Mickey vs Winnie: The Public Domain Deathmatch No One Asked For
Untouchables Entertainment has dropped the latest trailer for Glenn Douglas Packard’s The Dark Domain: Mickey-vs-Winnie – and yes, because nothing says “cinema is thriving” like another public-domain horror mash-up, this one throws Steamboat Willie’s Mickey and A.A. Milne’s Pooh into a cage match of copyright-freed carnage.
A century ago, two convicts disappeared into Hell Forest, a place feared for its dark legends and whispers of a malevolent curse. Their mysterious vanishing marked the beginning of tales about a sinister force lurking within the forest, feeding on those who dared to enter. In the present day, a group of childhood friends, each haunted by their own unresolved traumas and fears, feels an inexplicable pull to return to the reform school they once attended. Nestled in the center of the forest’s dark heart, the abandoned hell-camp stands as a decaying monument to their lost innocence. Its walls echoing with secrets and forgotten horrors. Each of them is drawn by a force they cannot understand, as if the forest itself is calling them to confront the darkness of their anxieties, regrets, and unhealed wounds. The forest takes shape in the grotesque forms of twisted versions of two beloved childhood figures: Dark Mickey and Dark Winnie. These monstrous entities, born from the darkest corners of the group’s psyche, embody their worst fears and regrets—Dark Mickey, a sinister manipulator and bloodthirsty force of chaos, and Dark Winnie, a feral predator who thrives on destruction. As the two clash in a violent, unrelenting battle, their fight becomes more than just a physical confrontation. These twisted incarnations, born from the group’s own inner demons, force them to face not only the nightmarish creatures but also the darkness within themselves.
The teaser gives us our first look at Dark Winnie, with rising star Givanni Gotay lumbering into the role. Genre regular Fayna Sanchez (Abraham’s Boys, House of Ashes) stars as Clare, whose job is to protect her friends from both their past trauma and whatever the hell is now prowling their present.
Billed as the first ever public domain crossover movie – because apparently that’s a thing now – The Dark Domain: Mickey-vs-Winnie takes place in the Hell Forest, where beloved childhood icons are reimagined as blood-glugging murder machines. Daniel Wilkinson (Pitchfork) becomes Dark Mickey, while Gotay goes full feral as Dark Winnie, with both characters wreaking havoc in a showdown that promises “nostalgia, but make it unhinged.”
Director Glenn Douglas Packard, the Emmy-nominated choreographer turned filmmaker (Pitchfork, E!’s Men of the Strip), isn’t holding back:
As a director, I was committed to creating the most authentic and intense atmosphere possible. We even brought in a body-piercing suspension artist. It was an intense experience for the cast, a few even vomited. When it was all said and done, we knew we’d done more than just pay homage to public domain horror, we elevated it. We gave horror fans exactly what they’ve been craving from this sub-genre. It’s a first-of-its-kind crossover showdown between two childhood icons, the gore is real, the terror is relentless, and the nostalgia is twisted beyond recognition.
The Dark Domain: Mickey-vs-Winnie is expected to unleash its twisted toon-terror on audiences in 2026, proving that nothing in cinema is sacred, but everything in the public domain is fair game.
