The idea of turning beloved characters who have recently entered the public domain into generic slashers in horror movies is a new trend. And a rather dumb one too. It’s so dumb, in fact, that I feel compelled to watch them. Last year, it was Winnie the Pooh. Now, it’s Mickey Mouse’s turn to become a horror icon. While this isn’t as out and out bad as Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, it is one of the most inexplicably dumb slashers I’ve seen in some time.
The Mouse Trap starts with a Star Wars-inspired crawl to assure the audience (and the Disney lawyers) that this in no way has anything to do with any of their trademarked characters. That’s a roundabout way of saying even though Mickey Mouse is in the public domain, we still don’t want you to sue us. They even use clips from Steamboat Willie in the opening credits because… well… they can. What better reason, right? This opening is about as clever as the movie gets, I’m afraid.
A girl working at an arcade parties with her friends after hours. Before long, they are menaced by a killer in a Mickey Mouse mask. After a few kids are bumped off, the surviving friends form a tight group to put a stop to the killer. To make matters worse, he also has the power to teleport (!?!), which makes trapping him extremely tricky.
The big problem is it takes forever to get going. Once it finally does, the stalking and slashing scenes are decidedly ho-hum, and the kills are mostly bloodless and bland. Mickey Mouse as a killer isn’t the worst idea in the world. (I did like the way they used the whistling music from Steamboat Willie as a horror theme, although they kind of forget about it pretty quickly.) It’s just a shame that the filmmakers forgot to make an actual movie to go along with the idea. The notion that he can teleport from place to place is never expanded upon or properly explained. He can just do it, and the characters all accept it, logic be damned.
The structure is janky too. The unnecessary framing device of two detectives questioning a goth girl in a prison cell is pretty useless as it interrupts whatever flow the movie had managed to build up. My guess is that it was probably only there to pad out the running time. Even the detectives seem a little suspicious of how she knows things she couldn’t possibly been there to witness. (“It all sounds like a bad ‘90s movie!”) These scenes just reinforce the choppy nature of the film and become more grating as things wear on.
Maybe The Mouse Trap should be seen as an example to future filmmakers. Just because you CAN use a public domain figure for your horror movie doesn’t mean you SHOULD. Or at least make something worthy of the name (even if the name is free to all). Who knows? One thing’s for sure. If the filmmakers made a better mouse trap, it might’ve been worth seeing.
Let’s hope the OTHER Mickey Mouse slasher, the upcoming Screamboat, will be better.
AKA: Mickey’s Mouse Trap.
I personally don't think it's a dumb trend at all, I think it's a cool one and found this film rather enjoyable.
ReplyDelete