Cleaning Dirty Floors in a Haunted World

Kevin Lewis’s Willy’s Wonderland (2021) is easily dismissed as grindhouse schlock: Nicolas Cage versus murderous animatronics in a dilapidated family entertainment center. Yet beneath the blood and neon lies a startling parable about Christian life in a corrupted world. The film does not present Cage’s character as Christ himself, but rather as the model of what a Christian is called to be — steadfast, obedient, and unyielding in the face of evil.

The nameless Janitor arrives in a town that has accepted corruption as the price of survival. The locals knowingly feed strangers to the demonic animatronics of Willy’s Wonderland, rationalizing it as necessary for their peace. This is the condition of the fallen world: a society complicit in sin, covering compromise with pragmatism. It is a world “gone wrong,” but one that feels eerily familiar.

The Janitor is not a hero in the traditional sense. His task is humble — to clean. He accepts it without complaint, treating the mundane work of scrubbing and polishing with as much seriousness as his battles with the possessed mascots. For the Christian, this becomes a striking metaphor. Vocation — the daily tasks God gives — is not an escape from spiritual warfare but the very arena of it. Bringing order to chaos is itself resistance to the powers of darkness.

The animatronics embody forces of disorder and destruction. They are a mockery of creation: lifeless things given grotesque “life” through demonic will. When they strike, the Janitor fights with calm resolve. He neither flees nor bargains; he resists. Here the film echoes the biblical call: “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). His victory is not flamboyant but methodical, carried out between breaks of pinball and energy drinks — reminders that even rest and rhythm belong to the faithful life.

Others attempt to join him, but they are distracted by lust, fear, or the illusion of safety. Their downfall illustrates Christ’s parable of the sower: some seeds sprout quickly but are choked by thorns or scorched by the sun. The way of discipleship requires endurance, and those who cannot remain steadfast fall prey to the very evil they sought to resist.

The Janitor never speaks, yet his life testifies. His silence emphasizes that witness is not ultimately in rhetoric but in action. James writes, “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only” (James 1:22). The Janitor embodies this principle: his deeds speak louder than words ever could.

In the end, the Janitor defeats the evil, restores order to the corrupted place, and simply moves on. No boasting, no applause — just the steady continuation of the journey. This is the Christian life in microcosm. To live faithfully in a broken world is to reject compromise, to bring order where there is chaos, and to endure spiritual warfare without losing sight of the task at hand. Willy’s Wonderland is, then, an unlikely but potent Christian film. Not because it depicts Christ himself, but because it presents a vision of what it means to follow him: to live in obedience, to resist evil, and to serve faithfully — even if that service is as simple as cleaning a dirty floor in a haunted world.