Preparing for the Halloween party got a bit easier with Henry Selick’s return after more than a decade with his signature unusual stop-motion horror film Wendell and Wild. Releasing on October 28, 2022, the film welcomed a distinguished voice cast including Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele as the titular demonic pair, Lyric Ross as the 13-year-old Kat, Angela Bassett as Sister Helley, James Hong as Father Bests, Tamara Smart as Siobhan and more.
This movie is perfect (almost) for punk-rock loving youngsters who’d see their own reflection in Ross’ Kat sporting a pair of chunky, gothic platfom boots, accompanied by her grisly gigantic boombox. With a runtime of 1 hour 46 minutes, Selick’s movie leads with eccentric visuals and graphics in keeping with his previous releases like Coraline.
Netflix describes the movie as:
Years after her parents’s deaths, hardened teen Kat Elliot returns to her dying hometown for a chance at redemptionat an elite girls school. But her personal demons have other plans – tricking Kat into a devilish deal with fateful consequences.
-Wendell and Wild Review Does Not Contain Spoilers–
While most people’s inner demons are figurative, Kat’s demons have names (all the while she battles her inner ones too, though it never get the attention it should’ve). Wearing her punk-rock visage, which is complimented by the film’s soundtrack representing the theme, she’s taken aback by the falling apart image of her hometown that has turned into a ghost itself while harboring the many souls of the departed. The few years after her parents’ deaths, Kat pushes herself into a corner, in turn, her troubles pushing her into juvie.
Her return is announced as a chance at rehabilitation and so is enrolled at a school for girls, that too isn’t the most lively picture of all, owing to its lack of funding. Soon enough her personal demons forge a connection with her (after her discovery of being the Hell Maiden) transport their devilish embodiment to the Land of Living with their own dream of founding a campy fair.
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Kat’s story is the foregrounding foundation within the movie that bridges personal and political miseries together. Moreover, her own trauma is two-fold, but it receives the minimal recognition, thus making it nearly impossible for us to root for her. Imagine having lost your parents at a young age and as you return to forge a new identity back home, you realize there’s no home left for you to savor any old heartfelt memories at all. Just like a fire burnt down the harbored flourishing reality and hope of a town, it also wreaks havoc in the community’s history as well as memories. Despite taking on such a hearty topic as its interest, the writing for the film never fleshes it out with passion.
Much like Kat, the demons want something too but the playfulness brought alive right from the pits of hell by the supreme duo of Jordan-Peele isn’t enough to keep the intentions of the movie alive. Selick presents the issue of communal violence in the form of private prisons starting to dot the landscape along with the future of children’s empowerment, but barely stepping up as a respectable yardstick. Despite the grave concern of the failing topography and the economic turnout of the town, the story loses it grip on the audience, and never pushes to sympathize with any of these characters.
Wendell and Wild: Final Thoughts
Pablo Lobato’s classic punk design intermeshed with a take on a Halloween fest feels high scale (only visually) and translates well onscreen especially with the boombox Cyclops and the gruesome looks of the demons. However, looks alone can’t justify the end, especially when they’re limiting themselves. The semi-horror flick, though compels the viewer to decisively treat the issue of privatization and its aftermath with a critical eye, it still feels lacking and never horrifiying enough.
Diversity of all forms is a marked highlight but again it can’t supplement the purpose of the ongoing socio-economic and political parade as depicted by the subplot. Several elements are left underdressed and are therefore forgotten by the end when they could’ve been used to expand on the villainous outlook along the way.
Key and Peele’s Wendell and Wild are not cut out to pull off a jolly and mischievous ride as promised by the dark, ghoulish trailer released previously. Though ties are visibly connected by the finale, they remain loose and unsatisfactory and leave the viewer downhearted, envisioning how this distinctive, quirky and gothic turnout failed to live up to its expectations and is mostly ascribed to the kids’ domain.
Wendell and Wild is now streaming on Netflix.
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