Screamboat Review

 

Screamboat is a comedy horror movie based on the 1928 short film, Steamboat Willie. Iconic Events Releasing did distribution while studios such as Sleight of Hands Productions, Kali Pictures and Fuzz on the Lens Productions did production. The movie's written by Matthew Garcia-Dunn and Steven LaMorte who also directed.

The story is, deckhands and passengers were expecting a nice, calm experience on a boat ride. But then those passengers and deckhands are soon being killed by an evil monster. What started as just a simple boat ride turns into a struggle for survival.

Why The Delay?

Well for starters, on Thursday (when I was originally gonna post this) my mom's sister came off because she was visiting other family members and was staying at her house for some rest. So I decided to hold the review to spend time with an aunt that don't see all that much. Then on Friday a huge pain in the ass came. X (formerly Twitter) thought I was a bot because of "inauthentic behavior". I guess being more activate then usual on your own account makes the algorithm thinks you're bot even when you're comments aren't bot at all or spammy. So I send an appeal that day but I got the reason for why I thought my account was suspensed. Thanks stupid brain. When Saturday rolled in I was feeling sorry for myself, but now on Sunday I'm tired of feeling sad. So I decided to suck it up and post the review already. Hopefully things will change by Monday. If not I'll continue to post reviews not matter how long it takes for me to get my account back.

Initial Reaction

Like I said in my Peter Pan's Neverland Nightmare review, I've pretty much become the public domain horror guy. It's tough burden, but somebody's gotta do 😆.

Cons

My only negative thought is Willie's design. Now let me start off by saying I have no ill will towards the effect teams and/or David Howard Thornton. But I'm sorry, the costume isn't good to me. It's just David in a mouse costume. It's especially annoying because they did have a puppet for a few scenes, which begs the question why not use that? I would understand because of budget but if that was the case either start a Kickstarter to get more money or hold off releasing the movie until you've got more money.

Middle Ground

First let's start off with the cinematography. While it's clear the movie's budget is tight, the cinematography isn't too bad. It's decent. Enough to seem like a movie but not too little to feel like a student movie. Then there's the pacing. It drags on for a bit in the first half, but as the movie goes on it does pick up. So overall it's okay. Now onto the dialogue. One half is fine. Nothing to get too bent out of shape about. It works. But often times you get some lines that are very uninspired. So sometimes the horror and drama can get cut down a bit because of the dialogue. The last part for this section goes to the performances. David Howard Thornton once again does a spectacular job. Whether he's Art the Clown, The Mean One, or now Steamboat Willie, David is able to give a great performance through his incredible body language and facial expressions. Everybody else is meh. Some do a fine enough job, but others were very wooden.

Pros

There's two genuinely good things that the movie has going for it. Both the effects and kills are really good. Some of effects are iffy in some areas, but in some areas they really shine. Regardless of how you feel about the movie both because the overabundance of public domain horror movies or if you just didn't like the movie despite that, the kills don't disappoint.

So if you're in the mood for a horror-comedy, I say give this a try. If you don't want to watch it at all. More power to ya, I'm gonna twist your arm.

My final rating is, Okay.

That's all for now. Come back tomorrow, Monday, Apr 7th, for the next part of the Road to Superman (2025) with my review of Superman Returns. Also, if you can, maybe help me out with my X account. Contact either @X, @elonmusk, @Support, or all of the above. If you can't because you don't have an account or some other reason, I'll understand. Anyways, until then, enjoy the rest of your day and I'm sorry my self pity delayed this review.