Horror Movie Review: I Heart Willie (2024)

The current trend of taking iconic versions of characters that have fallen into the public domain has inevitably resulted in some really bad horror films. Films that offer nothing more than a nod to the source material (often to avoid stepping on the toes of giants, just in case) and fail to come with creative way of using it.

I Heart Willie is one of those films. Nothing more than a below average slasher that puts a disfigured killer in a cheap Mickey Mouse mask. At best, it has a certain amount of grittiness to it, giving us plenty of gory and bloody scenes, but that’s about all that is notable about it.

Written by David Vaughn (who plays Willie), directed by Alejandro G. Alegre, and starring Maya Luna, Micho Camacho, Sergio Rogalto, and Daniela Porras. I Heart Willie’s story surrounds a half mouse/half man (sort of). This is our Mickey Mouse (Steamboat Willie) of the film and he’s psychotic. Although his slasher tendencies haven’t been helped by a fire that left him severely disfigured.

He’d probably be ok, if everyone just left him alone, but the legend of the half mouse man has meant people often come looking to see his supposedly abandoned home. One such group, doing it for the YouTube clicks includes Nora, who has a ‘unique’ interest in Willie.

Although to get to the point where her character comes to life, you must wade through a whole lot of nothing. That’s I Heart Willie’s biggest problem in my opinion, just how little happens throughout. It’s a mind-numbingly boring film, and when it finally does start to get interesting, it’s brief and then the film ends.

It’s so annoying because the character switch for Nora could have sustained the entire film, if done right. Maya Luna is a good actor, and it would have made the story a little more unique had the writing not spent so long trying to hide the truth from us. Something that doesn’t just bog the main plot down but hurts her character as her motivations are all over the place.

She is the only one of note too. The others, while competently acted, have nothing to offer aside from being victims. Eventually. Again, things take far too long to happen and nothing sums this up than having to switch back and forth between characters only to find both doing and saying nothing. It’s an extremely dumb idea, and actually ends up creating even more disengagement. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that it will piss off some viewers to the extent that they’ll just give up on the film.

It’s hard to blame them, especially as the film really doesn’t have much else to offer. Unless you like drawn-out violent scenes that, at least, use practical effects. While that is cool, it’s not enough to sustain interest and most, if they even make it to the end, will be left wondering why they even bothered. I Heart Willie? I’m afraid not.