Cinema
Screamboat
Steven LaMorte (director)
(studio)
18 (certificate)
102 (length)
02 April 2025 (released)
4 d
There’s a few of these around. The poster for Screamboat is blatant regarding who this film inspired by. Though it is separate from the Rhys Waterfield collection of public domain characters, and the various other mouse orientated films that have taken advantage of a certain character coming into public domain, or at least some elements, have to be careful here.
The films opens as it means to go on with a creature attack that leads to man having his face pulled of. Cut to Selena (Allison Pittel) running to escape a drunken birthday party in New York, and ends up at the Staten Island Ferry terminal, as it is about to leave early after pressure from the captain.
The weather is bad and but not as bad as the creature that was released pre-title sequence that goes on a killing spree of great violence and a lot of blood. A water and electricity massacre gets the numbers down to a manageable slasher level which are picked off with cheap but ok special effects.
Written by Steve LaMorte, who co-wrote with Matthew Garcia-Dunn, Screamboat screams parody and with some glee. There’s almost a mocking of their sources as the mutated rodent sets about the cast with wires, forklift truck and a statue of liberty lamp.
There is a backstory to the murder and mayhem which is clever, and I suspect pushing as far as the lawyers thought safe to go.
Its sporadically funny as the various members of the crew get slaughtered with then someone else having to step up take the captain’s place. The female obnoxious drunk women party is a cliché, and their treatment was just plain mean.
Needless to say, there isn’t a great deal of character building here, just enough keep then vaguely interesting and the story moving though it's probably about ten minutes too long.
For a low budget film its impressive with good practical effects that cheap and nasty 80’s way, and better than the limited CGI that is used for scale reasons between mouse and human. With the mouse there’s a few touches here and there – such as a snatch of character’s singular laugh – that ring familiar, though kudos for trying to do something a little bit different to the other films in this now sub-genre.
Screamboat will be released only at Vue cinemas on 2 April 2025. Distributed by Signature Entertainment.
The films opens as it means to go on with a creature attack that leads to man having his face pulled of. Cut to Selena (Allison Pittel) running to escape a drunken birthday party in New York, and ends up at the Staten Island Ferry terminal, as it is about to leave early after pressure from the captain.
The weather is bad and but not as bad as the creature that was released pre-title sequence that goes on a killing spree of great violence and a lot of blood. A water and electricity massacre gets the numbers down to a manageable slasher level which are picked off with cheap but ok special effects.
Written by Steve LaMorte, who co-wrote with Matthew Garcia-Dunn, Screamboat screams parody and with some glee. There’s almost a mocking of their sources as the mutated rodent sets about the cast with wires, forklift truck and a statue of liberty lamp.
There is a backstory to the murder and mayhem which is clever, and I suspect pushing as far as the lawyers thought safe to go.
Its sporadically funny as the various members of the crew get slaughtered with then someone else having to step up take the captain’s place. The female obnoxious drunk women party is a cliché, and their treatment was just plain mean.
Needless to say, there isn’t a great deal of character building here, just enough keep then vaguely interesting and the story moving though it's probably about ten minutes too long.
For a low budget film its impressive with good practical effects that cheap and nasty 80’s way, and better than the limited CGI that is used for scale reasons between mouse and human. With the mouse there’s a few touches here and there – such as a snatch of character’s singular laugh – that ring familiar, though kudos for trying to do something a little bit different to the other films in this now sub-genre.
Screamboat will be released only at Vue cinemas on 2 April 2025. Distributed by Signature Entertainment.
