There are two completely different kinds of brutality afoot in movies like “Screamboat,” the latest in the low-budget horror movie craze to pervert beloved intellectual property the instant their 95-year copyright protection lapses into the public domain. First, there’s whatever sadistic fates the filmmakers have in mind for the characters, from being impaled by a forklift to having their faces plunged into the propeller of the Staten Island Ferry. But the real violence — and the reason audiences presumably pay to see these IP parasites — is what’s done to the characters themselves, as there’s an illicit thrill in desecrating powerful brands, like Disney.
“Screamboat” isn’t the first slasher
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