nichesitetool.com

Screamboat, the horror spin on Steamboat Willie – the short which introduced Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse in 1928 – is somehow both really quite awful and oddly irresistible at the same time.

It’s not the first film to capitalise on the copyright to older versions of Disney characters expiring by putting them in slasher flicks and drenching them in blood; The Mouse Trap even beat it to take the first nibble out of Mickey’s legacy last year.

But there is a weirdly undeniable charm to the shlockiness of Screamboat, especially when writer-director Steven LaMorte is peppering the audience with constant Disney references, both of the cheap-and-easy variety and some which are a little cleverer.

The action takes place on the Staten Island Ferry out of New York City late one night, on a rickety boat dating from the 1920s and called, fittingly for those who know, Mortimer.

However, what the boatload of commuters – which also includes a group of five obnoxious party girls dressed as Disney princesses – don’t know is that there is a flesh-eating rodent onboard, merrily whistling as he picks off passengers one by one in gruesome ways.

The audience has already seen him rip off the nose of a worker, whose colleague promptly slips on it on the floor before Willie (David Howard Thornton) menaces her. It’s a good introduction to the gore, silliness and questionable quality of this movie.

Thornton is already known to horror heads as Art the Clown from the Terrifier franchise, but this time he’s dressed in a rangy, furred mouse costume – complete with those iconic round ears – and Mickey’s big shoes and shorts.

He gives a jaunty performance, relying on grunts, whistles and mutterings over speech, as he busies himself on his murderous rampage. The film takes far too long between the incidents, the blood-thirsty and inventive nature of which are Screamboat’s highlights.

One passenger, dressed as a Times Square version of the Statue of Liberty, is killed after Willie pushes his torch through his skull, while various officials are bumped off by being burned alive, fed into a propeller, impaled and decapitated.

While Thornton’s Willie has quite a moment standing on the body of the headless driver, whistling as he spins the wheel in the blood-spattered room, it’s nothing compared to when his shenanigans lead to a man’s penis being chopped off mid-fellatio by his girlfriend’s teeth.

Said bloody penis is then carefully wrapped up and taken by Willie to use on another unsuspecting victim in a later scene, in a sequence of events I truly didn’t anticipate seeing when I sat down for this horror parody.

Unfortunately, the level of acting in Screamboat outside Thornton – who can do pretty much whatever he wants as Willie anyway – is okay at best.

Teen Wolf star Tyler Posey makes a cameo and easily provides the most convincing acting in the whole piece, although his brother Jesse as reluctant captain Pete – a main character – is decent enough. Others waver quite wildly depending on the dialogue’s serviceability and current scenario.

The same sadly can also be said of Screamboat’s poor lighting which really lets it down in the final act of the movie, when camerawork has already been shaky in places. And while it’s admirable to simply used forced perspective and separate shots to film Thornton’s scenes as Willie, it really shows because there’s no clear indication of his size for a long old while – and then it doesn’t even seem consistent either.

But the flashes of quality – like the gore, like some of the more knowing Disney jokes – do still provide a good time. And the embracing of Willie’s cartoon background, both literally in one sequence and when Willie takes a shine to Allison Pittel’s passenger Serena, give more of that.

Screamboat is basically exactly what you think it is, a goofy and gruesome knock-off, and it’s winning no awards. However, if that’s the kind of entertainment you want then this will scratch that itch.

Screamboat is in Vue cinemas in the UK – and showing in the US – now.

Got a story?

If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.

As fans criticize Pierce Brosnan’s horrible accent in the new Guy Ritchie series, MobLand, here’s a reminder of some of the worst fake accents to grace the screen.

Hollywood actors are frequently required to change their accents on screen, and sometimes they do such a terrible job that we are compelled to remember it years afterwards.

American actors frequently get a bad rap for appearing in British films with some of the most bizarre accents ever heard on God’s green earth.

With so many accents across the UK, it can be a real challenge to pick up some of the more niche dialects, but it’s not just the American actors that struggle.

Unfortunately, so many of the best Hollywood actors have had some performances where they have spoken with an accent that can only be described as diabolical – and in some cases, almost offensive.

From Dick Van Dyke’s cockney accent in 1964’s Mary Poppins to Anne Hathaway’s Yorkshire accent in the 2011 film One Day, there are so many talented stars who have flubbed accents.

Pierce Brosnan – MobLand

The James Bond star has been mocked for his terrible accent in the new Guy Ritchie series MobLand, also starring Tom Hardy and Helen Mirren.

Despite the fact the actor was raised in Ireland until he was 12, his Irish accent as Conrad Harrigan, an Irish kingpin, was questionable to say the least.

The actor admitted in a recent interview that his accent has disappeared with time, and he was encouraged by the director to be heavy-handed with his accent in the film.

‘Last summer I spoke to Guy (Ritchie) for the first time about it and having read the five episodes he said not to worry about it,’ he told Dave Moore on Today FM. ‘[He said] “We’ll just do it 15 minutes on the day, clear your mind, we’ll sort it out, don’t worry about it.”

