'Screamboat' Review: A Dark and Bloody Cruise You Won’t Forget

Screamboat

Directed by Steven LaMorte

Written by Matthew Garcia-Dunn

Starring David Howard Thornton

Release Date: April 2, 2025

Published: April 30, 2025

Earlier this year, the classic animated short film, Steamboat Willie, entered the public domain. Now, it can be used freely without copyright issues. However, the character Mickey Mouse is still protected. The animated film, Steamboat Willie, is now fair game. This leads to the horror adaptation, Screamboat, which aims to twist a beloved classic and go viral.

Screamboat stars David Howard Thornton, known for his role as Art the Clown in Terrifier. He plays Steamboat Willie, a lonely, two-foot-tall mouse who befriends Wally, the Captain of the Long Island Ferry. Wally loves Willie and makes him co-captain. Tragically, Wally dies in a ferry accident, leaving Willie trapped in the ship for nearly 100 years. Over time, he grows angry and vengeful.

In the present day, engineers accidentally release Willie from his watery prison while fixing the old ferry. Now free, Willie brutally dispatches the engineers. Next, he targets a group of New Yorkers on a late-night trip home. This group includes bartender Selena (Allison Pittel), friendly crewmember Pete (Jesse Posey), and kind EMT Amber (Amy Schumacher).

Selena, Pete and Amber are our most likely to survive characters. Thankfully, for those looking for blood and guts, there is a diverse group of other characters on the ferry, like the full ship's lazy, incompetent crew, a drunken bachelorette party, bored cops, and a couple who can’t stop making out. Spoiler alert: they die from electrocution while still locked in their embrace. The body count in Screamboat will satisfy gore fans.

Let me be clear: Screamboat is an exploitation horror movie. It is bloody, gruesome, and dark. There’s self-aware humor since the villain is a killer mouse. But mostly, it’s a gross-out film. Guts are spilled, blood splatters everywhere, and one wild scene features a drunken bridesmaid, a cop, and oral sex. It’s one of the craziest moments in recent horror.

Do I like or recommend Screamboat? Yes, sort of. You need low expectations for a film this depraved and lacking in purpose. It’s a greedy grab at a well-known property. Any hopes for great art or decent cinema should be left at the door. Screamboat is mainly a series of horrific death scenes, featuring a psychotic whistling mouse and a cynical sense of humor. Between the bloodshed, it critiques influencer culture, New York City, and horror tropes.

If you can overlook Screamboat’s gross, capitalist motives, you might enjoy its inventively silly nature. It's a cash grab and not a particularly ambitious one. There is no attempt at anything more than capitalising on an existing piece of intellectual property for a quick buck. Screamboat is gross. It's gross in terms of what is in the movie and it is gross in how the film came to be created. Does that mean it's not fun? No, I have to admit, it is kind of fun. You just have to swim through a lot of sleaze to get to bits that are genuinely, darkly funny or surprising.

I won't ever see Screamboat again, but I don't regret having seen it.

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