Published on
When Winnie-the-Pooh entered the public domain, some people saw a chance to rush a slasher into production and cash in on a beloved childhood icon. The result was the atrocious “Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey”, a film so cheap, ugly, and joyless it barely qualified as cinema. But it made more than ten times its budget, and that kind of return gets noticed. Now it’s 2025, and with Walt Disney’s “Steamboat Willie” officially in the public domain, that early version of Mickey Mouse is suddenly up for grabs. So it should shock absolutely no one that we’ve now got a slasher about a two-legged rat in shorts and a cap, stalking passengers on the Staten Island Ferry: “Screamboat”.
A group of late-night passengers boards the Staten Island Ferry, only to find themselves hunted by a deranged, pint-sized rat in a sailor’s outfit—Screamboat Willie—who turns the vessel into a floating slaughterhouse. As the body count rises, survivors scramble through the claustrophobic decks and corridors, uncovering darkly comic nods to Disney history along the way.
I went into “Screamboat” with little to no expectations. The poster looked sharp, and having David Howard Thornton—best known as Art the Clown in the Terrifier films—playing the killer rat, Screamboat Willie, sounded promising. But I also know those things don’t guarantee anything. Plenty of awful movies hide behind slick marketing, and plenty of talented actors end up trapped in garbage. To my surprise, though, the final result turned out to be pretty decent.
The movie opens with sleek drone shots of New York at night, warmly lit and immediately more polished than expected. Even better, it actually looks like it was filmed on real locations instead of some dimly lit patch of forest pretending to be one. In fact, they shot on a decommissioned ferry, which gives the film a surprising sense of authenticity—it feels like an actual movie.
Of course, a slick presentation doesn’t always mean much, but the real surprise of “Screamboat” is that it’s genuinely not that bad. Thornton, buried under prosthetics that evoke Jim Carrey’s Grinch, manages to inject the killer rat with a strange sort of personality. The film delivers a handful of inventive kills, sprinkles in a mountain of Disney references, and leans into a darkly comic tone. Beyond its production values and Thornton’s performance, it’s the humor that really ends up being the highlight of “Screamboat”.
I also love that they went out of their way to make Screamboat Willie appear only about two feet tall. The easy route would have been to just let him be man-sized, but instead they relied on forced perspective, oversized props, and compositing to sell the illusion of a smaller creature. It’s not always seamless, but the effort is admirable and deserves at least an A for ambition.
That said, I’m fully aware these compliments are rooted in having gone in with virtually no expectations. While there’s plenty to enjoy in “Screamboat,” the film starts to lose momentum around the 70-minute mark—yet it still drags on for another 30 before finally docking. A leaner 80–90 minute cut would have served the movie far better.
“Screamboat” doesn’t deliver any breakout performances, though Allison Pittel’s introduction makes an impression—sprinting toward the camera in a short skirt and tight shirt, with the film not exactly subtle about what it wants the audience to notice. As a man, I’ll admit it was a memorable way to introduce her character. Still, with the sheer number of survivors at the end, it’s hard to really call her the final girl. That title could just as easily go to Amy Schumacher as EMT Amber, who ends up being the real MVP of the film, even if she’s never positioned as the lead.
It may not be a great movie, but I’d still recommend giving “Screamboat” a watch at least once—even if its rat-faced killer looks nothing like Mickey Mouse. Honestly, this could’ve been released a decade ago as a parody and Disney’s lawyers would have had little ground to stand on. But dropping it now, right as “Steamboat Willie” enters the public domain, ensures it rides that wave of publicity.