‘Of course, I put the phone down and did worry about it! Five weeks later I was on the set with Tom Hardy and Guy, first day, important dialogue, important information and he just said, ‘more Irish, more Irish’ and my Irish accent has dissipated into the midst of time. It’s somewhat Californian and everything. So, I asked myself, “What kind of accent would he have?” It was Kerry.’

Dick Van Dyke – Mary Poppins

Famously – or maybe infamously – Dick Van Dyke’s cockney accent in the 1964’s Mary Poppins was something that upset the people of Britain.

The actor has previously revealed that at the time of filming, he was unaware how terrible his accent really was.

‘People in the UK love to rib me about my accent, I will never live it down,’ he once said. ‘They ask what part of England I was meant to be from, and I say it was a little shire in the north where most of the people were from Ohio.’

‘I was working with an entire English cast and nobody said a word, not Julie [Andrews], not anybody said I needed to work on it so I thought I was alright.’

In 2017, the actor was chosen by Bafta to receive the Britannia Award for excellence in television. He took the opportunity to apologise to the people of the UK for his awful English accent.

‘I appreciate this opportunity to apologise to the members of Bafta for inflicting on them the most atrocious cockney accent in the history of cinema.’

Keanu Reeves -Bram Stoker’s Dracula

Despite giving a fabulous performance as Jonathan Harker in the 1992 film, Keanu Reeves’ diabolical English accent remains the thing that fans remember most about this gothic horror film.

The director, Francis Ford Coppola, reflected that he thinks the accent went so awry because the actor was trying so hard.

‘We knew that it was tough for him to affect an English accent,’ Coppola told Entertainment Weekly. ‘He tried so hard. That was the problem, actually – he wanted to do it perfectly, and in trying to do it perfectly, it came off as stilted.

‘I tried to get him to just relax with it and not do it so fastidiously. So maybe I wasn’t as critical of him, but that’s because I like him personally so much. To this day, he’s a prince in my eyes.’

Anne Hathaway – One Day

While playing Emma Morley in the 2011 film One Day opposite Jim Sturgess, the American actress gave a good go at a Yorkshire accent.

The film was still applauded, but her accent was not, with the accent claiming she watched a certain soap to help her tap into the dialect.

‘It was really hard,’ she admitted to the BBC. ‘I worked with a dialect coach and in the evenings I watched Emmerdale a lot.’

‘It was certainly helpful with the accent, that’s for sure.’

Anne later gave a much better RP English accent while in The Hustle with Rebel Wilson.

‘I found out I had to do it a week before we started shooting. I thought if I didn’t do it, it wouldn’t make a difference, but the director insisted,’ she told The Graham Norton Show while promoting the 2018 comedy film.

She then alluded to One Day: ‘I’ve done it before and it hasn’t always gone well, and it is so stressful to see someone struggle through an accent, so I got a dialect coach and made the best of it.’

David Boreanaz – Buffy the Vampire Slayer

David Boreanaz had an unforgivably bad Irish accent while portraying Angel in the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

The actor has never addressed the accent directly, but has long been ridiculed for the flashback scene in which he had an aggressively bad accent.

Fortunately his character Angel used an American accent for most of the series!

Mischa Barton – St Trinian’s

The OC star Mischa Barton received a lot of flak for her posh English accent as she appeared as JJ French in St Trinian’s.

The actress has a strong American accent that found it’s way into her dialect as she played the’former Head Girl of St Trinian’s turned PR guru’.

Making matters worse for the actress, there was no reason for her to not have a perfect English accent, considering she was born (and raised until the age of six) in Hammersmith, London.

She also has an English father and Irish mother, suggesting she spent a fair bit of her upbringing around Brits.

Gerard Butler – P.S. I Love You

The Irish accent from the Scottish actor in P.S I Love You is one that baffled various Irish people who watched the 2007 romantic comedy.

The actor, who has been praised for many of his projects over the years, was mercilessly slammed by critics because of his dodgy accent, leading him to swear off ever speaking with the accent again.

Speaking to The Sun in 2016, Gerard joked: ‘After all those wonderful reviews and glorious feedback.’

He then indicated that he will never try an Irish accent again, saying: ‘I’ve ticked that box.’

In an interview with Irish host Paul Byrne of Movies Ireland, he apologised to all of Ireland for his accent.

‘I was hoping maybe they’d be quite forgiving of me, being a little Scottish boy whose whole family is Irish – ’cause they really are – my family is from all over Ireland.

‘I thought I’d just go in there and try my best, I notice that people when they bring it up – I get the feeling it wasn’t that great,’ he then added: ‘I’d like to apologise to the nation of Ireland for completely abusing your accent, I realise it’s a lot more beautiful accent than what I did.’

