- Directed by Steven LaMorte
- Written by Matthew Garcia-Dunn, Steven LaMorte
- Stars David Howard Thornton, Allison Pittel, Amy Schumaker
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 42 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rn_uzCVWOrY
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
They took another of the cartoon characters who have gone into the public domain and really embraced it, creating an origin story that explains the creation of the cartoon. The setting is great, on an actual decommissioned Staten Island ferry, and the whole package was entertaining. On the silly side of horror. We enjoyed it.
Spoilery Synopsis
Two workers are on the Staten Island Ferry, and Dominique hears something moving around deep inside. Neil says Get used to it, as this boat is old. Back in the 1920s, the ferry ran on steam, and he’s stealing part of it that’s valuable for his retirement. They open a hatch and let a bunch of steam out. They hear whistling and realize they’re being attacked. It comes out of nowhere and steals his nose. It kills them both as credits roll.
We watch as an all-girls birthday party arrives at the ferry. We get to see the various characters and are reminded that New Yorkers are weird people. The captain gets a call that the trip is going to be delayed due to heavy fog in the harbor. The captain leaves anyway.
Homeless man Barry tells EMT Amber, “We’re all gonna die!” Pete, a deckhand, and Selena, a passenger, talk about her avoiding the birthday crew.
A guy in a Statue of Liberty costume gets killed by a tiny furry creature.
Selena talks to Amber about moving back home away from New York. The cop gets beaten to half to death with a hammer and dropped into the ship’s propeller as Selena watches. We finally get a good look at Steamboat Willie.
Selena tells Pete, Amber, and some other people. When she describes the killer, they all think she’s drunk. Meanwhile, Willie kills the captain. Willie then recreates a certain iconic scene from a very old cartoon as he steers the ship around in circles.
When the crew figures out that the captain is dead and they’re off course, they argue over who’s in charge. Amber sees Willie kill two of the birthday partiers. She goes to Selena to tell her that she was right. Pete joins in and tells about the captain.
Pete moves everyone down to the lower level for safety. The majority of the passengers get locked into a room together down there and they soon see Willie as well. He turns the hose on all of them and then watches them electrocute.
Pete, Amber, and Selena hide and make a plan. They join up with two more survivors, Moses and Mateo. They find old Barry, who’s dying. “You’re all going to die!” He tells them about Steamboat Willie, an old legend from the days of steam. He’s lurked in the underbelly of the ship for decades. He was a kindhearted mouse that everyone called “Willie” who used to be a friend of a man named Walt, but then Willie went evil over the years.
Cindy, the final party girl, soon sobers up enough to figure out what’s going on, but Willie harpoons her at the same time.
The group needs to go down to the lower levels to find some flares. Selena and now-Captain Pete have a moment. They run into Dominique, who survived the opening credit scene, and she talks about how they’re losing power.
Turns out, Dominique has always been on Willie’s side and turns against the people. As she puts on a helmet with huge mouse ears, she explains that Willie has a mission, to find someone out there lost at sea, and nothing’s going to stand in his way.
Amber and Selena gang up on the little evil mouse, but the flares aren’t there.
Dominique has all the flares. “Our world is the happiest place on Earth.” Willie doesn’t care, as he kills her too. Moses shoots a flare at the mouse, which blows up the engines, and now the boat is sinking.
Willie kills Pete next, which traumatises Selena. Selena finds an old photo of Willie and his girlfriend, and she gets an idea. Willie is about to kill Amber and Matteo when Selena shows up, dressed like a sexy mouse to trick him. Then she whacks him with a huge cartoonishy oversized mallet.
Willie is about to push Selena overboard when he has flashbacks to his own shipwreck when he lost his girl and helps her back aboard. She stabs him in the head with scissors, and he finally goes overboard.
“Still beats tunnel traffic,” Amber jokes as a boat comes to rescue them. “If this doesn’t make you a New Yorker, nothing will,” she tells Selena.
We cut to a pile of trash on the beach. Willie is there, and he wakes up to start whistling again. His lost girlfriend finds him…
Brian’s Commentary
This, of course, is another film based on Steamboat Willie, which went into the public domain not long ago. The thing with the real-life Willie is that he doesn’t really have any kind of backstory or mythology, he’s little more than a whistling cartoon character, so the filmmakers were free to do pretty much anything they wanted with the concept. The party girls are all named after Disney Princesses Cindi (Cinderella), Ariana (Ariel), Jazzy (Jasmine), Bella (Belle), Ilsa (Elsa), and Rory (Aurora), so Willie gets his revenge on all of them.
This was filmed on an actual, decommissioned Staten Island Ferry. There are normally ten boats that cover that route, and the trip usually takes about twenty minutes.
Willie is a small puppet about half of the time, but in closeups, he’s played by David Howard Thornton, of “Terrifier” fame. And in those scenes, he’s essentially a furrier version of Art the Clown and the kills are similarly over the top.
It’s goofy but not too bad!
Kevin’s Commentary
I liked that it was loaded with dark humor, with a creature that had cartoon powers, which led to the cartoon. It was pretty clever, I thought. The cast is decent, the effects are quite good. I thought it was a fun watch.