Does anyone remember "The Watcher in the Woods"? My mom rented it for me at the video store when I was a kid, assuming it would be fine because it was a Disney flick. Long story short, it gave me nightmares for months and scarred me for life. A missing girl in the woods, occult rituals, possession, beings from other dimensions—it had it all. Even some of Disney's animated films are quite dark, but I still think "Watcher in the Woods" takes the cake.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 36 | November 5, 2020 10:23 PM |
What scarred you more, Bette Davis' hair, or Lynn-Holly Johnson's abysmal acting?
| by Anonymous | reply 1 | March 26, 2020 8:50 PM |
A lot of 80s Disney movies are wonderfully creepy. Something Wicked This Way Comes is my favorite of the bunch.
| by Anonymous | reply 2 | March 26, 2020 9:02 PM |
But it had Bette Davis....Bette fucking Davis!
| by Anonymous | reply 3 | March 26, 2020 9:05 PM |
Oh, Return to Oz, which was a Disney movie, may be the scariest movie I've ever seen.
| by Anonymous | reply 4 | March 26, 2020 9:09 PM |
Lol R1 Lynn Holly-Johnson was indeed hammy as fuck in it. Bette Davis was more or less phoning it in, but she was okay. Caroll Baker and David McCallum were good, but not given much to do.
| by Anonymous | reply 5 | March 26, 2020 9:10 PM |
It is NOT on Disney+ which is interesting.
| by Anonymous | reply 6 | March 26, 2020 9:12 PM |
The late 70's/early 80's were a weird time for Disney. Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Watcher in the Woods, and Return to Oz are all potentially traumatic movies for children. I miss movies like that. They had the guts to treat us like adults. All of these movies freaked me out as a kid, but I got over it and faced my fears. Ditto The Witches with Anjelica Huston in the early 90's. That movie was scarier than all three of these put together.
| by Anonymous | reply 7 | March 26, 2020 9:14 PM |
[quote]It is NOT on Disney+ which is interesting.
There are quite a few obscure titles that aren't on Disney plus, unfortunately, but I bet they'll cycle them into rotation of they notice the demand, but you gotta create movements for what you wanna see online, so they can take to twitter, then Disney might hear.
For me, I grew up on the 90s shit, so Hunchback was a fucked up as it got, and it's still relatively fucked up considering the psycho-sexual, religious overtones of the villain. GREAT FILM!
| by Anonymous | reply 8 | March 26, 2020 9:18 PM |
OP, couldn't you have posted a link to the fucking movie?
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 9 | March 26, 2020 9:21 PM |
The only thing that (I've seen anyway) I would consider a little "much" for kids on Disney+ right now is the Black Hole. Has a somewhat gruesome (for kids) death scene.
I really don't remember the plot, but I don't think "Escape from Witch Mountain" was "scary". Only two that really stuck out to me that may have been on the edge.
| by Anonymous | reply 10 | March 26, 2020 9:21 PM |
The most recent Disney movie I can think of, that went surprisingly dark, was "Hunchback of Notre dame". It dealt with some heavy themes, like a conflicted priest, both lusting after and hating the object of his obsession. They also dealt with discrimination of a group, disabilities, and the difficult lesson that you don't always get the person you want.
The song "Hellfire" is amazing.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 11 | March 26, 2020 9:23 PM |
R10 do you recommend giving that movie a watch?
| by Anonymous | reply 12 | March 26, 2020 9:24 PM |
R9 didn't realize it was on YouTube. I just searched for the trailer because I assumed it wouldn't be. Disney usually cracks down on copyright stuff. I am truly surprised it is on there.
| by Anonymous | reply 13 | March 26, 2020 9:26 PM |
Black Hole yes R12. It isn't 2001: A Space Odyssey or anything, but I remembered liking it as a kid so I watched it again when Disney+ came out. I think it more or less holds up for a cheaper late 70's film. It isn't great but, for an adult, better than 90% of the movies on Disney+.
I keep meaning to watch the "Witch Mountain" movies again but I haven't got around to it.
| by Anonymous | reply 14 | March 26, 2020 9:28 PM |
Pinocchio is terrifying. Don't be bad or you will be forced into child labor in the salt mines.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 15 | March 26, 2020 9:28 PM |
And, I forgot, turn into a donkey!
| by Anonymous | reply 16 | March 26, 2020 9:29 PM |
I still remember seeing Snow White on the big screen when it was re-released when I was a kid and being terrified of the forest scene. All those creepy eyes were really something on a big screen. I always loved how Disney would mix the creepy with the saccharine. I've seen better adaptations of many of these stories, but Disney always filled their versions with such striking imagery.
| by Anonymous | reply 17 | March 26, 2020 10:07 PM |
One Magic Christmas, probably the worst and most depressing Christmas movie of all times. The DVD cover couldn't possibly be more misleading.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 18 | March 26, 2020 10:08 PM |
R6 I am wondering if Disney+ is holding off from putting their horror/horror-adjacent titles on there until Halloween. "Child of Glass" was another great Disney TV movie in a similar vein to "Watcher in the Woods," though not quite as scary. It was about a boy being haunted by the ghost of a young girl in a Southern mansion. It ended up being revealed that she had been murdered and thrown down a well by a drunken handyman on the property years prior. If I recall it correctly, it definitely had an implication that the man was trying to rape/molest her.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 19 | March 26, 2020 10:17 PM |
I can't believe I'm the first to mention "Bambi", that eternal source of early childhood trauma!
| by Anonymous | reply 20 | March 26, 2020 11:36 PM |
Do you actually see Bambi's mother shot R20? I haven't seen it in years.
