I was not prepared for Mickey Mouse to cut off a penis in Screamboat

Horror ‘reinterpretation’ of Steamboat Willie Screamboat has landed in cinemas (Picture: Sklae Lorand/Signature Entertainment)

Screamboat, the horror spin on Steamboat Willie – the short which introduced Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse in 1928 – is somehow both really quite awful and oddly irresistible at the same time.

It’s not the first film to capitalise on the copyright to older versions of Disney characters expiring by putting them in slasher flicks and drenching them in blood; The Mouse Trap even beat it to take the first nibble out of Mickey’s legacy last year.

But there is a weirdly undeniable charm to the shlockiness of Screamboat, especially when writer-director Steven LaMorte is peppering the audience with constant Disney references, both of the cheap-and-easy variety and some which are a little cleverer.

The action takes place on the Staten Island Ferry out of New York City late one night, on a rickety boat dating from the 1920s and called, fittingly for those who know, Mortimer.

However, what the boatload of commuters – which also includes a group of five obnoxious party girls dressed as Disney princesses – don’t know is that there is a flesh-eating rodent onboard, merrily whistling as he picks off passengers one by one in gruesome ways.

The audience has already seen him rip off the nose of a worker, whose colleague promptly slips on it on the floor before Willie (David Howard Thornton) menaces her. It’s a good introduction to the gore, silliness and questionable quality of this movie.

Terrifier actor David Howard Thornton plays this nightmarish version of Mickey (Picture: Sklae Lorand/Signature Entertainment)

Thornton is already known to horror heads as Art the Clown from the Terrifier franchise, but this time he’s dressed in a rangy, furred mouse costume – complete with those iconic round ears – and Mickey’s big shoes and shorts.

He gives a jaunty performance, relying on grunts, whistles and mutterings over speech, as he busies himself on his murderous rampage. The film takes far too long between the incidents, the gruesome and inventive nature of which are Screamboat’s highlights.

One passenger, dressed as a Times Square version of the Statue of Liberty, is killed after Willie pushes his torch through his skull, while various officials are bumped off by being burned alive, fed into a propeller, impaled and decapitated.

While Thornton’s Willie has quite a moment standing on the body of the headless driver, whistling as he spins the wheel in the blood-spattered room, it’s nothing compared to when his shenanigans lead to a man’s penis being chopped off mid-fellatio by his girlfriend’s teeth.

The film is shlocky but its shocking gore is one of its strongest elements (Picture: Sklae Lorand/Signature Entertainment)

Said bloody penis is then carefully wrapped up and taken by Willie to use on another unsuspecting victim in a later scene, in a sequence of events I truly didn’t anticipate seeing when I sat down for this horror parody.

Unfortunately, the level of acting in Screamboat outside Thornton – who can do pretty much whatever he wants as Willie anyway – is okay at best.

Teen Wolf star Tyler Posey makes a cameo and easily provides the most convincing acting in the whole piece, although his brother Jesse as reluctant captain Pete – a main character – is decent enough. Others waver quite wildly depending on the dialogue’s serviceability and current scenario.

The same sadly can also be said of Screamboat’s poor lighting which really lets it down in the final act of the movie, when camerawork has already been shaky in places. And while it’s admirable to simply used forced perspective and separate shots to film Thornton’s scenes as Willie, it really shows because there’s no clear indication of his size for a long old while – and then it doesn’t even seem consistent either.

Screamboat sees Willie terrorising a ferry from Staten Island, with passengers forced to fight for their lives and other appendages (Picture: Sklae Lorand/Signature Entertainment)

But the flashes of quality – like the gore, like some of the more knowing Disney jokes – do still provide a good time. And the embracing of Willie’s cartoon background, both literally in one sequence and when Willie takes a shine to Allison Pittel’s passenger Serena, give more of that.

Screamboat is basically exactly what you think it is, a goofy and gruesome knock-off, and it’s winning no awards. However, if that’s the kind of entertainment you want then this will scratch that itch.

Screamboat is in Vue cinemas in the UK – and showing in the US – now.

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