There are two fully completely different sorts of brutality afoot in motion pictures like “Screamboat,” the newest within the low-budget horror film craze to pervert beloved mental property the moment their 95-year copyright safety lapses into the general public area. First, there’s no matter sadistic fates the filmmakers take note of for the characters, from being impaled by a forklift to having their faces plunged into the propeller of the Staten Island Ferry. However the actual violence — and the rationale audiences presumably pay to see these IP parasites — is what’s carried out to the characters themselves, as there’s a bootleg thrill in desecrating highly effective manufacturers, like Disney.

“Screamboat” isn’t the primary slasher film to spoof “Steamboat Willie,” the 1928 animated quick that launched a primitive black-and-white model of Mickey Mouse, however it’s much more enjoyable than final 12 months’s “The Mouse Lure,” a pathetic money seize by which some man in a Mickey masks hacks up his buddies in a Chuck E. Cheese-style household leisure middle. Right here, no less than director Steven LaMorte (who skewered the Grinch character in holiday-themed “The Imply One” three years earlier) loosely tries to honor the spirit of Steamboat Willie, whereas poking enjoyable at his mum or dad firm as a lot as his legal professionals will enable.

Channeling the “splatstick” vibe of administrators like Peter Jackson and Eli Roth with decidedly far-from-G-rated gags that embrace a severed penis and a headless Statue of Liberty mascot, LaMorte’s type is extra overtly comedic than “Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey” creator Scott Chambers’ comparatively unimaginative takes on different Disney characters. Willie’s introduced as a mangy rodent in big-button knickers and outsized footwear (performed by “Terrifier” star David Howard Thornton below much more elaborate make-up than he wore as Artwork the Clown), manipulated to seem knee-high to his human victims.

The script, which LaMorte co-wrote with Matthew Garcia-Dunn, gives simply sufficient backstory to elucidate how Willie got here to be trapped within the bowels of the Staten Island Ferry. A drunken old-timer (Jarlath Conroy) describes the city legend of “some type of experiment deserted within the cargo maintain” whereas a rudimentary black-and-white cartoon glints on display screen (primitive sufficient to make “Steamboat Willie” look refined by comparability). Launched from captivity within the opening scene, Willie goes on a murderous rampage over the remainder of the movie, dancing and snickering after every of his shenanigans.

Even when LaMorte didn’t have copyright regulation on his aspect, he most likely may have gotten away with passing this off as parody. That’s the spirit by which he introduces Cindi (Kailey Hyman), a blond-haired, blue-dressed birthday “princess,” and her unbearable besties, color-coded to match their monikers: yellow for Bella (Stephanie Bates), turquoise for Jazzy (Poonam Basu) and so forth. The movie introduces a boatload of different victims, together with a variation on the “bare cowboy” of Occasions Sq. and somebody dressed like Peter Pan, although it retains solely the loosest tabs on their whereabouts, such that a number of disappear with out even being dispatched.

In any other case, trapping everyone aboard a ship is an impressed technique for a demented Disney “ferry story” by which romance appears to be blossoming between artsy Selena (Allison Pittel, who’s acquired an fascinating look and actual potential) and low-level crew member Pete (Jesse Posey, the much less charismatic child brother of “Teen Wolf” star Tyler Posey). Selena’s new to the Large Apple and fascinated about shifting again residence, though if she will survive this hell journey, there’s nothing New York can throw at her she gained’t be capable of deal with. Whereas Selena exudes ambition, Pete is inexplicably decided to not advance in his job — which is difficult, since Willie retains killing his superiors, which implies Pete’s certain to change into captain ultimately, if solely by strategy of elimination.

The murders could also be grisly, however they’re performed nearly completely for laughs, as are the tossed-off references to any variety of Disney motion pictures. “Screamboat” is most taxing when it tries to be severe, testing the remainder of the solid’s restricted performing skills. For instance, the very best that may be stated about Amy Schumacher, who performs Amber the on-board medic, is that she is aware of her traces, if not the best way to ship them. In what will need to have been a favor to somebody, Tyler Posey pops up, manning the radio in a number of no-value-added scenes, together with a mid-credits tease for a potential sequel.

Pointless as that could be, it nonetheless sounds much less disrespectful to the unique IP than so most of the Disney-sanctioned live-action reboots, and infinitely much less boring than final month’s “Snow White.”