I Heart Willie

While it has most of the formulaic stereotypes of a typical slasher, this movie brings an original twist to the old formula. With all of the public domain movies coming out, I was expecting just another blood and guts horror movie starring a beloved character from my youth, but what I got was a love story woven into the fabric of a gruesome tale of caution. I didn't see a masked monster out for blood, but rather a man rejected by society who is forced to embrace his inner darkness in the search for acceptance. Willie's subtle attempts to bring joy to his victims left me feeling empathy for him. Surprisingly, it feels more like an antihero movie where you cheer for the bad guys. All in all, it was a lot of fun to watch. It made me think about how many quiet oddball kids I may have affected in my youth who are now struggling with their own darkness. Be nice out there folks, you never know who might be the next Willie.

Trying to improve their ratings, a group of paranormal investigators look to explore a local legend of a killer hiding out in an abandoned factory that features rumors suggesting him as the inspiration for Steamboat Willie forcing them into a race to stop the maniacal killer.

This was far better than expected even if it still falls a bit short. One of the finer features here is the rather solid and generally impressive means through which this one sets about trying to connect this to the more famous character. This allows the film to offer up a solid enough main setup as just a straightforward slasher, bringing the group of online explorers out to the location to investigate the claims of a lonely figure living at the remote site who serves as the source of numerous disappearances over the years. Once they arrive and start to notice the area full of signs that something's wrong including the eerie, disused look and smattering of blood left behind, it all comes together to create a solid background for what's to come involving the revelation about the killer holding victims captive around the site. This all works incredibly well at generating the kind of solid indie slasher without tying into the popular figure. That brings about a series of fun and thrilling setpieces showing the killer stalking the group in his hideout lair. The initial attack on the exterminator hanging around the facility trying to look for an infestation or the first attack on the group where he surprises the humping couple in the exterminator truck gives this a solid start with some impressive start to things. The confrontations with the hulking, masked killer stomping around have a nice brutal edge that gets enhanced by the finale which turns into some far more brutal and graphic torture sequences involving the killer capturing the surviving members of the group and setting about dismembering and torturing them for their gain. These scenes are inventive, bloody, and quite chilling with how they play out, especially once it gets to put its twist into motion, all of which make this a solid enough time overall. There are a few drawbacks holding this one down. Among the main issues here is the film's rather plainly telegraphed twist set up quite early on that it becomes painfully obvious what's going to happen later on. It starts pretty early with an obvious red light that signposts the whole thing quite easily yet the incident is supposedly treated as a revelation when it's fully unveiled as a shocking twist to the final act. It's somewhat less interesting than it comes off as when it comes about because of this which tends to also have the effect of rendering the middle section quite dull with the section being highlighted by the sluggish pace during this section. Having the low cast to knock off is a secondary issue with that as well, and when it's all coupled with the preferential treatment of the characters that comes about here there are some drawbacks to this one.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, and Brief Nudity.

This was a film that I got the chance to see via screener thanks to Erika from Gold Dust PR. When hearing that Steamboat Willie was going into the public domain, with a slew of other figures like Winnie the Pooh, I wasn't shocked to learn that there were horror films being made. Now at this time, I've seen Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey. I didn't hate it, but acknowledge it is an absurd, low budget slasher film. Since this is a wide 2025 release, I figured I'd give it a shot.

Synopsis: a group of friends' steps into a deadly mousetrap where pure evil seeks to harvest their skin in this horrific origin story of the most beloved cartoon character of modern times.

We start this with seeing violent images edited together with seeing a television showing what looks like the original Steamboat Willie. This also gives us newspaper headlines that tell the story of mouse-boy. He was the inspiration for this character. The boy was thought to have died in a fire at 16. There are reports of disappearances in the area of his family's manor. This is in Mexico, but his family was supposed to be from Germany. Going along with this, we see a large figure, who dons a Mickey mask, torturing someone. They are played by David Vaughn. It is here we see that he flays the person. There also is an exterminator who shows up and hears music, drawing them into his lair.

It is then from there we meet our group from the synopsis. Driving is Nico (Micho Camacho). He is friends with Daniel (Sergio Rogalto). They have a YouTube channel where they illegally explored haunted locations. That is the reason for their trip now. They're going to the home of Willie to film their next episode. Joining them is Daniel's ex-girlfriend, Nora (Maya Luna). They are now friends and broke up due to him moving away. She is an expert on the lore of Willie and also speaks Spanish. Lastly there is Jess (Daniela Porras), who has a crush on Daniel, despite being good friends with Nora.

