The classic short film that introduced Mickey Mouse to the world, 1928’s Steamboat Willie has officially entered the public domain, which means filmmakers don’t need the permission of Disney to use that original incarnation of Mickey in their horror movies. And a whole bunch of them are taking advantage, with a slew of twisted Mickey projects already in the works.

The first of these features was The Mouse Trap, released just last month, with Screamboat headed our way sometime next year. And then there’s Mouseboat Massacre, coming soon.

Additionally, Bloody Disgusting has exclusively learned that ITN Studios is getting set to unleash The Mouse Experiment, and they’ve provided us with the official poster today.

Coming to VOD this Halloween season, “The film follows a group of friends stuck at a fairground amusement park hunted down by a mutated rat – STEAMBOAT WILLIE.”

For the sake of clarity, this film is NOT part of the growing “Poohniverse.”

8 points

At this point we may need to have a moratorium on dark takes of public domain characters.

permalink
report
reply
6 points

The newsworthiness of such characters would be zero if Disney hadn’t lobbied to extend the copyright on the characters for nearly a century.

permalink
report
parent
reply
5 points

Seriously, it’d be more shocking if a company was to try to use the character respectfully and with taste.

permalink
report
parent
reply
4 points

We went through this in the 90s too it feels like

permalink
report
parent
reply