Screamboat 2025

On a cold, foggy night in New York City, the last Staten Island Ferry of the evening, the Joseph Pulitzer, sets off across the harbor. Onboard are a mix of passengers, tired commuters, a bickering couple, a deckhand named Pete, a battle-worn EMT named Amber, a stoic Lieutenant Diaz, and a lively group of six women dressed as parody princesses for a bachelorette party, Cindi, Jazzy, Bella, Ilsa, Ariana, and Rory.

Unknown to them, something sinister has awakened deep in the ferry’s hull, an ancient icon of joy turned monstrous, Steamboat Willie. No longer the cheerful black-and-white mascot, Willie is now a mute, rubber-faced killer.

As the ferry pulls away from shore, strange things start to happen. Lights flicker, metal creaks unnaturally, and odd squeaks echo through the corridors. Cindi wanders away from her group to explore and take selfies. She never returns. Her phone is found bloodied and cracked, and her tiara is discovered embedded in a wall pipe, soaked with blood.

The power flickers and the ship begins to lose control. Panic starts to spread. Amber tries to restore order while Pete searches for the captain but finds only an empty control room and drag marks leading to a locked supply closet. The passengers realize they’re trapped on a slowly drifting deathtrap, with no signal and no way to call for help.

Jazzy, following what sounds like music playing in the galley, discovers a warped version of “Turkey in the Straw” playing on a record player. She’s ambushed by Willie, who attacks her with a butcher’s cleaver, slicing open her face in a macabre grin and dunking her screaming into a deep fryer. Her hand is later found floating in a punch bowl back in the party area.

A TikTok couple livestream their panic, trying to find an escape route. As they film their escape attempt, the man is suddenly harpooned through the head, his phone and skull pinned to the wall. His girlfriend tries to run but is caught and dragged into the engine room, her screams muffled by the sound of steam vents and laughter from a cartoon on loop.

Deckhand Pete attempts to activate the emergency radio, but it’s been destroyed, smashed in by what looks like a massive mallet made from metal and pipes. Moments later, Pete is ambushed by Willie, who uses the anchor chain to strangle him and hoist his body like a grisly marionette from the mast.

Now only a handful remain, Amber, Diaz, Bella, and Rory. They find temporary refuge in the control room, where they access security footage showing glimpses of Willie stalking earlier passengers on past nights. Amber begins to hallucinate, her past trauma and medical burnout mixing with the horrific surroundings. Cartoons and trauma bleed into each other, sending her into a psychological tailspin.

Diaz begins crafting improvised weapons, using fire axes and broken mop handles, readying for a final stand. But things only get worse. Bella is lured away by laughter and a flickering light, only to be impaled through the gut by a forklift driven by Willie in a mockery of a theme park parade float.

Amber and Rory descend into the cargo hold, now transformed into a nightmare. Willie has posed the bodies in cartoonish scenes, one bride in a teacup ride of blood, another spinning on a music box with her organs exposed.

Willie appears, burned and smoking, wielding a whistle that shoots steam like a flamethrower. In the final battle, Amber lures him into the engine gear chamber, throws a lit flare into a leaking pipe, and engulfs the monster in flames. His body burns while staring at her, his white gloves raised like a cartoon character waving goodbye

Amber and Rory escape in a lifeboat, floating into the cold night, the ferry behind them in flames. The camera pans beneath the waves to reveal the charred, skeletal body of Steamboat Willie twitching in the blackness, his melted mask drifting slowly upward, his return not yet finished.