One director is responsible for this batch of four flicks based on popular kiddie characters, continuing the public domain craze that’s going on these days. Let’s find out if these children’s faves work as frightening freaks.
MINNIE’S MIDNIGHT MASSACRE (2026)
This Minnie Mouse movie delivers a familiar slasher scenario, some good kills, a cute main guy, and a gleefully evil Minnie Mouse killer.
20 years ago, a group of bullies locked a young girl down in a basement to never be seen again.
Now, those same four friends are going to a cabin in the woods for the weekend.
Once they arrive, we get traditional killer POV and heavy breathing. The group sits around talking about their pasts, futures, and hookups, one of which includes a flashback to the only guy in the group getting pegged by one of the girls. Quite an interesting choice for character development.
Each of the friends begins getting glimpses of someone in a Minnie Mouse mask. Seriously, I have no idea if Minnie is supposed to be a ghost of the bullied girl or the actual girl still alive and wearing a mask.
There are some weird moments that make it seem like she was somehow “possessed” by (CGI) mice while trapped down there, and she never does take off the mask, so in the end I wasn’t sure what it all meant.
Pretty soon, Minnie abducts one of the main girls and kills her after doing something really nasty to her with a pile of shit.
Once the girl is considered missing, cops show up, mostly to ensure a higher body count. The kill scenes aren’t particularly gruesome, and Minnie always goes old school with a knife, but it still managed to scratch my slasher itch.
Naturally, there’s a twist, but again, the legend of Minnie isn’t fully developed at all. There is, however, a nod to Steamboat Willie, the cartoon that basically introduce the world to Mickey and Minnie Mouse.
BETTY’S REVENGE (2026)
Running only 75 minutes long, this one only has three main characters, and that simply doesn’t sustain even a short flick when Betty Boop is walking around with a knife looking to kill people. But that’s not even really what Betty is looking to do. In fact, my hubby and I weren’t even sure what she was looking to do when the movie concluded. Yes, I subjected my hubby to this disappointment for our Saturday night movie. My bad.
The opener promises a conveyor belt of kills, with a female being called to a giant mansion for a “wellness check”. Considering she dies, you have to wonder why there’s never any follow-up wellness check to check on her…
Anyway, two girls and a guy show up at the mansion, formerly a club owned by Betty, which is now abandoned, yet somehow beautifully and perfectly preserved. They are college students doing a story on the legend of the club closing down.
They are immediately welcomed in by Betty, played by horror queen Hannah Fierman. Hannah is great in the coy, squeaky-voiced role, she just deserved a stronger script. Hell, Minnie didn’t even talk, and she got to lean into her freaky feistiness more than Betty does.
The kids think Betty is weird, but what they don’t seem to think is why is this woman who looks like she’s from the 1930s alive and looking like she’s 30?
They somehow lose Betty in the mansion and spend most of the movie trying to decide if they should just leave. A storm hits, and they contemplate whether they should stay in place or hop in their car and go. Their car disappears, so that decision is made for them. They read Betty’s diary, and this is the part that’s supposed to give the story some depth.
It all leads to Betty tying the three main characters up and finally killing one of them at the 54-minute mark. They’re sitting ducks and there are only three of them, so this isn’t a slasher. The only good gore involves Betty plucking out a pair of eyes with a knife. And her big soliloquy in which she explains her motivation is the part that leaves you saying, “Huh?”
ALADDIN (2026)
Damn. This one is a mess. It begins with a bloody, medieval battle with a short narrative about the power of the infamous magic lamp.
Then a couple in modern times comes to a cabin in the woods because the woman has mental health issues and needs to “rest”. They invite another couple to come hang with them. They find a lamp that clearly looks like it will grant a wish if you rub it. So…one of them rubs it.
If you’re expecting a killer Aladdin to come out of the lamp, forget it. One of the girls wishes to be pregnant and gives birth to a demon baby overnight. We only get a fleeting glimpse of this devilish baby face, and the face later appears again on one of the adults. Is it supposed to be evil Aladdin reborn? I guess.
They do a whole lot of talking—about the lamp, its history, how they can reverse their wishes, etc. Eventually, they somehow reverse things to before they rubbed the lamp. It now requires a sacrifice, so the main girl who needed rest has to fight back against her man and her two friends as they hunt her down in the final act.
It’s a weak script and rather dull viewing experience, so naturally, I watched the sequel.
ALADDIN’S REVENGE (2026)
The nonsense of the first film just digs itself into a deeper hole with this sequel. Despite the lamp being tossed into a lake at the end, it shows up in the backyard of someone else’s house for the opener of this one, leading to a murder/suicide. This opening kill has no bearing on the rest of the movie.
The final girl from the first film somehow got cleared of any wrongdoing in the deaths of all her friends, but she has been ordered to seek group therapy at a large house in the middle of nowhere.
This group therapy includes her, another girl, a guy, and a therapist. Cozy group. The lamp somehow finds its way into the house, someone uses it, and then everyone starts acting weird and murderous, just as they did in the first movie.
One of the guys seems possessed, so the main girl calls him Aladdin and has arguments with him in a battle of wits. Lasers shooting from mouths come into play in the sequel as well, because, why not?
The demon face we saw mostly (but barely) on the baby in the first movie makes a few more brief appearances, and the main girl once again has to clean up the mess the wishes make and destroy the lamp.
An influencer girl finds the lamp at the end, but I refuse to watch a third movie. Minnie’s Midnight Massacre is definitely the only one I’d suggest giving a try from this bunch if you’re looking for another cartoon character slasher to watch.
