SCREAMBOAT (USA, 2025) - MINI REVIEW
Finally, we found that pot of public domain gold
A late night Staten Island ferry ride in New York turns into a murder spree when a giant rodent is released from captivity on the hunt for his lost love.
As he stalks and kills the passengers on the ferry, a group of them band together to hunt him down and defeat him.
Maybe I’ll get some hate for this, but I going to be honest right away - I really liked this movie. Really, really liked it. Because finally, after five movies supposedly based on Steamboat Willie and/or Mickey Mouse, we get one that actually understands the source material and plays into it. With great results.
Everything I wanted in a public domain horror movie is here. There are actual references to Steamboat Willie - and they didn’t just bootleg the cartoon into the movie like other titles have, rather they re-created their own animations based on the original.
Hilariously, the movie avoids using the word “mouse” until right at the end. What it doesn’t avoid are the constant references to other Disney movies and characters: Captain Pete, Walt and Minnie Mouse make an appearance; while references to Cinderella, The Lion King, Alice in Wonderland and Frozen are just the tip of the Disney ice-berg.
But all of that would have meant nothing if the movie wasn’t up to scratch. While this is just a typical horror slasher film, it’s a horror slasher that’s heavily inspired by Terrifier. It’s not as gory, but David Howard Thornton takes his performance as the mute Art the Clown and turns it into a cheery Steamboat Willie. It’s 100% Art The Clown, just now in a small rodent form. It’s worth noting that this is the same production house and producers as Terrifier too, which is why it feels so familiar.
It’s also the polish that been added to the film that separates this from all those junk Mickey Mouse horror movies we’ve seen over the last two years. The music is outstanding - it’s cheesy yet appropriate, heavily inspired by the late 80s-early 90’s direct to video horror slashers that we would have seen on the walls of any rental store back in the day.
Similarly, the effects are a blend of puppets and green-screen matting to place Willie into the real world. Wide shots will clearly show the puppet in action, while close-ups and death shots blend the real-life actor, clever camera angles and over-sized props - such as that pair of scissors at the end - with digital compositing to create the suitable cheesy effects you’d expect from a movie of this budget.
I’m also convince that a miniature boat was used for the flooding scenes, but I could be wrong there!
If your mindset approaching this film is “I want to be entertained, have some fun and want to find a whole bunch of Disney references and laugh at them” then you’re going to have a good time with this one. Haters are going to hate, but in reality, there isn’t much to hate here.
GENRE Comedy Horror
DIRECTOR Steven LaMorte
STARRING David Howard Thornton, Allison Pittel, Amy Schumacher, Jesse Posey
ORIGINAL TITLE Screamboat
ALTERNATIVE TITLE N/A
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN USA
RELEASE DATE 2 May 2025
