As David Howard Thornton continues to gain notoriety for his role as Art the Clown in the popular Terrifier movies, his fans and slasher movie fanatics should book a ticket for Screamboat, a new killer cruise-ride horror movie opening in the U.S. in April 2025. Thornton portrays a murderous version of Mickey Mouse in the subversive slasher movie, building on a new disturbing Disney horror trend after last year’s The Mouse Trap.
With obvious nods to Jason Takes Manhattan, a classic slasher on a cruise ship stopping in New York, Screamboat turns a touristy ferry ride into a fiendish and ferocious course through hyperviolent hell. Yet, with Thornton leading the way, Screamboat is the perfect alternative and/or placeholder to keep fans busy until Art the Clown returns for a fourth Terrifier film. All aboard!
‘Screamboat’s Premise, Explained

Screamboat

Release Date

January 31, 2025

Director

Steven LaMorte

David Howard Thornton

Steamboat Willie

Steven LaMorte directed Screamboat from a screenplay he co-wrote with Matthew Garcia-Dunne. The gory slasher film concerns a group of Manhattanites taking a ferry ride across the river. The idyllic nighttime ride soon turns into a nightmarish bloodbath when a mouse suddenly morphs into a marauding murderer aboard the ferry, systematically stalking and slaying each passenger, one by one.
Between the inescapable claustrophobia of being stuck on a ferry with nowhere to run and the unremitting carnage exacted by the mutated mouse, there’s an unsettling mixture of tension/suspense and violent bloodshed that will undoubtedly sate the most calloused and uncraven horror movie fans.
For Terrifier fans especially, Art the Clown’s David Howard Thornton plays Screamboat Willie, a play on Steamboat Willie, a landmark achievement by Walt Disney, marking the first animated film starring Mickey Mouse synced with sound. Given his work in the three Terrifier films, Thornton is perfectly cast as Screamboat Willie.
Who Is David Howard Thornton?

David Howard Thornton is an American actor whose demand has increased since starring in Damien Leone’s 2016 slasher movie Terrifier. After voicing video game characters to begin his career, Thornton made his screen debut in Terrifier, portraying Art the Clown, a silent evil clown who mimes and performs silly children’s tricks.
On Halloween night in the first film, Art the Clown terrorizes Miles County, New York, targeting sisters Tara (Jenna Kanell) and Vicky (Samantha Scaffidi). Leaving a gore-sodden trail in his wicked wake, Art increases his brutal violence and body count in Terrifier 2, in which he torments a teenager named Sienna (Lauren LaVera) and her little brother.

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With each Terrifier film more successful than the last, Art’s latest massacre occurred during Christmas when the character returned for Terrifier 3 in 2024. Thornton has played the killer clown in all three movies, solidifying his status as a bona fide slasher movie villain. As such, Thornton becomes the main draw and villainous star in Screamboat, potentially adding to the actor’s horror movie legacy. After all, both Terrifier and Screamboat subvert childhood amusement and turn it into abject terror.
‘Terrifier’ and ‘Screamboat’ Subvert Childhood Joys

After depicting Art the Clown in the Terrifier franchise, Thornton proved he could amuse children with public clownish antics and frighten adults with lethal carnage. The silly Marcel Marceau miming disarms children, lulls them into a false sense of enjoyment, and fosters wonderment. Unaware of his evil, the kids admire and look up to Art, trusting that he will make them laugh with his slapstick performance. While adults are a bit more weary, Art has the same effect on his victims, lending phony security that he preys on and uses to his advantage.
A similar dynamic is expected by casting Thorton as a murderous Mickey Mouse in Screamboat. Although the mouse is a hideously deformed visage that subverts the Mickey Mouse image, the notion of adapting Disney’s first major Mickey Mouse cartoon as a violent slasher film has the same disturbing psychological effect as watching a clown go on a bloody killing spree.
The trend has been seen with recent bizarre examples like Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey and The Mouse Trap, two extremely low-budget slashers that corrupt childhood heroes and turn them into serial slaughterers. There’s also Mickey vs. Winnie on the way. While Screamboat isn’t likely to have a significant budget increase, the premise built around Thornton’s casting and the supporting cast should be good enough to attract Terrifier fans. After all, Terrifier 2 and Terrifier 3 actor Kailey Hyman, who plays Brooke, also stars in Screamboat as a ferry passenger named Cindi.

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As for baleful boat rides, it’s hard not to think of the eighth Friday the 13th movie, Jason Takes Manhattan, in which Jason Voorhees stalks students on a cruise ship before stalking through Manhattan’s streets and sewers. By the look of things, Screamboat will be just as campy, scary, and entertaining. Michael Leavy, who played different bit characters in Terrifier and Terrifier 2, is also onboard Screamboat along with distributor Iconic Events Releasing.
Apart from Thornton and Hyman, Screamboat stars Tyler Posey (Teen Wolf), Jesse Posey (Teen Wolf: The Movie), Sarah Kopkin (Killing All My Sisters), Jesse Kove (Cobra Kai), Joe DeRosa (Better Call Saul), Brian Scolaro (Mad Men), Tommy Bechtold (The Disinvited), and more. Between the subversive slasher movie premise, the talented supporting cast, and David Howard Thornton leading the way as another horror villain preying on childhood joys and fears, Screamboat becomes a must-purchase ticket to ride this spring. Screamboat opens in limited U.S. theaters in April 2025.