'Screamboat' Review
Image Source: JoBlo
As anyone who has read my reviews on this site for a while knows, I have been on a sort of quest to find at least one good “killer childhood icon” film. Not even “good for what it is” but actually good. I’m not expecting original Nightmare on Elm Street or The Exorcist good, just something that I can look at and say, “that had some quality to it.” The closest thing I’ve found so far is the second Blood and Honey film. Yeah, this quest has not been kind to me. I dove back into the world of killer childhood characters with Screamboat. A slasher film starring Terrifier’s own David Howard Thornton as the killer couldn’t be all bad, right? The man who played Art the Clown (and the Joker in the little-known Joker’s Wild short) would certainly elevate this movie above the regular schlock? Well… let’s take a look.
The story follows a bartender named Selina as she travels at night on a New York ferry that’s being stalked by a killer, Steamboat Willie. Everyone tries to stay alive while he slaughters them one by one. It’s a fairly by-the-numbers story. Does that make it bad? Eh. The film has enough in it to keep you vaguely invested throughout most of it. As one would expect, there’s a kid who needs saving and a love interest. None of the characters have any real depth, but this film isn’t trying to be Casablanca here. Basically, the story and characters are super standard with nothing interesting about them to speak of, but I didn’t spend any time going, “I hope the evil mouse comes and kills that person soon.”
RELATED:
Image Source: JoBlo
Now let’s talk about that little evil mouse. So far in these killer childhood character films, we’ve not exactly been spoiled with quality. They’ve ranged from “fun enough” all the way down to “very, very bad.” Willie, in this film, is more in the “okay” range. David Howard Thornton is obviously always a gem, and he brings more character to Willie than another actor might be able to. His Willie is more than a brute slasher, and you can tell that Thornton is having fun playing the character. Due praise must also be given to the makeup effects. Examining the character, you can see a lot of great details. While the look is rather monochromatic and a bit boring, that’s probably in reference to its black-and-white roots.
It’s not all good, though. He makes little noises throughout the film that eventually start to become really annoying. Also, sometimes the film can’t really seem to stick to a size for him. He seems to grow or shrink depending on the scenario, especially when it comes to what kinds of weapons he’s wielding at the moment. It can be a bit distracting.
The kills themselves are… fine, I suppose. Nothing too great, and there are a few that are fake-looking enough that it took me out of the movie. It wouldn’t surprise me if most of the budget went to the setting, Thornton, and makeup, leaving a smaller amount for the effects. They’re pretty typical of a low-budget slasher like this. None of them were Troll 2 bad, but there wasn’t anything in there that I found highly creative. It was usually just Willie grabbing whatever sharp and/or heavy object was near him and dispatching the witless character next to him.
Overall, the film has its moments. The characters aren’t actively awful, Thornton is having a blast as usual, and that comes across; the setting is kind of interesting, and the kills are halfway decent. However, there’s nothing in it that elevates it to what I would call “good” status. It’s merely not as awful as some of the other films that I’ve reviewed in this genre. It’s hard to call that high praise.
Rating: 4.5/10
READ NEXT:
Latest News
Featured
