It only took a day after Steamboat Willie entered the public domain for it to be announced that there would be a horror film featuring the character. Although it’s not exactly groundbreaking cinema, Steven LaMorte’s Screamboat is the first of the “public domain horror flicks” to understand the assignment, delivering a horror-comedy that’s shallow and perhaps a tad overlong, but surprisingly very entertaining.
Screamboat Review
Inspired by the animated short Steamboat Willie — the only version of Mickey Mouse that has entered the public domain — Screamboat follows a group of NYC ferry passengers who must fight to survive the night against a killer mouse. If that sounds incredibly dumb, that’s because it is. But it’s dumb in a way that’s at least a little bit charming.
Screamboat leans into the inherent absurdity of its premise, and frankly, doesn’t really care if the audience gets it or not. One expositional animated sequence is pretty much all of the context that we get for why this story is happening. If you put much thought into why a killer mouse is targeting the passengers of an NYC ferry… don’t buy a ticket to Screamboat. This movie’s not for you.
The main thing that holds Screamboat back from being a truly great horror-comedy is that its runtime feels bloated. This premise — a killer mouse slasher set on a boat — is the type of thing that should be in and out in under 90 minutes. Screamboat stretches to 100, and admittedly, in any part of the movie that isn’t a kill scene, you’ll start to feel its length. The first act, in particular, drags as you are waiting for the mayhem to be unleashed.
To play the horror-fied version of Walt Disney’s iconic creation, LaMorte brought Terrifier star David Howard Thornton (who also played the unfestive antagonist of LaMorte’s Grinch parody The Mean One). In Screamboat, Thornton again proves himself to be a talented physical performer with a mime-like sensibility that lends itself incredibly well to the horror genre — especially when it has such a comedically exaggerated edge as it does in this film.
The rest of the cast is, in true B-movie fashion, not very good. Allison Pittell, Jesse Posey, Amy Schumacher, and Kailey Hyman are all forgettable at best and laughable at worst. But in a way, it feels like Screamboat would almost be a worse movie if the performances were better. Part of the charm is watching paper-thin characters played by humorously bad actors die.
There are a few fun cameos to be found in Screamboat, including Impractical Jokers star Brian Quinn (“Q”), comic Joe DeRosa, and Teen Wolf heartthrob Tyler Posey (who is the brother of star Jesse Posey). Quinn and DeRosa have a funny scene, but Posey’s appearance doesn’t have much of an impact.
Of course, the main reason that audiences will probably be going to see a Steamboat Willie slasher is for some gory kills, and Screamboat mostly delivers. One will be left almost wishing that it had leaned a little bit more into parody with kills that are more tied to Steamboat Willie imagery, but considering the slippery slope of Mickey Mouse copyright, the more “tame” approach can be forgiven. That being said, the fact that the most fun set piece in the film comes about midway through does leave the movie peaking early.
Beyond the kill sequences, you can definitely tell that Screamboat is a very low-budget picture. But with that also comes a unique cleverness that few films that aren’t B-movies have. There’s a lot of forced perspective and other camera tricks, the costume design feels very scrappy, and the locations feel very limited and confined. (Although the crew’s decision to shoot the movie on Pete Davidson and Colin Jost’s decommissioned Staten Island ferryboat is a commendable one.)
Is Screamboat worth watching?
All said, you probably know what you’re getting into with Screamboat. But unlike some of those other public-domain-inspired horror films, LaMorte’s take on the world’s most famous rodent isn’t mean-spirited or misogynistic. It’s goofy fun with some entertaining — if entirely exaggerated — kills. While it’s not good enough to earn enduring cult status, it’s an enjoyable enough time to be worth the watch.
Screamboat hits theaters on April 4.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
