The last time we shared any news on director Trevor Ryan's creature feature WELCOME TO WILLITS, the movie hadn't even started filming yet. Since then, it has not only made it through production and post, but has also secured distribution through IFC Midnight. The distributor will be releasing the film on VOD and in select theatres on September 22nd, and with that date less than a month away a trailer has arrived online.
Scripted by the director's brother Tim Ryan, WELCOME TO WILLITS has the following synopsis:
Aliens, burnouts, and clueless campers collide in this bloody and bonkers slasher freak-out. Deep in the woods of Northern California lies the off-the-grid town of Willits, a haven for marijuana growers, meth addicts, and conspiracy theorists. When a gaggle of vacationing friends unknowingly set up their campsite on the property of Willits’ most disturbed resident — a psychotic, drug-addled pot farmer convinced extraterrestrials are out to get him — they’re in for one hell of a bad time.
Bill Sage stars as that pot farmer, with Sabina Gadecki as his wife, Anastasia Baranova as his niece, Rory Culkin as a scruffy drifter, Thomas Dekker as a stoner, Karrueche Tran as the stoner's naive girlfriend, Chris Zylka as a resourceful good old boy, Garrett Clayton as an aspiring singer/songwriter, Keelin Woodell as a ditzy sorority girl, and Dolph Lundgren as a police officer from the pot farmer's past.
The trailer makes WELCOME TO WILLITS look like a good time packed with aliens and slashing, but there is one disappointing thing about it for me: there's not nearly enough Dolph Lundgren in there. When it was announced that Lundgren would be in the film, it was said that he would have a lead role. I'm hoping he'll be in it more than this trailer implies.
Check out the trailer below, and if you like how WILLITS looks watch for it to hit VOD and theatre screens in just twenty-five days.