Anyone who watched Coraline in childhood might remember the stop-motion horror film about a teenage girl trying to rescue her parents from an evil witch. Henry Selick is the one who adapted Neil Gaiman's novel and turned it into a masterpiece.
Since then, he has taken a long hiatus from directing. After 13 years, he returns with another horror stop-motion film, Wendell & Wild, with Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key as casts. When this comedian duo is present, the film is meant to be full of comedic elements and horror.
The protagonist is Kat Elliot, a punk-loving delinquent who is getting sent to the Rust Belt Catholic School after spending time in juvenile. However, she was not like this before. Kat's parents drowned in an accident while trying to save her, and she holds herself responsible for their deaths.
The guilt turns her into a rebellious teenager and gets her into trouble. In the school, she meets Father Best, the headmaster, Sister Helley, a teacher with a troubling past, Siobhan Claxon's trio of friends, and Raúl, a lonesome student with a penchant for art.
However, the plot really starts when the demon brothers Wendell and Wild (played by Peele and Keegan-Michael) see Kat in a vision who can bring them to the real world, where they will build their dream fair for souls. They concoct a plan to deceive Kat into helping them by promising that they will bring their parents back.
The plan is successful, but the demon brothers must listen to the evil Klaxon Corporation's demands to build the fair instead of resurrecting Kat's parents.
The leaders of Klaxons, Siobhan's parents, have a nefarious plan to approve their new private prison and demolish the whole Rust Belt town. But to stop them, Kat must first get rid of her guilt. Can Sister Helley help her to forgive herself? Can the Rust Belt town be saved? This 105-minute film has the answers.
Wendell & Wild is a feel-good horror comedy film, but it lacks some originality. Though Henry Selick made the film based on his original, unpublished book, he drew elements from two of his other directed films, The Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline, as the film has some absurdist horror elements as well as Coraline's trope of a teenage girl trying to save her parents.
The film also diverges from the original goal by adding too many subplots hastily. The more the plot progresses, the more the subplots seem rushed, which is counterproductive. Nonetheless, in the end, Wendell & Wild ensures one thing - letting go of guilt and accepting yourself.
