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This year saw one of the most zealously-guarded corporate empires of intellectual property spring a leak, as all the Magic Kingdom’s horses and men couldn’t keep Mickey Mouse from entering the public domain. Strictly speaking, what was no longer protected were the first three shorts in which that fabled rodent appeared, all made in 1928 — so, under current U.S. laws, their copyrights have now expired. Two years prior, the same thing happened to author A.A. Milne’s whimsical anthropomorphic creations. That liberation resulted in the quickie horror cash-in “Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey,” a near-unwatchable enterprise that cheered no one outside its makers’ accountants. Ergo, 2024 has brought us “The Mouse Trap,” which could even worse than “B&h,” which set a bar so low it was subterranean.

This Canadian production from director Jamie Bailey and writer-actor Simon Phillips no doubt hoped to spin its bad-taste concept toward similar viral-phenomenon status.

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Hulu is ready with an entertainment-packed December this year. The upcoming month will see the release of the brilliant action thriller series Paris Has Fallen and also horror thriller movies like Cuckoo. Just like every month, Hulu is ready to overload you with great content. So, we’re here to tell you about the 8 new movies and TV shows coming to Hulu in December 2024.

Paris Has Fallen Season 1 (December 6) Credit – StudioCanal

Paris Has Fallen is a French and English-language action thriller series created by Howard Overman. Based on the Has Fallen film franchise, the Canal+ series follows a French protection officer and an MI6 operative who must team up after a terrorist organization attacks Paris. Paris Has Fallen stars Tewfik Jallab, Ritu Arya, Sean Harris, Ana Ularu, Camille Rutherford, Jérémie Covillault, and Emmanuelle Bercot.

Summer Camp (December 6) Credit...

Stars: Damir Kovic, Nick Biskupek, Mackenzie Mills, Sophie McIntosh, Madeline Kelman, Simon Phillips | Written by Simon Phillips | Directed by Jamie Bailey

We’ve had Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey as well as its sequel, and a horror movie centred around Bambi is on the way. But the film that must really piss Disney off is The Mouse Trap. Filmed as Mickey’s Mouse Trap, which was probably a bit too much for the lawyers to allow, it turns their iconic rodent, or someone dressed him, into a psychotic killer.

A film like The Mouse Trap is only possible because the original Mickey Mouse cartoon, Steamboat Willie, finally slipped out from under copyright protection and into the public domain. So now Mickey, or the version of him in that cartoon, is fair game for other filmmakers. Something that a Star Wars-style open text crawl reminds the viewer of.

The actual film opens on Wednesday,...

This week brings an eclectic mix of new horror movies, including Neon’s latest in theaters, the return of Terrifier 2‘s Lauren Lavera, and even an unofficial Mickey Mouse slasher movie.

Here’s all the new horror releasing August 5 – August 11, 2024!

For daily reminders about new horror releases, be sure to follow @HorrorCalendar.

With the short film Steamboat Willie (1928) in the public domain, horror filmmakers are now free to play around with that early incarnation of Mickey Mouse, and that’s exactly what director Jamie Bailey is doing in the new indie slasher movie The Mouse Trap.

Gravitas Ventures released The Mouse Trap on VOD this past Tuesday.

In the horror movie, “It’s Alex’s 21st birthday, but she’s stuck at the amusement arcade on a late shift so her friends decide to surprise her, but a masked killer dressed as Mickey Mouse decides to play a game...

On January 1st, the earliest versions of Mickey Mouse – seen in the animated shorts Plane Crazy, The Gallopin’ Gaucho, and most famously Steamboat Willie – became public domain… which, of course, means we’re now going to get multiple horror movies that feature characters inspired by Mickey Mouse. Within the first three days of the year, we saw the short film The Vanishing of S.S. Willie, a trailer for the slasher movie Mickey’s Mouse Trap, and an announcement that Terrifier 2 producers Steven Della Salla and Michael Leavy and director Steven Lamorte, who previously made the Grinch-inspired horror movie The Mean One, were teaming up for a Steamboat Willie-inspired horror flick that we now know is titled Screamboat. Mickey’s Mouse Trap has since undergone a title change of its own – it’s now simply known as The Mouse Trap, and it’s set to receive a VOD release from Gravitas Ventures on August 6th,...

