- Directed by Jamie Bailey
- Written by Simon Phillips
- Stars Simon Phillips, Sophie McIntosh, Madeline Kelman
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 20 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVjt52sOs6g
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
Once again, something has become public domain, so they thought they had to make a horror movie out of it. It’s got some humor, and some slasher action. It’s a masked killer with powers of teleportation, which makes them mighty hard to fight, but they do drag it out. Until a cut off ending that’s so abrupt and unfinished that it looks like a mistake. Brian appreciated it somewhat, and Kevin pretty much hated it.
Spoilery Synopsis
We open with a “Star Wars”-like scroller telling us all about Disney, how wonderful Disney is, and that this film has nothing to do with that at all. Nothing to do with Mickey Mouse, cause that would be BAD. Very bad. Oh, and this scroll is NOTHING like Star Wars, because that would be bad too.
We cut to Detectives Cole and Marsh preparing to interview a suspect, Rebecca. She warns them that telling her story will be bad. Credits roll as we watch the original “Steamboat Willie” play, NOT Mickey Mouse.
We cut to the Funhaven arcade. Alex works there, and she seems like more of a babysitter than an employee. Mickey, the boss, comes over and tells her and her friend Jayna they need to work late. Mickey then goes into the back room and watches “Steamboat Willie” on his old projector. He’s even got a latex mask of the character in a display case. He hears laughing as the image on screen behaves oddly. He walks over and reaches for the mask…
Jayna talks Alex into covering the late shift alone and leaves. Not long after, she sees The Mouse roaming around inside the arcade and runs… right into eight of her friends, who have rented the arcade for Alex’s Birthday Party. Jackie, Paul, Ryan, Danny, Marcus, and Rebecca are all there. The Mouse watches from afar.
We cut back and forth between all this and Rebecca and the cops talking. Rebecca explains that not all the party guests liked each or got along. No one likes Ryan and Marcus “has serial killer vibes.” Ryan calls the hockey team to beat up Marcus. Shortly after, everyone loses their phones.
Paul and Jackie sneak off into a back room to make out. The group decides to go to a real bar to drink but find that the door is chained shut– and their phones are gone. The fire exit is locked too, this is what Alex saw The Mouse doing earlier.
We see The Mouse standing behind people and menacing various characters with a big knife. He can apparently teleport, so there’s more going on here than just a slasher in a mask.
Marcus gives Alex her birthday gift, and it’s clear that he’s put a lot of thought into it. She wants him to ask her out, but he’s interrupted when Maria runs up saying that Ryan has killed someone. Alex picks up the landline to call the police, but she only gets The Mouse. Now she knows there’s something actually wrong.
The hockey team is at the bar next door, and they all watch as The Mouse comes in, wearing a full mask. They soon all die.
Ryan passes out on the roller coaster, but then the Mouse turns it on. Alex, Marcus, and Marie find Jackie and Paul’s corpses. Danny and Rebecca hide from the killer as everyone else sees a need to split up.
Danny and Gemma soon die, and now everyone knows what’s going on. Jayna finally returns to work and dies before even getting inside.
Alex, Marcus, and Marie find Ryan and tell him what’s been going on. Ryan admits that he’s got the hockey team involved, not realizing they are already dead. They soon come to the conclusion that Ryan’s too dumb to be behind all this. They trap the mouse, but he teleports away. They figure out that he’s afraid of a strobing flashlight; it breaks his teleport.
The group decides to fight back. The guys attack the mouse while Alex flashes the light at him. Somehow, he teleports away anyway. Alex says, “He’s not coming back” just as the Mouse appears behind her and cuts her head off.
The film then abruptly ends.
Brian’s Commentary
When “Steamboat Willie” entered the public domain last year, it was only a matter of time before it got the Pooh-and-Popeye treatment. Oddly enough, they do call him “Mickey” and “Mickey Mouse” several times during the film. The working title for the film was originally “Mickey’s Mouse Trap,” but they changed it.
Why would ANYONE want Ryan around? How did the mouse even know about the hockey team’s plan? The back-and-forth with the detectives really slows down the story. Why would she be so hostile to the cops who are just trying to figure out what happened?
There are no on-screen deaths until almost fifty minutes into the film. The Mouse can clearly teleport, so he’s not just a guy in a mask, but this is never really explained.
What happened to the ending? It just cuts off after Alex loses her head. We get no real closure with the cops. We get no explanation at all. We don’t get much resolution at all.
It was fine, but it needed ten more minutes of closure. There is an after-credit scene, but it’s just sequel-bait.
Kevin’s Commentary
Just because these things become public domain and they can turn them into horror movies doesn’t mean they have to. It’s another bunch-of-people-trapped-getting-picked-off-by-a-killer movie. This baddie can teleport so he is impossible to fight in any meaningful way, because reasons, but also has just enough of a weakness to flashing light to give the victims a little bit of a chance. And apparently they ran out of ideas at the end or something so they just abruptly ended it without a wrap up. I wasn’t impressed.