‘Steamboat Willie’ Slasher Trailer ‘Screamboat’ Is Part of Horror’s Biggest Trend

Steamboat Willie might not be as impressive as Disney‘s feature films, but it paved the way for so much that came afterward. It also paved the way for a new pair of horror films about Mickey Mouse, including Screamboat, a film that features a Steamboat Willie-style Mickey as a cold-blooded killer. Screamboat is part of one of the oddest horror trends to come down the pipeline in some time.

‘Steamboat Willie’ era Mickey Mouse joins Winnie-the Pooh in a horror trend

Mickey is one of the most famous characters to originate in film, so Disney had every reason to keep him under copyright for as long as possible. Now, the cartoon Steamboat Willie has fallen into the public domain, meaning that anyone can use Mickey’s original design for anything. Multiple filmmakers have decided that the beloved rodent needs a horror makeover, so we’re getting two slasher films based on Steamboat Willie: The Mouse Trap and Screamboat. The former is about a killer wearing a Mickey mask, while the latter is about a large killer mouse.

The Mouse Trap and Screamboat are not flukes. They are part of a glut of new horror movies based on children’s characters. The most famous is Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey (oh, bother!). Others include The Mean One, a twisted sequel to How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, The Banana Splits Movie, and upcoming remakes of Bambi and Peter Pan. This new wave of grotesque children’s characters seems to be rooted in Creepypasta. Creepypasta are online horror short stories that frequently draw from children’s television shows like SpongeBob SquarePants and Pokémon.

A horror star is bringing Mickey Mouse to life in ‘Screamboat’

Whether you think horror films based on children’s characters sound hilarious, fun, or grating, you can’t deny that Screamboat is in capable hands. In the film, Steamboat Willie will be played by horror star David Howard Thornton. Thornton is most known for portraying Art the Clown in the Terrifier film franchise. Thornton plays Art primarily through body language and expression rather than dialog, making him a good fit for an evil mouse. He also adds a lot of childish, old-school vaudevillian humor to his performance as Art that might work in Screamboat.

In a 2024 interview with Scream, Thornton discussed “I’m beyond excited to join this incredible cast and bring Steamboat Willie to life with a horror twist,” he said. “Screamboat is going to be a horrific and hilarious big-screen thrill ride that fans won’t want to miss.”

What Walt Disney said about ‘Steamboat Willie’ in retrospect

Who knows how Walt Disney would react to one of his characters having a second career as a slasher killer? The BBC reports that he had this to say when he won an Academy Award in 1954. “Over the last few years, we have ventured into a lot of different fields,” said Disney. “I only hope that we never lose sight of one thing, that it all started with a mouse.” The quote has become Disney’s most famous, and many fans of his studio know it by heart.

When Disney said “it all started with a mouse,” he couldn’t have known that the “all” would eventually include some creepy slasher films.