Well, we all knew this was coming: Disney has gone dark thanks to “Steamboat Willie” now being in the public domain.

The earliest version of the conglomerate’s iconic Mickey Mouse character is now up for grabs — and the team behind the upcoming horror film “The Mouse Trap” wasted no time reimagining Mickey as a murderer.

Jamie Bailey directs the twisted take on the mouse with Simon Phillips playing the serial killer version of Mickey. The teaser trailer was released January 1 to announce the project just as the character entered the public domain and legally could be incorporated in Disney-less films.

The official synopsis reads: “It’s Alex’s 21st Birthday, but she’s stuck at the amusement arcade on a late shift so her friends decide to surprise her, but a masked killer dressed as Mickey Mouse decides to play a game of his own with them which she must survive.

With the short film Steamboat Willie (1928) in the public domain, horror filmmakers are now free to play around with that early incarnation of Mickey Mouse, and that’s exactly what director Jamie Bailey is doing in the upcoming indie slasher movie The Mouse Trap.

Bloody Disgusting has learned that Gravitas Ventures will release The Mouse Trap on VOD outlets beginning August 6, 2024, followed by the film’s Blu-ray release on August 13.

Exclusively watch the official trailer for The Mouse Trap below!

In the upcoming horror movie…

It’s Alex’s 21st birthday, but she’s stuck at the amusement arcade on a late shift so her friends decide to surprise her, but a masked killer dressed as Mickey Mouse decides to play a game of his own with them which she must survive.

Jamie Bailey tells Bloody Disgusting, “The Mouse Trap film is famously the first horror film to use the...

If viewers are looking for horror flicks to consume in June during the imminent sweltering summer, AMC+ is the place to go while the cool breeze from the air conditioner keeps the sweat at bay. While there might not be a wide array of choices regarding various genres, the movies set to drop on the streaming service in the coming weeks clearly deliver top-notch quality in their respective fields. That being said, those who prefer to steer clear of spooky flicks filled with gore and heavy themes should look somewhere else to find their summer entertainment.

From survival thrillers to supernatural horror, the streaming platform has everything a horror fan could possibly want next month. However, those dismayed by subtitles or dubbed features might not enjoy some of the latest movies set to hit the streaming service. That said, the subject matter might be enough to persuade viewers to step...

No Way Up has an intriguing premise that seems to be a new take on the shark attack subgenre of horror. Ufortunately, this thriller sinks more often than it swims. The movie opens with a riff on Final Destination, and it's a well-done sequence of carnage, but it fails to live up to its premise. There are so many choices made that hinder No Way Up's chance at greatness, like characters who are given development but then abruptly taken away. Sharks get onto a plane in No Way Up, but the film is more comfortable with sitting in its own mediocrity than using this schlocky selling point to stand out.

No Way Up follows Ava, the daughter of a billionaire who is about to embark on a trip to Mexico with her boyfriend Jed (Jeremias Amoore), his buddy Kyle (Will Attenborough), and Ava's bodyguard Brandon (Colm Meaney). Unfortunately, the...

How can a "plane crash shark attack" movie be this sinfully dull? Claudio Fäh's No Way Up swings for the moon with its sunken premise but doesn't fulfill much of the B-Movie potential this fin-slash-disaster flick promises. Writer Andy Mayson transports viewers to the bottom of the sea in an unpredictable fashion, but the vacation nightmare’s swerve into chompy aquatic horror doesn’t blend into storytelling all that well. Fäh and Mayson desperately attempt to make No Way Up more than just an eye-catching poster that sounds hatched from a 30 Rock character's pitch, only to run out of storytelling steam in record time.

Mayson begins with a sparsely booked flight bound for Cabo that suffers catastrophic engine damage caused by a now-mincemeat flock of birds. Shrapnel tears free, piercing the plane's fuselage and blowing a hole wide open that sucks passengers out while the aircraft plummets downward into the Pacific Ocean.

We’ve had sharks in an underwater lab, a grocery store, a river, sand, and snow, as well as toxic sharks and ghost sharks. So what could possibly be left to do with sharks that hasn’t been done before? Take the concept of putting our sharp-finned friends in a plane and mix that in a blender with a disaster flick premise to serve you No Way Up from Rlje Films.

