Mickey Mouse Horror Movies And Video Games Flood The Market

The Mickey Mouse horror video game that was announced is called Infestation: Origins, which is a co-op horror game that puts players in the control of exterminators who have to take on infestations caused by classic characters, one of whom is a creepy version of Mickey. It looks like the game is aiming to be a major Twitch hit in the same vein as horror games like Five Nights at Freddy’s and the more recent Lethal Company.

The Mickey Mouse horror game Infestation: Origins did recently change its name from Infestation 88 after social media users pointed out that the number 88 is sometimes linked to neo-Nazi and white supremacist symbolism.

The team explained that the 88 was because the game was set in 1988, but changed the name regardless and apologized saying, “We apologize for our ignorance on this and appreciate that this was brought to our attention so we could address it ASAP!”

On the film side of things, there was a movie called Mickey’s Mouse Trap announced that is a horror comedy. The film has already released a trailer and is set in the arcade at an amusement park. Variety also announced a horror movie based on the Steamboat Willie cartoon that sees the mouse tormenting passengers on a ferry.

You may remember that this exact phenomenon happened in 2022 when Winnie the Pooh entered the public domain. Some people were very quick to capitalize, and the slasher movie Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey was released last year. There is also a horror game with Winnie the Pooh on the way.

While Winnie the Pooh is also a Disney character, he’s not the straight up mascot for the company. There’s definitely something about Mickey Mouse entering the public domain that seems a little different. There’s no doubt that anyone who attempted to make these horror projects before would have been completely decimated by Disney’s lawyers, and now there’s not really much Disney can do about it.

However, it is important to note that the version of Mickey Mouse that entered the public domain for horror fans to eat up is specifically the Steamboat Willie version, which differs in design from the classic Mickey most people are familiar with.

The classic Mickey design is still protected under copyright for now, so horror creators and anyone else who wants to use Mickey will need to make sure to tread carefully. Disney is undoubtedly not too happy about this, and their lawyers are sure to jump on anything that goes outside those careful copyright boundaries.

There’s no telling if any of these Mickey Mouse horror projects will actually be good. Still, it is fun to see such a well-known character appear in projects like these. Even if they turn out to suck, there’s bound to be a good non-Disney Mickey project at some point.