SCREAMBOAT
TAKING THE MICKEY
ALL ABOARD FOR A TOON RIDE OF TERROR IN COPYRIGHT-DODGING DISNEY SPOOF SCREAMBOAT
WORDS: ROBBIE DUNLOP
FOR THE MEAN ONE DIRECTOR Steven LaMorte, a long-held desire to set a horror movie aboard a Staten Island ferry perfectly aligned with the classic 1928 Mickey Mouse cartoon “Steamboat Willie” entering the public domain.
“A lot of people don’t know this, but the ferry was originally steam-powered,” LaMorte tells SFX. “I said, ‘What if you threw a killer mouse on there, with New York City as a backdrop?’ And, you know, one thing led to another.”
The result is the horror parody Screamboat. With the producers of the Terrifier sequels on board, writer-director LaMorte cast Art the Clown actor David Howard Thornton – with whom he had previously worked on The Mean One – as the malevolent mouse who really doesn’t want the ferry’s staff and passengers to live happily ever after.