Director Henry Selick’s last feature film, Coraline (2009) is still unforgettable for just how disturbing it was. Selick matched the eerie menace of Neil Gaiman’s novella with unconventional imagery and stop motion animation, creating a fable that you couldn’t turn your eyes away from even though you knew it was going to haunt your nightmares. Understandably, when it was announced that Selick was going to direct a story about a Black teen protagonist, written by him and the horror maverick Jordan Peele, the project immediately became one of this year’s most anticipated releases. Wendell and Wild delivers on some accounts, while disappointing in others.
We begin with Rust Bank, a thriving town supported by its tight-knit cosmopolitan community. At the centre stands the lively Rust Bank Brewery, run by Delroy and Wilma Elliot. When an accident kills the two, their orphaned daughter Kat (voiced by Lyric Ross) turns into a bitter, difficult 13-year-old. She’s haunted not only by survivor’s guilt, but also the belief that she is the reason for her parents’ death. In the five years Kat spends alone, we see what life looks like for most Black, young and orphaned children: Bullying, foster homes, violence and finally prison. A fresh chance at life arrives in the form of the posh Rust Bank Catholic School — housing students whom Kat calls “prized poodles” — mysterious nuns and the answers to Kat’s past. Deep beneath this world lies a quirky Hell, run by the mighty Buffalo Belzer (Ving Rhames) who is grappling with hair loss and balances an amusement park on his belly (there’s a spinning cup ride for the souls, except when the ride stops, a large kettle pours boiling tea into the cup underneath it). Hell is reserved for torturing damned souls who come Buffalo’s way. His demon sons, Wendell and Wild (Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele), have their own grand plans of building a “Dream Faire”, but are forever banished to replenish their father’s falling hair with the help of a hair cream (regular father-son stuff). That is until Wendell and Wild realise the hair cream has other magical properties — like raising people from the dead. Around the same time, the two are (randomly) informed that they “have a Hell Maiden” – Kat – who could provide a door to the living world (What’s a Hell Maiden? Why does Kat get assigned to these two specifically? Your guess is as good as mine). The next thing we know, Wendell and Wild have hijacked Kat’s dream and brokered a deal with her: They will bring her parents back to life if she will summon them to the living world, where they can build their Dream Faire.