Many Disney movies deal with death, but not many show it.
| by Anonymous | reply 21 | March 26, 2020 11:52 PM |
Children were terrified by Disney's FIRST ANIMATED feature, Snow White in 1937.
That's 43 years before YOUR experience.
Are you that uneducated on pop culture?
| by Anonymous | reply 22 | March 27, 2020 1:36 AM |
That scene in Cinderella where her step sisters and step mom rip her dress to shreds. Very disturbing.
| by Anonymous | reply 23 | March 27, 2020 1:59 AM |
Disney's animated "Alice in Wonderland" is so brightly colored, surreal, and hallucinogenic that for a long time, I assumed it was made in the late sixties or early seventies, and had been influenced by the Psychedelic Art of the LSD era.
It was actually made in 1951, but it still looks like an acid trip.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 24 | March 27, 2020 2:04 AM |
The body horror in Pinocchio is just the stuff of nightmares.
| by Anonymous | reply 25 | March 27, 2020 2:08 AM |
R34 could you be a more condescending cunt? Of course I have seen Snow White and know it terrified children—I was one of them. I was also not alive in 1937 to see it in theaters, unlike you. You don't have a point, aside from announcing that you are insufferable.
| by Anonymous | reply 26 | March 27, 2020 2:12 AM |
The film tells the story of Matt Clark (Aaron Smolinski), a male hockey player who dies in a game due to an accident made by the angel Allan, (Brendan Beiser) that caused the hockey player to die when he was trying to get to a choking man. As four days have passed where Matt has been pronounced dead and buried on national television, Allan is instructed by his boss Peter (Alec Willows) to put Matt in a suitable body. Matt comes back to life as Sara Bryan (Nicolle Tom), a female figure skater who fell into a coma who just passed into Heaven. Both share the dream of competing in the Winter Olympics. The male hockey player specified that if he returned to earth, he wanted to have a chance to win an Olympic Gold medal on ice, leaving the detail that he wanted to be on the hockey team implied. With time running short, Matt in Sara's body has to get skating lessons from Sara's one-time rival (Tara Lipinski) if he wishes to earn gold.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 27 | March 27, 2020 2:16 AM |
I couldn’t sleep one night when I was a teenager and I changed the channel and was ensnared by this bizarre kids’ movie that turned out to be terrifying. My mom was awake downstairs and I ran down and she was watching it, too, and we looked at one another like “WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS.”
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 28 | March 27, 2020 2:47 AM |
OP, you may be interested in the original ending of the Watcher in the Woods. There's also another ending that misses out the stuff on the spaceship.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 29 | March 27, 2020 3:36 AM |
This is the other ending. There are some slightly different shots and Carol gets some extra lines.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 30 | March 27, 2020 3:37 AM |
R28 that Is actual footage of a DL Convention
| by Anonymous | reply 31 | March 27, 2020 4:18 AM |
The Anjelica Huston character is the queen on DL who goes back and finds an old DL post from 10 years ago and rages over the new “duplicate” post.
| by Anonymous | reply 32 | March 27, 2020 4:27 AM |
[Quote] That scene in Cinderella where her step sisters and step mom rip her dress to shreds. Very disturbing.
That's why Cinderella should have stayed high.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 33 | March 27, 2020 5:04 AM |
I watched the Lifetime remake of Watcher In The Woods with Anjelica Huston as Bette Davis. It was directed by Melissa Joan Hart.
| by Anonymous | reply 34 | October 6, 2020 10:58 PM |
This has horrified me for years.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 35 | November 5, 2020 9:49 PM |
R19 - I was going to say Child of Glass -- here lies the murder lass - vainly cries the child of glass... [or something like that]. I remember it was a two parter - I believe part 1 on the regular Sunday Disney time slot - part 2 on Monday (at least did not have to wait a week).
Humorous horse aside, this version played every Halloween on Wonderful World of Disney does pretty much follow the dark ending of the book. As a kid I was always worried something was going to get me as I was walking up the back steps - just before I would have been safe due to Ichabod almost making the bridge. Can you imagine the reaction of the kids if Ariel had the same ending as the Anderson's Little Mermaid, although there was a non-Disney version that played every year that pretty much followed the story.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 36 | November 5, 2020 10:23 PM |