A flock of birds fly into the engine of a plane carrying a small group of people to Cabo, causing it to nosedive into the ocean. Too bad this plane was not piloted by Sully Sullenberger to help with a safe landing. Due to the initial impact of hitting the water or straight up drowning, most of the passengers are killed in the descent; especially one unfortunate soul who shows why you should not head to the bathroom when...

The tag line is ‘sharks on a plane’. It actually features sharks on a plane. Why not call it that? Doing so would guarantee an audience, so one can only conclude that Claudio Fäh’s film has ambitions that go beyond the B-movie, that it wants to be taken seriously. It does, at any rate, shun comedy in favour of horror-inflected drama, and a real investment has been made in casting, with Colm Meaney delivering no less than you’d expect in the role of a bodyguard who has a fatherly relationship with his twentysomething charge, Ava (Sophie McIntosh). But can it go the distance?

Ava is in this position not because she’s another young celebrity or influencer of the sort becoming commonplace in such films today. Rather, she’s the daughter of a senator, and she’s in the process of trying to establish a life of her own.

Stars: Jeremias Amoore, Will Attenborough, Sophie McIntosh, Colm Meaney, Phyllis Logan, James Carrol Jordan, Grace Nettle, Manuel Pacific | Written by Andy Mayson | Directed by Claudio Fäh

The poster for No Way Up says that it’s from the executive producers of the 47 Meters Down series. That’s not a good sign because it means it’s from the money men behind those films, not the writers, directors or any of the creative types. This time around, they’ve decided to offer their finny cash cows an all-you-can-eat buffet and, taking a cue from Airport 77, they’ve crashed an airliner into the Pacific. That leaves the survivors trapped on the ocean floor in a rapidly shrinking air pocket and surrounded by sharks.

As No Way Up starts things are already looking bad for Jed and Kyle. Kyle’s date for their trip to Cabo backed out at the last minute.

Airborne horrors quickly become submerged scares when a plane is besieged by sharks after crashing into the ocean in the official trailer for No Way Up, coming to theaters and VOD on February 16th via Rlje Films.

Directed by Claudio Fäh from a screenplay by Andy Mayson, No Way Up stars Sophie McIntosh, Will Attenborough, Jeremias Amoore, Manuel Pacific, Grace Nettle, Phyllis Logan, and Colm Meaney.

Synopsis: "When a plane crashes in the Pacific Ocean and comes to rest on the edge of an underwater ravine, the survivors face a race against time to escape the airlocked galley they are trapped in."



The post Sharks Besiege a Submerged Plane in the Trailer for No Way Up appeared first on Daily Dead.

"What's a shark doing on a plane?!" Good question. Anyone know why? Rlje Films in the US has unveiled another new official trailer the bonkers survival thriller movie called No Way Up, made by a Swiss action director named Claudio Fäh. Rlje has also confirmed a US release date of February 16th, in theaters and on VOD to watch at home. No Way Up is a high concept combination of disaster movie and survival thriller. It's not just about a horrifying plane crash, it's about what would happen if a plane crashed into the ocean and somehow people onboard survived in an air pocket as it sunk to the bottom. No, thank you. Don't like that. Hell no. The main ensemble cast includes Colm Meaney, Phyllis Logan, Sophie McIntosh, Will Attenborough, and Jeremias Amoore. Of course they're trying to market it as "Sharks on a Plane!" This trailer is similar...

It has only been a day since Disney’s 1928 short film ‘Steamboat Willie’ hit the public domain and a teaser trailer has dropped for the horror ‘Mickey’s Mouse Trap’ featuring Mickey as a serial killer.

The story revolves around a character named Alex who gets stuck working a late shift at an amusement arcade on her 21st birthday. Her friends plan to surprise her, but simultaneously, a killer shows up wearing a Steamboat Willie mask resembling Mickey Mouse. The killer decides to play a game with Alex and her friends, which they must survive to stay alive.

Directed by Jamie Bailey, Sophie McIntosh, Callum Sywyk, Allegra Nocita, Ben Harris, Damir Kovic, Mackenzie Mills, Nick Biskupek and Simon Phillips star.

Also in trailers – “Welcome to the team…” Final trailer lands for Kevin Hart’s ‘Lift’

No release date has been set as yet.

The post Teaser trailer drops for horror...

