Looking for a good horror movie to watch this October? Directed by Jamie Bailey and written by Simon Phillips, “The Mouse Trap” attempted to use Steamboat Willie to create a thrilling horror film.
The movie starts off a girl Alex Fen working the night shift at an arcade. Her co-worker leaves for the night, but luckily enough her friends scheduled a birthday party during her shift as a way to surprise her two weeks before her actual birthday. Everyone is having fun, until they realize they are locked inside without access to their phones, trying to escape the wrath of Steamboat Willie. Throughout the movie however, it cuts between Alex’s friend, Rebecca as she’s being interrogated about what went down by two detectives.
The movie was rated 2.5 stars for its poor acting and numerous plot holes. Ashton Hubley, a senior, shared her opinion of the movie, explaining why she dislikes it, “The movie looks like a bunch of students came together to make it, but no it was a grown man who made it.” The acting of the cast isn’t convincing and interactions between characters don’t flow, feeling as though they aren’t even friends. The dialogue in the movie often has awkward pauses and lacks emotion from the actors, especially when they react to the deaths of their supposed friends.
The plot of the movie is very unsatisfying as there are numerous plotholes and questions that are never answered. One of the most major plot holes is Steamboat Willie. In a horror film, it is eventually revealed as to who the killer is and their motives, which is not the case for “The MouseTrap.” It is never once revealed who the killer is, the characters have theories, but they are all debunked throughout the movie. Steamboat Willie is presumed to be one of the friends in a Mickey Mouse mask in the beginning of the movie, only to be revealed that it isn’t even human as he can teleport. Not only is Steamboat Willie’s whole appearance in the film never explained, but what happened to the survivors is never explained as well. Rebecca causes the most questions as she’s held in a cell for interrogation by two detectives. One would think that the plotholes and questions would be answered by the interrogations, but it only leads to more questions. It’s never answered why she’s the only one being interrogated, why the detectives are being so aggressive towards her and why she doesn’t seem to care about her friends.
Despite not knowing why Steamboat Willie is there, his character is funny and in all honesty the best part of the movie. He doesn’t have much dialogue, but he still has a personality. The way he torments and mocks the characters is funny to watch, mocking them in a childish manner.
The movie overall as a whole seems very rushed. It feels as though the writers had an idea, but never finished developing the story, which may be the case as Steamboat Willie became public domain on Jan. 1, 2024 and the movie was released Aug. 6, 2024. Out of the many horror movies to watch this October, “The Mouse Trap” is not one that I would recommend.
