Alejandro G. Alegre, Craig Morgan, Daniela Porras, David Vaughn, Emiliano Nova, horror, Maya Luna, Micho Camacho, movies, reviews, Sergio Rogalto
February 27, 2025
by Carla Hay
Directed by Alejandro G. Alegre
Some language in Spanish with subtitles
Culture Representation: Taking place in Mexico, in 2025, the horror film “I Heart Willie” features a predominantly Latin cast of characters (with a few white people and one black person) representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: Four young adults travel to a remote wooded area to investigate the legend of Mouse-Boy, who is said to be a reclusive serial killer.
Culture Audience: “I Heart Willie” will appeal primarily to people who don’t mind watching slasher horror movies with uninteresting characters and mostly terrible acting.
“I Heart Willie” is a weak and tedious horror movie depicting Mickey Mouse’s “Steamboat Willie” character as a serial killer. Note to filmmakers who want to make a slasher flick based on a public domain character: Do something clever with the character’s unique life story. Don’t just put the killer in a costume and horror makeup and have the killer act like any generic serial killer in a forgettable slasher flick.
Directed by Alejandro G. Alegre and written by David Vaughn, “I Heart Willie” tells viewers almost nothing about the Willie character in the movie and just uses the Mickey Mouse imagery to get people’s interest in the movie. It’s an annoying bait and switch. “I Heart Willie” is just a substandard, formulaic slasher flick where the serial killer’s motives and personal history are never revealed, except he was reported as dying in a fire at age 16.
The serial killer in the “I Heart Willie” is named Willie (played by “I Heart Willie” screenwriter Vaughn), but he’s been given the nickname Mouse-Boy. Why? Because he wears a mouse mask that’s similar to what Mickey Mouse would look like if Mickey Mouse were a twisted murderer in a bad horror movie.
“Steamboat Willie” (directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks) is a 1928 animated short film that is the first officially released movie featuring Disney’s Mickey Mouse character. Mickey Mouse is not named Willie in the movie, which gets its title because Mickey whistles “Steamboat Bill” in the film. In “Steamboat Willie,” Mickey portrays a mischievous steamboat operator, who frequently irritates the boat’s captain, whose name is Pete. Minnie Mouse is in the movie too.
What does the plot of “Steamboat Willie” have to do with “I Heart Willie”? Absolutely nothing. The movie doesn’t even take place on or near a steamboat. The murderous mayhem takes place in the most-overused idea for a horror movie location: a remote wooded area.
There’s already another 2025 horror movie inspired by the “Steamboat Willie” movie: director Steven LaMorte’s “Screamboat” (starring Tyler Posey and “Terrifier” movie series star David Howard Thornton) has a U.S. release date of April 2, 2025, through Iconic Events Releasing. “Screamboat” actually takes place on a boat, unlike “I Heart Willie,” which does nothing with the “Steamboat Willie” horror parody idea except put the killer in a tacky Mickey Mouse horror mask.
In the beginning of “I Heart Willie” (which takes place in an unnamed city in Mexico), a montage of newspaper clippings show that Mouse-Boy was trapped in a house fire at age 16. Mouse-Boy was the nickname for Willie, whose spirit is believed to still haunt the house that used to be owned by Willie’s parents. This is the house where Willie died. (“I Heart Willie” was filmed in Michoacán, Mexico.)
The first person to be killed in “I Heart Willie” is a mouse exterminator (played by Craig Morgan), who shows up at the house and is then tortured and slaughtered. Another unnamed man (played by Emiliano Nova) in the house has already been tied up and tortured and will eventually be killed by Willie. Don’t expect the movie to explain who this other murder victim is.
Meanwhile, four people in their 20s (three of them dress like they’ve stepped out of a 2005 emo fashion time warp) are traveling by car to this isolated house in the woods to look for Willie. All four of them want to see if the stories are true that Willie is alive and is murdering people who’ve disappeared close to this house. The plan is to do a video investigation, with the hope that what they record on video will go viral. This movie is so stupid, these curiosity seekers aren’t even shown making any of the videos that they planned.
These are the four dimwits who make the trek to inevitable mayhem:
- Daniel (played by Sergio Rogalto) is the self-appointed leader of the group. He’s predictably cocky and arrogant.
- Nora (played by Maya Luna) is Daniel’s ex-girlfriend. She’s the most introverted one in the group.
- Nico (played by Micho Camacho) is the “horror nerd” of the group. He has a not-so-secret crush on Nora.
- Jess (played by Daniela Porras) is the daredevil “bad girl” of the group. Predictably, she’s depicted as a horny temptress, and she wants to seduce Daniel.
One of these four people has an ulterior motive for this trip. The movie makes it too obvious who it is. During the car ride to the house, there’s exposition-dump dialogue with a jumbled explanation about why these four travelers are interested in finding out if Willie is real or a myth.
Willie, also known as Mouse-Boy, was born in 1928, the same year that “Steamboat Willie” was released. Since the story in “I Heart Willie” takes place in 2025, Willie is supposed to be 97 years old. When someone in the car points out that Willie would be 97 years old if they find him, Nora says cryptically: “Evil never dies.”
Whether or not Willie is a ghost or a living human being who has immortal superpowers, his appearance is as an adult man (usually shirtless) who is not elderly and not a teenager. Willie has burn scars and other injury scars on his body. And he’s wearing a Mickey Mouse-inspired mask.
Predictably, Willie does not speak in the movie. If he spoke, he would have to say the awful dialogue that the speaking characters utter in this dreadful film. “I Heart Willie” is just a “body count” horror flick, where each character is gruesomely murdered, except for the two most obvious characters who will live.
“I Heart Willie” is not even scary. It’s just a checklist of derivative kills seen in many other slasher flicks. Nava is the movie’s only cast member who brings some believability to her performance. All of the other cast members are stiff and unconvincing in how they deliver their lines of dialogue. The movie’s cinematography is drab, while the pacing is often slow.
“I Heart Willie” is supposed to be a parody, but the movie takes itself too seriously, considering how idiotic and unimaginative it is. Like a lot of terrible horror movies, the ending (including an end-credits scene) hints that there could be a sequel, although it’s unlikely there will be enough audience demand for an “I Heart Willie” sequel. “I Heart Willie” is more likely to have people thinking, “I Hate Bad Horror Movies.”
Rubey Entertainment released “I Heart Willie” for a limited one-night engagement in select U.S. cinemas on February 26, 2025.