Common Sense Media Review
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Blood, language in atrocious Mickey Mouse slasher.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 15+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
Videos and Photos
The Mouse Trap
What's the Story?
In THE MOUSE TRAP, Rebecca (Mackenzie Mills) has survived some kind of tragedy that resulted in many deaths. She's interviewed by police detectives Cole (Damir Kovic) and Marsh (Nick Biskupek) and tells her story: Alex (Sophie McIntosh) works at Fun Haven, an entertainment center. Her boss, Tim (Simon Phillips), asks her and co-worker Jayna (Madeline Kelman) to stay late for a private party. Jayna talks Alex into letting her leave to go on a date. The party turns out to be a surprise birthday party for Alex thrown by her friends Marcus (Callum Sywyk), Marie (Allegra Nocita), Ryan (Ben Harris), Danny (Jesse Nasmith), Paul (James Laurin), Jackie (Kayleigh Styles), Gemma (Mireille Gagné), and Rebecca. They start drinking and having fun, but unfortunately, a killer in a Mickey Mouse mask is in the building and begins picking them off one by one. Can Alex and her friends survive the night?
Is It Any Good?
An atrocious, unbearably awful slasher movie and a thoughtless cash grab involving beloved characters that have entered the public domain, this absolute waste of time and effort should be avoided. Like the two Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey movies, The Mouse Trap is based on a property that, after almost 100 years, fell out of copyright: Here, it's the first "talkie" Mickey Mouse cartoon, 1928's "Steamboat Willie." The Fun Haven manager sits down to watch it, hears sinister voices, and then puts on a Mickey mask and starts killing people. For some reason, he can also teleport. It makes no sense.
Then we have the characters, the friends, who—as is the case in so many other bad slasher movies—don't seem like actual friends. They're interchangeable, and their acting is amateurish at best. The wraparound segments with the police detectives are completely useless and were clearly added as padding to stretch the movie out to 80 minutes. Finally, to add insult to injury, there's no real ending. The movie more or less just ... stops. The Mouse Trap is so bad that it even makes Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey look decent, which is no easy feat. As one character wonders at one point, "Is this some terrible subplot of a bad slasher film?" Indeed.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about The Mouse Trap's violence. How did it make you feel? What did the movie show or not show to achieve this effect? Why is that important?
Is the movie scary? What's the appeal of horror movies? Why do people sometimes like to be scared?
How do you feel seeing Mickey Mouse reimagined as a brutal killer? Should beloved characters be untouchable? What can be gained from this kind of revisionist approach?
How is drinking depicted? Is it glamorized? Are there consequences? Why does that matter?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming : August 6, 2024
- Cast : Simon Phillips , Sophie McIntosh , Mackenzie Mills
- Director : Jamie Bailey
- Inclusion Information : Female Movie Actor(s)
- Studio : Gravitas Ventures
- Genre : Horror
- Run time : 80 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- Last updated : August 27, 2024
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