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There are two completely different kinds of brutality afoot in movies like “Screamboat,” the latest in the low-budget horror movie craze to pervert beloved intellectual property the instant their 95-year copyright protection lapses into the public domain. First, there’s whatever sadistic fates the filmmakers have in mind for the characters, from being impaled by a forklift to having their faces plunged into the propeller of the Staten Island Ferry. But the real violence — and the reason audiences presumably pay to see these IP parasites — is what’s done to the characters themselves, as there’s an illicit thrill in desecrating powerful brands, like Disney.

“Screamboat” isn’t the first slasher movie to spoof “Steamboat Willie,” the 1928 animated short that introduced a primitive black-and-white version of Mickey Mouse, but it’s a lot more fun than last year’s “The Mouse Trap,” a pathetic cash grab in which some guy...

The Grinch's blood-red Santa Claus coat isn't the only splash of crimson that'll be decking the halls this holiday season. Inspired by Dr. Seuss's classic children's story, the hairy green villain is making a killer comeback in XYZ Films' new parody horror movie.

"The Mean One" - which got its title from the song "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch," originally performed by Thurl Ravenscroft in the 1966 animated TV special "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!" - reimagines the story of the infamous Grinch by sucking out all the childood whimsy and replacing it with a gruesome storyline that results in piles of blood-stained snow.

If Dr. Seuss's original Grinch was as cuddly as a cactus and as charming as an eel, it sounds like director Steven Lamorte's The Mean One (David Howard Thornton) is someone Cindy You-Know-Who (Krystle Martin) might need to fight off with a 39-and-a-half-foot pole.