The Steamboat Willie ‘Screamboat’ Monster Looks Even More Ridiculous Than You Imagined

A Steamboat Willie slasher flick was always going to have a pretty hefty dose of goofiness (though Goofy himself is not in the public domain until 2028), but this “Screamboat” monster reveal is nuts.

“Screamboat” had already unveiled a teaser trailer (as first shared by IndieWire in August 2024), but the Mickey Mouse precursor character was not depicted in it. That may have been for the best, as “Screamboat” director Steven LaMorte’s monster looks like, well, what you see above.

David Howard Thornton (Art the Clown in the “Terrifier” trilogy) plays Steamboat Willie in the film from DeskPop Entertainment and distributor Iconic Events Releasing. Willie was designed by Quantum Creation FX as both a puppet and a costume — it’s as practical as the boat the film shot on.

“‘Screamboat’ follows a group of New Yorkers on a late-night ferry ride that turns deadly when a mischievous mouse begins a rampage, targeting unsuspecting passengers,” the official synopsis reads. “The unlikely crew must band together to thwart the murderous menace before their relaxing commute turns into a nightmare.”

“Screamboat” initially had a January 2025 release date but has been pushed until April. The horror flick has no affiliation with Disney, of course.

Steamboat Willie is a mouse, and so the character is mouse-sized, which adds to the absurdity — both intended and otherwise. The first-look photo juxtaposes Willie with a human-sized bench. It’s all part of the charm, or at least the challenge.

“Because of his size, there are some really crazy kills in this movie that were pretty tough to pull off,” LaMorte previously told IndieWire. “There are definitely scenes that I feel confident I’m going to have to have an awkward conversation with my mother about after we’re done.”

Fair enough, because I’m surely going to have to talk my kids through some nightmares here.

LaMorte directed 2022’s “The Mean One,” a horror parody of Dr. Seuss’ “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” Guess who played the Grinch The Mean One? Also Thornton.

Like Winnie-the-Pooh and some other beloved children’s characters now being bastardized for blood, Steamboat Willie, who debuted in 1928, is now in the public domain. It’s cheap horror that can in theory make big bucks (on a return-on-investment basis, at least). British filmmaker Rhys Frake-Waterfield’s “Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey” made $7.7 million on a $250,000 budget, and it spawned a just-as-successful sequel and a full-on “Poohniverse,” with “Bambi: The Reckoning,” “Pinocchio: Unstrung,” and more grim fairytales on their way.

Variety first shared the first look image.