”We just wanted to have fun with it all,” says director of ’Mickey’s Mouse Trap’.

Steamboat Willie, the 1928 short film which was the first to feature Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse, entered the public domain on January 1 and independent filmmakers are preparing genre versions of the beloved children’s characters.

These iterations of the world’s most celebrated cartoon mice are now available to anyone to interpret without fear of legal reprisal.

However creators will need to tread carefully. Disney’s army of lawyers will be monitoring the situation to ensure no third party work depicts post-1928 interpretations of Mickey and Minnie,...

”We just wanted to have fun with it all,” says director of ’Mickey’s Mouse Trap’.

Steamboat Willie, the 1928 short film which was the first to feature Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse, entered the public domain on January 1 and independent filmmakers are preparing genre versions of the beloved children’s characters.

These iterations of the world’s most celebrated cartoon mice are now available to anyone to interpret without fear of legal reprisal – although Disney’s army of lawyers will be watching closely to ensure no new work depicts post-1928 interpretations of Mickey and Minnie.

On Monday filmmaker Jamie Bailey...

The first of January marks the time when some characters and stories enter the public domain, which means that other creators can use them. We've already seen that happen with the likes of :a[Winnie-The-Pooh: Blood And Honey]{href='https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/winnie-the-pooh-blood-and-honey/' }, which despite being fairly dreadful, made enough to spawn a sequel. This year, it's the turn of Mickey Mouse –– or at least, the version of the character and some others as seen in 1928 short 'toon Steamboat Willie. At least two horror movies are in the works, with one, Mickey's Mouse Trap already at the teaser stage, and you can find the footage below…

With Jamie Bailey directing, the film stars Sophie McIntosh, Callum Sywyk, Allegra Nocita, Ben Harris, Damir Kovic, Mackenzie Mills, Nick Biskupek and Simon Phillips. A basic synopsis you wondered about? Here you go… "It’s Alex’s 21st birthday, but...

"The Mouse is out." Surprise, surprise, they've already turned Mickey Mouse into a horror icon. Mickey's Mouse Trap is the first ever Mickey Mouse horror movie from filmmaker Jamie Bailey. If you didn't hear already, starting in 2024 the original Mickey Mouse first introduced in Disney's classic animated Steamboat Willie short from 1928 is now in the "public domain" and no longer copyrighted. Which means anyone can do whatever they want with it and of course they first thing someone does is turn it into horror (they always do this - same with Winnie the Pooh). "We just wanted to have fun with it all. I mean it's Steamboat Willie's Mickey Mouse murdering people. It's ridiculous. We ran with it and had fun doing it." Okay. The film stars Sophie McIntosh, Callum Sywyk, Allegra Nocita, Ben Harris, Damir Kovic, Mackenzie Mills, Nick Biskupek, and Simon Phillips. Yep this looks as dumb and...

The earliest version of Mickey Mouse from 1928’s Steamboat Willie just entered public domain, allowing filmmakers free rein to give the character a new spin. One of the first projects to take advantage is a slasher flick titled Mickey’s Mouse Trap, in which the killer dons a Mickey Mouse mask while stalking victims in an amusement park.

As seen in the newly released trailer, Mickey’s Mouse Trap falls into similar territory as the Scream franchise, offering meta commentary about the horror genre. After one character says he’ll be right back, another comments, “Well, he’s dead. Like, if he was in a horror movie, you’d never say, ‘I’ll be right back,’ because then you don’t.” Watch it below.

The official synopsis reads: “It’s Alex’s 21st birthday, but she’s stuck at the amusement arcade on a late shift so her friends decide to surprise her,...

Winnie the Pooh got his own (unofficial) horror movie last year with Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, and this year it’s Mickey Mouse’s turn to (unofficially) do a little slicing and dicing.

The Mickey Mouse character entered the public domain just yesterday and already the first teaser trailer has been unleashed for Mickey’s Mouse Trap, an upcoming low-budget horror movie that was obviously shot before the character fell into the public domain but is only being announced and previewed now that Disney can’t actually come after the filmmaking team.

How is Mickey Mouse in the public domain, you ask? Well, it’s actually the short film Steamboat Willie (1928) that entered the public domain this year, bringing Mickey along with it. A Killer Mickey video game was also announced already, which is titled Infestation 88.