This group explores and gets spooked by a homeless man living here, played by Drew Hartley. When they're settling in to eat and have drinks, Nora tells a story of an encounter she had here when she was younger. She might have even seen Willy. It doesn't make sense due to how old he would be. She believes that 'true evil never dies'. This group then finds the abandoned exterminator van, with blood in it. It then becomes a nightmare for them as they're targeted by this masked killer.

That is where I'll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Something that I wanted to say here is that I doctored the synopsis I found online, because it feels to me like it has a spoiler in it. Another one was similar, but had incorrect information as well. If you can avoid those to let the reveal happen organically, I think it makes this better. What we are getting here though is a simple enough slasher with a group of people who come to this remote location and are attacked by a masked killer. The caveat is that the killer is Steamboat Willie. It made it surprisingly funny without being cheesy.

What made me smile was the care in the lore of Steamboat Willie that is incorporated here. Willie is supposed to have been deformed and called mouse boy. This then inspired the cartoon who would then become the face of Disney. This causes the killer to love the icon as well and even dresses like him. There are good touches there with shorts that have mouse buttons like Mickey. He then has the mouse mask that he wears. There is more to that I won't spoil that includes another character. Vaughn brings good size to this role as well which works.

Now I did want to shift to how I normally judge slasher films. They either need to have good characters or kills. I did want to start with the former. I thought this group and why they came to this location was good. It fits this modern era with everyone having a YouTube channel. We've seen similar things like with Grave Encounters. Nora is good as our expert. Daniel knows about this place as well. There is an information dump, but it worked for me because Nico and Jess don't know. It makes sense to fill them in as well as us as the audience. We are limited on the number of characters, because aside from that we have the homeless man, the exterminator, the first victim and then an after credits sequence that has a family. Everyone was distinct enough.

I'll then discuss the acting performances. Luna is good here as our lead. What I like is that, please forgive the pun, but she is mousey. She seems quiet. The more we learn about her though, the more depth that gets revealed. I do think there was one conversation that should have come later, but I get why it doesn't though. Rogalto and Camacho are solid as this duo who have the channel, they are filming the content for. We never see them filming, something I didn't think of until looking back. That's a misstep. Porras is interesting as this 'goth' who tagged along as the friend of Nora. What is odd there though is that she wants to hook up with Daniel, who is her friend's ex. Other than that, the rest of the cast was fine for what was needed.

All that is left then is the other part of what I look for, the kills. This falls under the filmmaking. Starting with the location, I do love using this isolated place like they do. It makes it difficult for help to arrive or just easily escape. The cinematography and framing were also good. Something that is interesting here is that this features torture. We don't see it on screen though. I will commend them that if they don't want to go too violent or can't make it look good, leave it to our imagination. My problem though is that I think we need to see just a bit more for this work. Then to bring up the soundtrack, I did like the use of the song 'Flight of the Valkyries'. The rest of the music and sound design fit what was needed. There are a couple moments where we hear a Mickey impersonation that made me smile.

In conclusion, this film is better than I was expecting. I do find it creative to incorporate different things from Steamboat Willie into the lore of this character. The writing here isn't bad. We have a simple slasher set up and I thought how that part of the story was executed was fine. The title makes sense as we get into this. I thought the look of Willie and the cast of characters he stalked was good. Luna was the standout there. This is made well enough. The only gripe there is not seeing more with the kills. The cinematography, framing and sound design were the standouts. If you're a slasher fan, I'd recommend this. It isn't cheesy and takes a standard approach.

My Rating: 7 out of 10.

I truly enjoyed I Heart Willie! I had the chance to watch early & give it a review on my YouTube channel. The actors all did a great job at portraying their characters. It got to the point really quick and I enjoyed how the main character Nora showcased an even-balance of innocence & madness.

I will be further supporting this film by also watching it in the theaters when it gets a special release for a one-night theater run on February 26th at my local AMC theater in my area. It's a deliciously demented twist on a Bonnie & Clyde dynamic. Check it out if you get the chance. Perfect camp & horror blend!

I'm fairly glad I saw this demented nightmare fueled slasher! Crazy how this is about a menacing take on Mickey Mouse instead of the innocent one we all know and love this is pure madness. Average acting, excellent horror, solid dialogue, and amazing terror especially in the last half!

There was only a couple others seeing the film they'd seemed like a delightful interesting beings, a little unfortunate this isn't more known it's definitely great entertainment! I seem to be one of few that cares for special features made the 15 bucks more worth it although I was at the theater for 11 hours that's rare for me regardless of anything highly recommend however possible to see.