In the final weeks of 2023, much ado was made about the imminent entrance of Steamboat Willie Mickey Mouse into the public domain in 2024. We ourselves wondered if we would soon "see ill-fated Mickey Mouse horror movies, a la Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey" or "an indie video game that sees the Mouse chasing down players in a haunted theme park, a la Slenderman."
As the world's New Year's hangover wore off, both a Mickey Mouse horror flick and an indie horror video game starring the Mouse were announced, leading to many collective groans from a public hoping to see less predictable ideas centered around perhaps the most iconic character of all time.
The Mickey Mouse horror movie is called Mickey's Mouse Trap. It centers around a slasher in an arcade hunting down teens while wearing a Mickey Mouse mask, and some have noted the premise sounds quite similar to Five Nights at Freddy's.
The Mickey Mouse horror game is called Infestation 88, developed by Nightmare Forge Games, which prominently features a gory Steamboat Willie in its promotional artwork. In the game, 1-4 players can play in co-op acting as exterminators entering areas that have been infected with an "infestation" that has unleashed monstrous versions of "classic characters and urban legends."
It is not to be confused with Mouse, an FPS shooter with the type of "noodle" animation typical of early-era Disney and Cuphead.
The blitz of "Mickey Mouse" horror announcements the instant the character entered the public domain exhausted many onlookers, who likely fear the worst after last year's poorly received Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, which was widely seen as a cheap cash-grab capitalizing on Winnie the Pooh entering public domain.
Though Mickey's Mouse Trap doesn't have a distributor yet, the crew behind it are aiming for a March release. Infestation 88 is in early access now with a planned release window of "2024."