, he hangs one from a crucifix!). Astin is in between The Goonies (his character here is also named Michael, though no one calls him Mikey!) and Rudy, but he doesn't seem to be a bad sport about starring in a low-budget direct-to-video horror film for kids. Other standouts include Clu Gulager as a dangerous janitor, Michael Bower (Donkey Lips, himself!) as the psychopathic fly lover, and the entire cast of Growing Pains.
The Willies may not be great, or in any threat of actually giving the viewer what it's titled, but for anyone who was 5-15 in 1990, it hits those nostalgia buttons just right. For kids today...I don't know, do you even watch movies anymore?