Screamboat
Directed by Steven LaMorte
Written by Matthew Garcia-Dunn and Steven LaMorte
Starring David Howard Thornton, Allison Pittel, Amy Schumacher, and Jesse Posey
Unrated
Runtime: 1 hour and 41 minutes
Available in theaters April 2

by Samantha McLaren, Staff Writer

Public domain opportunism is hardly a new phenomenon in horror—one need only look at the many, many Night of the Living Dead remakes for evidence of that. But the release of Rhys Frake-Waterfield’s Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey in 2023 caught people’s attention. It combined the sacrilige of ruining childhoods with the potential for pissing off Disney, two things guaranteed to get people talking. And all that talk ensured it would happen again.

Enter Screamboat, the third (count ‘em) Mickey Mouse-inspired slasher to hit our screens since Walt Disney’s 1928 short film Steamboat Willie entered the public domain on New Year’s Day, 2024. Following in the dubious footsteps of Canada’s The Mouse Trap (2024) and Mexico’s I Heart Willie (2025), Screamboat reimagines the mischievous mouse as a genetically modified mad rodent released from the bowels of the Staten Island ferry to wreak havoc on its passengers and crew.

Terrifier’s David Howard Thornton plays the pint-sized psycho, a solid choice given the actor’s physicality (it’s hard to imagine the mute Art the Clown being so memorable with a less expressive actor in the role). Here, though, Thornton is weighed down by heavy facial prosthetics and a mound of ratty-looking fur. He still gives it his all, whistling and jigging his way through parodies of the original cartoon in between bloody kills, but the goofy charm of the character starts to wear thin as the film chugs on.

That’s an issue across the board: Screamboat feels determined to stretch its runtime far beyond the limits of its threadbare plot. A few fun opening kills set expectations moderately high before writers Matthew Garcia-Dunn and Steven LaMorte decide to wipe out most of their cast in one fell swoop. It makes for an exciting set piece, enhanced by a cameo from Staten Island’s own Impractical Joker Brian Quinn, but ultimately leaves the film as stranded as the now-powerless ferry, meandering around looking for new characters to introduce and immediately slaughter.

Most frustratingly, some of the more interesting plot threads Screamboat introduces are left dangling or simply cut short. A devotee of Willie enters the scene only to be dispatched seconds later. A tragic backstory about the loss of Willie’s friend Walter feels like foreshadowing as the mouse commandeers the ship to hunt for someone he’s lost, but don’t get too excited about a frozen Walt emerging from the East River—it’s just set-up for an as-yet-unintroduced character, one that feels like little more than sequel bait.

It all has a faint whiff of the first draft to it, not helped by some confusing character dialogue. (Why do the Disneybounding party girls seem shocked and disgusted by the ferry if they are seemingly going home to Staten Island? Did they just move there this morning?) More effort is put into jamming as many Disney references as possible into the dialogue, often in lewd and inappropriate circumstances. Many are groan-worthy, but they certainly generate a few giggles, as do the repeated jabs at Disney’s price-hiking.

That’s really all that Screamboat was trying to do, and you can’t fault it for that. The broad splash of New Yorker humor played especially well at the NYC premiere this week, but I suspect that aspect has limited appeal beyond the five boroughs. As a quick, cheap Disney parody, however, it gets the job done. The acting is what you’d expect from a film like this, the gore is a little rubbery, and the plot starts taking on water fast, but it’s a decent option to stick on with a few buds (and, I’d strongly recommend, a few brews), even if it has virtually no rewatch appeal.

It will be interesting to see how long these post-copyright pastiches remain newsworthy—a rush on the market means the novelty is already wearing off. Screamboat may just scrape in under the radar, but will anybody be clamoring for the sequel it promises? Maybe if LaMorte wishes upon a star.

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