It’s a Mickey Mouse killer, a killer competition, and a slasher comedy that kills it with the comedy but not so much with the slashing. Let’s see if any one of them is worth watching.
MOUSE OF HORRORS (2025)
This might be my favorite entry in the Disney character turned killer subgenre so far, because this movie just doesn’t give a fuck. The opening scene lets us know immediately that our mouse’s kills are going to be bloody and brutal. The mouse wears an awesome mask, but it appears to be covering a monstrous face that, unfortunately, we never get to see.
The mouse dances around gracefully and gleefully, complete with giggles. He’s also not the only killer character…
WTF? I don’t know if this is an official spin-off of Blood and Honey, but Winnie the Pooh is also on board. They are both the minions of a crazy “doctor” living under an amusement park and has them gathering body parts for him so he can craft the perfect bride.
Conveniently, a group of friends comes to the amusement park, and the mouse quickly starts going to town on them. The kills and chase scenes are nonstop for the first part of the film. A few females are also brought back to the lair for body parts. Wouldn’t you know it’s the one Black female character who gets the worst, most gruesome, torturous kill.
Just when the film starts to slow down, the unexpected happens. It turns into Mickey vs. Winnie. What? They spend the final act fighting each other all around the park. This eventually leads to more fighting on a boat, and this movie so doesn’t give a fuck that a completely different horror subgenre is suddenly thrown into the mix for a split second. Blink and you’ll miss it. Don’t blink and you’ll still miss it. The hubby and I had to rewind to see if we’d actually seen what we thought we just saw….
MURDERFEST (2024)
This is one of those low budget flicks that looks like it was shot on video, with cheap effects and barely any sense of a script, and I was ready to just turn it off from the start, but I wasn’t in the mood to go digging for another slasher for this post, so I just left it on.
The plot is about a group of masked serial killers taking part in a live, online competition to see which one can get the most kills and the best kills. It is perhaps one of my least favorite slasher subgenres, because it just screams “I don’t know how to tell a story so I’ll just make a nonstop massacre movie”.
There are just random characters in the woods being hacked up, a host voice-over spouting off rules and displaying the kill count after each death scene, and clips of various viewers at home reacting to the kills as they happen.
The most notable plot point is that a tough woman comes in about halfway through to start killing all the killers and save what victims she can. It’s sort of refreshing, and would have been the best part of the film…if it were a better film.
Despite the writing feeling really amateurish, there are a few lines here and there that actually gave me a giggle, but I still wouldn’t recommend the film. There’s even a meta moment in the middle of the movie in which one of the at-home viewers says “this is getting repetitive”. That sums it up perfectly.
HAPPY HOUR SLASHER (2021)
This little indie slasher comedy written by, directed by, and starring cutie Ray Martin is an absolute charmer that suffers from one major flaw—barely any of the murders are shown! It’s a shame, because the movie only runs 73 minutes long, but I gladly would have taken a 90-minute runtime if the extra time had been dedicated to giving us death scenes.
It starts immediately with two kills, which gave me hope. But right after that this becomes more like a series of very funny vignettes, part of them like a Cheers scenario as different patrons come in and out of the main bar, the other part scenes from a town hall meeting in which a reporter stands outside asking the opinions of those attending the meeting as they leave. The good news about the revolving door of men that passes through the bar is that most of them are pretty dang cute. Plus, we get this little stud muffin as a main character.
The plot is that “the happy hour slasher” has been killing hipsters, centerfolds, and bar owners. Everyone is talking about it both at the main bar and at the town hall meeting. The cast of characters nails the dry humor, and the hubby and I laughed through the entire movie.
Unfortunately, we only get occasional announcements of another murder instead of full Monty death scenes. After the opening kills, the next onscreen kill is 55 minutes in. It’s a brief, goofy beheading, but it fits in perfectly with the tone of the humor. I don’t understand why we weren’t just given more of this. Like, every time a new murder was announced, why weren’t we treated to the murder instead of just hearing about it?
There’s even a comical body reveal scene, plus one hilarious reaction to death by broom handle up the ass, so it’s very clear that Ray Martin has it in him to make horror comedy kills a blast. I simply don’t understand why he held back.