Leonardo DiCaprio – Blood Diamond

The American actor was apparently aiming for a Rhodesian (Zimbabwean) accent with a touch of South African when he appeared in Blood Diamond – but sadly missed the mark for a lot of fans.

In 2023, on an episode of The Daily Show, Trevor Noah slammed Leo’s African accent, saying that he sounded like a ‘drunk Australian’.

The actor himself, didn’t seem to think he did such a bad job.

‘I’m pretty good at imitating people. I interviewed a number of different people in South Africa and honed in on the one guy I wanted to sound like. Then it was a process where [dialect coach] Tim Monich and I recorded him and tortured him (laughs) by making him say sentences in varying ways and different energies and different tempos.

‘Those recordings became a kind of mantra I’d listen to over and over again,’ the actor told Time in 2006.

Brad Pitt – Meet Joe Black

Brad Pitt telling an old Jamaican woman ‘Everything gonna be irie’ in a Patois accent in Meet Joe Black was divisive to say the least, with some saying he nailed the tourist-y expectation, and others saying he missed the real thing by a long shot.

This accent had to be included as it’s just so unexpected in the film, and a highlight for anyone who sees the film, which earned Pitt a Razzie nomination for worst actor.

The actor later said of the film to Entertainment Weekly: ‘That was the pinnacle of my loss of direction and compass.’

Don Cheadle – Ocean’s 11

The American actor Don Cheadle played munitions expert Basher Tarr in the Ocean’s 11 franchise that was incredibly questionable.

Speaking about the accent to The Guardian, the star said that the director Steven Soderbergh told him he didn’t have to do the accent, but he insisted.

‘Steven said: “You don’t have to do it.” I said, “Well, that’s how you wrote him. I’ll try it.”‘

He joked that he could now claim that his character was simply undercover and doing a fake accent.

‘Now I can say “he was an American doing a British accent – you guys missed that?”‘

Russell Crowe – Robin Hood

Russell Crowe played Robin Hood in 2010 and was critiqued for his attempt at a Nottingham accent.

The Australian actor addressed his accent in 2018 when he replied to a tweet that read: ‘Of all the great showbiz mysteries that remain unsolved …. possibly the greatest ….what the f**k is Russell Crowe’s accent in Robin Hood ?’

The actor replied: ‘A child born in Barnsley, on his father’s death, taken to France at age 6, travels across Europe to the Middle East on foot, fights in the Third Crusade for Richard I.

‘Alongside men from all parts of Britain, Ireland and France & finally returns to England a man in his 40s.’

He also joked that Michael Parkinson inspired the accent: ‘Michael was the principal influence. At the time, he was the only person I knew from Barnsley and he certainly had travelled.

‘He kindly let me spend some hours in his company and record his voice.’

Got a story?

If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.

The live-action version of Tangled has reportedly been put on pause after Snow White bombed at the box office.

Disney is believed to be reassessing the potential of other live-action movies in the wake of Snow White’s poor performance at the box office.

The film, starring Rachel Zegler as the titular princess and Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen, failed to replicate the magic of the 1937 original, grossing just $69 million (£53 million) domestically and $145 million (£111 million) worldwide.

This is against a production budget of $270 million (£203 million), leaving Disney significantly in the red.

Sources reportedly confirmed that pre-production on the live-action version of the 2010 animated feature Tangled has been put on ice.

The Hollywood Reporter states producers had started booking meetings with potential talent to star in the remake, however, all live-action adaptations are now believed to be on hold as the studio takes a closer look at its production strategy.

The live-action adaptation of Tangled was in development with The Greatest Showman’s Michael Gracey on board to direct with a script by Thor: Love and Thunder’s Jennifer Kaytin Robinson.

Disney also has live-action iterations of its hit movies Lilo & Stitch and Moana, in the works for release this May and in July 2026 respectively.

Snow White has been plagued with controversy, angering some over its reimagining of the seven dwarf characters as ‘magical creatures.’

Lead actress Zegler faced racist abuse from trolls over her Latina heritage, with some going as far as starting petitions for her to be recast.

An early interview in which she declared the original Snow White movie ‘weird’, angered die-hard fans of the source material.

Snow White and Disney faced backlash from film critics and fans alike who criticised media coverage of Zegler’s previous tweets addressing her views on Palestine and Donald Trump.

Writing on X on August 13, West Side Story actor Zegler ended a post with ‘And always remember, free Palestine.’

According to Variety, the tweet allegedly sparked death threats towards her Israeli co-star Gadot, 39, forcing Disney to pay for additional security.

An insider told the publication: ‘She didn’t understand the repercussions of her actions as far as what that meant for the film, for Gal, for anyone.’

Variety reports that a Disney executive ‘raised the studio’s concerns’ with Zegler’s team, and Snow White producer Marc Platt flew to New York to speak to the actor.

Zegler reportedly ‘stood her ground’ during discussions and did not delete the post, but agreed to see a social media guru to vet posts ahead of Snow White’s release.

Metro has contacted representatives for Disney for comment

Got a story?

If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.