In Mickey’s Mouse Trap, on the other hand…

It’s Alex’s 21st birthday,...

Mickey Mouse's earliest appearance in Steamboat Willie is now in the public domain, allowing anyone to use it without permission from Disney. A Mickey Mouse horror movie entitled Mickey's Mouse Trap capitalizes on Mickey's public domain status, featuring him as a masked killer. Tigger is now included in the public domain and will be part of the upcoming Winnie the Pooh slasher movie sequel, releasing this year.

Following the release, and unexpected box office success, of Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, there are many people with one eye firmly on the next big name to hit the public domain. While this year’s list of copyright escapees included the addition of Tigger to the available A.A. Milne characters from the Hundred-Acre Wood, he was usurped for the title of the biggest public domain entrants for 2024 – Mickey Mouse.

While the iconic Disney character’s best known appearance – that being white gloves,...

Following in the footsteps of Winnie The Pooh: Blood And Honey, Mickey’s Mouse Trap is taking full advantage of a famous character being in the public domain now.

Well, it was bound to happen. With Mickey Mouse entering the public domain on 1 January, someone was going to make the iconic mouse the star of a horror film.

That someone is Jamie Bailey. Much like last year’s Winnie The Pooh: Blood And Honey, Mickey’s Mouse Trap imagines the lovable mouse as a cold-blooded killer.

Take a look at the very first trailer for Mickey’s Mouse Trap.

The trailer was posted online at one minute past midnight, as soon as the character was fair game. Now, to be clear, it’s only the black-and-white, Steamboat Willie version of Mickey Mouse that is in the public domain and free to use. Cleverly, the trailer for Mickey’s Mouse Trap...

Well, that didn’t take long.

On the first day that Disney’s 1928 short Steamboat Willie entered the public domain, a trailer has dropped for a horror comedy film featuring none other than Mickey Mouse as the killer.

The synopsis for the film, called Mickey’s Mouse Trap, reads: “It’s Alex’s 21st birthday, but she’s stuck at the amusement arcade on a late shift so her friends decide to surprise her, but a masked killer dressed as Mickey Mouse decides to play a game of his own with them which she must survive.”

The trailer features, yep, a person in a Mickey Mouse costume, wearing what resembles a hockey jersey without the letters, attacking a victim and stalking others inside a Chuck E. Cheese-type place (reminiscent of last year’s horror hit Five Nights at Freddy’s). There also is Scream-like self-awareness about the horror genre, including one...

Exclusive: Principal photography has wrapped on the female-driven survival thriller No Way Up, with Colm Meaney (Gangs of London) taking over the role originally to have been played by Kelsey Grammer, who departed the production due to scheduling conflicts. The Irish actor stars alongside BAFTA Award winner Phyllis Logan (Downton Abbey), James Carroll Jordan (Kingsman: The Golden Circle), Sophie McIntosh (Brave New World), Will Attenborough (Dunkirk), Jeremias Amoore (Zero Chill), Manuel Pacific (Terminator: Dark Fate) and Grace Nettle (War of the Worlds).

In the film from director Claudio Fäh (Northmen – A Viking Saga), an airliner crashes into the Pacific Ocean and comes to rest perilously close to the edge of a deep ravine, leaving the surviving passengers and crew trapped in an air pocket. With their air supply rapidly running out, a nightmare fight for survival ensues as dangers from all sides hone-in on them. (Check out the first two...

In today’s TV news roundup, Sesame Workshop announced a premiere date for “Sesame Street’s Historic 50th Anniversary Celebration” and “Brave New World” adds Sophie McIntosh.

Casting

New Zealand actress Sophie McIntosh has been cast in USA Network’s “Brave New World” series, Variety has learned exclusively. She will play the recurring role of Jane, and joins a cast which includes Alden Ehrenreich, Harry Lloyd and Jessica Brown Findlay. McIntosh is repped by Echo Lake Entertainment, Johnson and Laird Management in New Zealand, and Bloomfields Welch Management in the U.K.

Dates

Iliza Shlesinger’s fifth original Netflix comedy special will premiere Nov. 19 on the streaming platform. In the hour-long special, the newly married Shlesinger will pull back the veil on the dangers of having a zombie bachelorette army while also discussing wedding planning, garters and honeymooning.

Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit behind “Sesame Street,” announced the historic 50th season...