‘The Mouse Trap’ Review: A Disappointing Attempt at a Mickey Slasher
The Mouse Trap over-complicates and under-delivers.
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What is The Mouse Trap About?
The Mouse Trap uses a very basic slasher formula to tell the tale of a supernaturally-powered killer in a Mickey Mouse mask stalking and slaying young partygoers.
Alex works at an amusement arcade, and she’s just been asked by her boss, Tim, to stay after closing time to host a party booked at the last minute. It turns out the party is for Alex—a surprise birthday party—so she and her friends have the arcade all to themselves. Meanwhile, Tim has decided to watch his collectible copy of “Steamboat Willie” on 8mm film, but some unexplained force compels him to put on his vintage Mickey Mouse mask and murder the party people in the arcade one by one.
The Mouse Trap was directed by Jamie Bailey, based on a script by Simon Phillips. Bailey and Phillips previously worked together in the same roles on 2022’s Deinfluencer. Simon Phillips also stars in The Mouse Trap as Tim/Mickey. Sophie McIntosh stars as Alex, and she is joined by her friends Marcus (Callum Sywyk), Rebecca (Mackenzie Mills), Ryan (Ben Harris), Marie (Allegra Nocita), Gemma (Mireille Gagné), Jackie (Kayleigh Styles), Paul (James Laurin), and Danny (Jesse Nasmith).
The Mouse Trap Review
The best thing about The Mouse Trap might be that the movie lets you know right away if your tastes are going to align with its sense of humor. The movie begins with a disclaimer that very clearly distances itself from Disney and everything having to do with anything that could get the makers of The Mouse Trap sued. This is a movie that was titled Mickey’s Mouse Trap when it was first announced, and it seems like they felt the need to back off the more aggressive usage of certain ideas that might fall into legal gray areas. It makes sense, and it’s not an issue in the movie. But the pre-movie disclaimer is presented in a “generic space scroll” (aka Star Wars opening crawl) design that is written with a lighthearted and comical tone. If you laugh at this disclaimer scroll, then you’ll probably have a good time with this light, slightly silly movie. If you roll your eyes at the disclaimer, then you might want to think about finding something else to watch.
So, yes, The Mouse Trap is a slasher comedy in the sense that it never takes itself too seriously.The dialogue is full of different levels of snark and “that just happened” styles of banter, so if that’s what you’re into, then it might work for you. What doesn’t really work is the structure of the plot.
After the disclaimer, the actual movie begins with Rebecca, one of Alex’s friends, in a jail cell being interrogated by two cops. As Rebecca talks about her experiences as a survivor of the attacks we’re about to witness, we flash back to the main part of the story in which “Mickey” is stalking and killing in the arcade. So, most of the movie is presented as a flashback from Rebecca’s point of view. The problem is, there are many scenes where Rebecca is completely absent. This issue is directly addressed by Rebecca and the cops, but their explanations only bring up more questions and continuity problems. Are we actually seeing the entire story, regardless of Rebecca’s point of view? Are we seeing Rebecca’s version of events but also getting information told to the cops by other survivors? If so, then how can we know what exactly Rebecca is telling the police? A post-credits scene attempts to force everything into making sense, and some of it does, but lots of the pieces still don’t fall into place. It’s an obtrusive problem that distracts from the story. The jail-cell interrogation is unnecessary.
A slasher movie doesn’t need a complicated plot structure to be entertaining. It does need tension though, and The Mouse Trap tries to provide this in a few ways. The most obvious source of tension is a love quadrilateral formed by Alex and three of her friends. One person’s crush is mentioned a single time and then forgotten. Her other two admirers are set up as rivals for Alex’s affection, but their rivalry ultimately leads to very little drama and almost no significance in the plot.
The other main source of tension in The Mouse Trap is, obviously, the killer in the Mickey Mouse mask. As a low-budget slasher villain, he looks okay. He’s a large, imposing presence, and the mask is a nice touch (when it isn’t bent and when the actor’s beard isn’t poking through the mouth hole). Unfortunately, much like how the plot is over-complicated, the killer is also unnecessarily complex. For some reason, “Mickey” has the ability to teleport. He’s also vulnerable to flashing lights, though the extent of his vulnerability isn’t explored well, making it appear inconsistent. That’s a problem when it comes to the final showdown where the remaining survivors attempt to exploit Mickey’s weaknesses.
The finale, overall, is anti-climactic thanks, in part, to the audience being unsure about how Mickey’s weakness works (does it freeze him like Alex says, or can he run away like we saw earlier?), but also because there simply isn’t much to the final scene. There’s no big revelation, and there’s barely even a fight. Then the final moment feels like a cheat, and the story ends on a joke.
All of this could be made up for if The Mouse Trap had a lot of good gore and fun kills, but there isn’t an abundance of blood, and most of the actual violence (as in, a killing blow) happens off screen or is otherwise obscured. The few on-camera killing moments are done with CGI, and they look goofy. It’s all rather disappointing.
The Mouse Trap Rating and Recommendation
Star Rating: 1 out of 5
The Mouse Trap feels like it was rushed to try to be the first horror movie to use the now-public-domain Steamboat Willie. In many ways, it fell into the same trap as Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey (2023), which also sacrificed quality and originality to be one of the first on the scene for its respective public domain property. Blood and Honey was, of course, made by a completely different production team, and they rebounded well with a much better sequel in 2024. So there’s hope that the people behind The Mouse Trap will also be able to put out something better if there are any sequels. As it is, The Mouse Trap isn’t very good, and it’s not recommended for anyone other than those who are supremely curious, and people were going to watch it regardless of how good it is (or isn’t).
The Mouse Trap is available to rent and purchase digitally on Prime Video and Fandango at Home.
Further Reading
- “Steamboat Willie” is Officially Public Domain, and the Mickey Mouse Horror Movies Have Already Begun with Two Announcements
- 9 Reasons Why Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 Will be Better than the First Movie
- All of the Upcoming Horror Movies Based on Characters from Public Domain Children’s Stories: A Preview
- Cinderella’s Revenge Review: A Classic Tale with a Bloody Twist
- Founders Day Review: Political Rage in a Small-Town Slasher
