The Mouse Trap

I am going to be very honest and say i have never been a huge Disney fan when it comes to animated characters or films. Sure, as a small child i did watch Mickey Mouse, Pluto, Donald Duck and other Disney characters on VHS on cartoon shows in the early 80´s, but once we got access to real cartoon shows like Thundercats, He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe, G.I. Joe, Bravestarr, Rambo, Starzinger,  i really dumped Disney quite big. At some points i did watch some Disney films with my little sister just because she wanted to watch some on VHS, but other than that i never were interested in their animated full feature films. So if you would give me a list today of all the Disney animated films they have made since the 1930´s up until recent years i may have seen.....10 of them completely? At least if we are talking their animated films, i have seen a lot of other Disney films that are not animated. I will say this im happy that Disney have brought a lot of joy to children worldwide and to adults as well who enjoy their films. I have no problem with their animated films in general they are just not my cup of tea sort of speak. I do enjoy Pixar animated movies more to be honest and there are some Pixar films i can rewatch and still be entertained. In recent years you might have heard that classic characters such as Winnie The Pooh entered public domain on January 1, 2022 which means that you are allowed to use the name and so they did in a low buget film called Winnie The Pooh: Blood And Honey released in 2023. Considering the very limited budget the film was a big financial success. I did review this film and it wasn´t that good at all but i did enjoy the sequel more ( which you can read a review of in here as well ). When characters such as this enter public domain it means other films makers can make films based on classic characters. So this is why we now have films such as The Mouse Trap clearly inspired by the Disney character Mickey Mouse even though they try to make some changes not to ripoff the character completely. I did see a trailer and to be honest it didn´t make me excited but i decided to give The Mouse Trap a chance since i don´t mind low budget horror films. Is this the most positive surprise in the horror scene at this moment or is The Mouse Trap even worse than we ever could have imagined?

Alex Fen ( Sophie McIntosh ) is working late at the amusement arcade when a group of her friends surprise her at work as they have prepared a birthday party for her 21st Birthday. She is very surprised and thankful they thought of her so they begin to celebrate. What they don´t know is that someone else is inside this building who´s not there to celebrate but actually there to end people´s lives.

I can be very open minded to low budget films and accept a lot of things knowing a film was made on a very limited budget. I can even enjoy a film that makes no sense at all as long as the film is entertaining enough to give me some good laughs. When it comes to a film such as The Mouse Trap this is the perfect example when you really don´t put any effort into making a horror film that could have been a fun idea. This is basically a so called slasher horror film with a masked mouse man that doesn´t really do much at all, and this film was supposed to be made for slasher fans. If you were hoping for lots of blood and some gory scenes you can forget about that. This is the complete oppisite of that and feels more like a Hallmark Channel softball production with no Christmas tree included. Perhaps the characters are more interesting in this film? Honestly no, there is not one single character i felt like i cared for and that alone is of course a very bad sign. This film clearly made it clear from the beginning they don´t want to be connected to Disney in anyway and still they use footage of Mickey Mouse from the classic animated short film Steamboat Wille in this film. I don´t have a problem with them using the footage, it´s just a bit strange to publically say they don´t want to be connected with the legendary animated character. So what about the horror scenes are they any good? They are about as exciting as watching cookies being made in an oven for 15 minutes. Director Jamie Bailey ( who was a cinematographer on the 2017 Christmas horror movie Once Upon A Time At Christmas, a film i actually enjoy ) have a fun idea with The Mouse Trap but there is nothing with this film that deliver anything fun or exciting. This is pretty much a product made to cash in on the brand of Mickey Mouse without being officially connected to Disney. October is getting closer and in a few months i will see the lists of worst movies of this year. The Mouse Trap definetely deserves a spot on that list.

Rating: D