“Screamboat” won’t set sail on its official theatrical voyage until April 2, but the movie’s star skipper is already seeing clear skies.
“I’ve been to two of the screenings so far, and the audience reactions have been fantastic. They’ve really gotten what we’re trying to do,” David Howard Thornton told IndieWire — ahead of the trailer’s exclusive debut. “I like to call it ‘splat-stick’ comedy because it’s just an absurd concept when you think about it. I mean, it’s a mutant mouse going around on a boat killing people.”
Directed by Steven LaMorte and co-written with Matthew Garcia-Dunn, “Screamboat” sees Thornton taking off his typical “Terrifier” make-up to disappear into the role of a serial killer Steamboat Willie. The upcoming slasher is the latest in a string of genre movies twisting beloved childhood memories into an indie filmmaking movement. The opportunity to spin Disney’s black-and-white cartoon from 1928 into a bloody creature feature set on the Staten Island Ferry came when the IP rights lapsed.
“I’ve been a lifelong fan,” said Thornton, describing his relationship to Disney. “The first voice I ever discovered I could do character-wise was Goofy during a story time moment in first grade. I built all my voices off of Goofy and Donald and Mickey over the years. My first starring role that I ever really had outside of a church theater was in my middle school production of ‘Mickey’s Christmas Carol.’ I played Mickey as Bob Cratchit. So it’s a full circle moment for me.”
“Screamboat” reunites Thornton, LaMorte, and much of the team behind 2022’s “The Mean One” — another horror parody that saw Thornton playing The Grinch. The hours he spent getting fuzzy for that film helped him spend nearly four hours each day transforming into a tiny, razor-teethed terror for “Screamboat.” It also put him in the perfect position to land every meta-joke and Easter egg for hardcore fans of both scary movies and sideways adaptations.
“For Willie, I wanted to base a lot of his movements and everything off of the original cartoon, and so I of course went back and rewatched the original several times just to get how he bops around a little bit,” said Thornton. “I also discovered some things with the prosthetics too, where I could make my nose twitch if I wanted to, if I breathed a certain way. So there’s a scene in the movie where my nose is twitching while I’m smelling the air, and that was actually me just figuring that out from the inside.”
“Ingenuity” and Thornton have become synonymous, and the characters he plays are symbols of horror’s increasing power across the independent film market. During the 2025 Indie Spirit Awards, Sean Baker shouted out the “Terrifier” films in his semi-viral Best Director acceptance speech for “Anora.”
“That was kind of bonkers,” said Thornton, when asked for his reaction. “I thought it was funny that they have these indie awards and we get name dropped like that, but we weren’t even invited to it. Because last year we broke a world record with the ‘Terrifier’ films of being the highest-grossing unrated film of all time. That should have gotten us some kind of invitation, right?”
Coming off the success of last fall’s “Terrifier 3” into a year that’s already been great for horror comedies (see “The Monkey” and “Heart Eyes”), “Screamboat” should have no problem finding its passengers — but Thornton is happy to help with recruiting.
“We’re not like one of these bigger studios. We’re very indie,” he said. “So, we’re relying on the fans to get the word out. That’s why we’ve been doing these advanced screenings. Theaters are doing a different thing now where movies aren’t getting a run unless they get advanced ticket sales. So, we’re getting the word out.”
All aboard! Watch the exclusive “Screamboat” theatrical trailer below:
Distributed by Iconic Events Releasing and DeskPop Entertainment and, “Screamboat” is in theaters April 2.
