PREVIEW: The Boatyard (2025 Film) Starring Susan Lanier and Mike Ferguson

 

The Boatyard surfaces this July with a vicious twist on the classic stranded-at-sea setup, arriving on UK digital from Reel 2 Reel Films. Directed by Dale Stelley (Paradise), this savage new horror promises tension, torment and plenty of blood-soaked chaos, starring Mike Ferguson (The Amityville Rising) and genre icon Susan Lanier (The Hills Have Eyes).

The story follows five college students whose day of partying ends in disaster when their boat suddenly breaks down, leaving them adrift. When a stranger appears offering help, they follow him back to a secluded boatyard, hoping for a quick fix. But instead of safety, they walk into a trap. What follows is a fight for survival as the group are picked off by a gang of cannibalistic killers, each death more brutal than the last.

Ferguson plays the mysterious stranger with Lanier adding an extra layer of dread as part of his savage crew. The film leans into its slasher roots, blending remote horror with grindhouse brutality. For fans of old-school survival horror with a strong stomach, The Boatyard looks set to deliver plenty of twisted energy and gruesome set-pieces.

The Boatyard is on UK digital 22 September (Reel 2 Reel Films)

PREVIEW: I Heart Willie (2025 Film) - Starring David Vaughn

Review by Jon Donnis

You might think you know Steamboat Willie. The whistling. The tugboat. That cheerful little mouse who kicked off a century of magic. But I Heart Willie is here to drag that image through the dirt, gut it, and leave it twitching in the dark. This isn’t a tribute. It’s a complete rewire.

Landing on UK digital from 23 June via Reel 2 Reel Films, I Heart Willie is a bold, blood-slick horror from the minds of David Vaughn and Alejandro G. Alegre. Vaughn, who also stars, brings a twisted energy to what’s essentially a myth-busting descent into madness. Alegre, fresh off They Were Witches and The Devil Told Me What to Do, directs with a flair for grim, claustrophobic terror. Together, they pull apart childhood nostalgia and sew it back together with something foul.

The story follows Daniel and Nico, a pair of YouTubers known for chasing urban legends and internet folklore. Their latest clickbait target? The disturbing tale of “Steamboat Willie” – not the animated icon, but a disfigured boy who allegedly inspired the cartoon. According to rumour, the real Willie haunts a backwoods clubhouse, luring in the curious and peeling them apart to make himself a second skin. Most people laugh it off. Daniel and Nico head straight in.

Naturally, things go sideways. Fast. What begins as a jokey, possibly haunted vlog turns into a waking nightmare of mutilation, ritual and sadism. The clubhouse isn't abandoned. Willie isn't a story. And the mouse imagery takes on a deeply unsettling life of its own.

This isn’t just a horror flick riffing on a famous name. It’s a confrontation with how we process myth, memory and the repackaging of the grotesque. It’s also just very nasty in the way proper indie horror should be, nasty and inventive and unafraid to tip into madness. Influencer culture, fame-hunting and our hunger for nostalgia all get skewered here, sometimes literally.

With its grindhouse visuals, unsettling creature design and dark humour curdling into dread, I Heart Willie might not be for the faint-hearted. But for horror fans hungry for something mean, weird and unashamedly unhinged, this could be the one to watch.

I Heart Willie hits UK digital platforms on 23 June.