Disney's First Live-Action Horror Film Was Almost Sci-Fi

Credit: Wikipedia/Disney

Disney has not been typically known for horror movies. However, it’s made a few. When I say “horror”, I don't mean any of Disney’s comedies based on the genre or any of its Mickey mouse haunted house cartoons or monster parodies. So, Eddie Murphy's “The Haunted Mansion” and the “Hocus Pocus” movies don't count here. What I mean by “horror” is straight, live-action horror. I'm also not including today's movies made by Disney-acquired properties such as “Halloween: The Curse of Michael Meyers” which was made by Miramax, or “The Omen” which was produced by 20th Century Fox. I'm talking about horror produced by Disney Studios itself. 

The first Disney horror film made by Disney Studios with live actors and for the big screen was a 1980s movie called "The Watcher in the Woods". It was based on a young adult novel by Florence Engel Randall. I haven't read the novel, so I'm not going to talk about it here. If I would have read it, this post would be a Book-To-Movie. So, for now, we'll just settle for a movie review without the book it was adapted from. Even though “The Watcher in the Woods” was Disney's first live-action, supernatural horror movie, it almost became a science fiction horror movie instead. 

Synopsis

Similar to the novel that it’s based on, “Watcher in the Woods” is about a teenage girl named Jan, who, with her parents and younger sister, move into an old, secluded, English manor they’ve rented. Jan discovers that the ghost of the landlady’s daughter, who had suddenly disappeared several decades before and is a kind of doppelganger to Jan, is haunting her. To stop the haunting, Jan has to find out what caused the disappearance of the landlady's daughter. 

Plot, Setting, Style, and Special Effects

The movie's plot is structured good, timing the events in a way that keeps the viewer in suspense. The setting is an old-fashioned gothic one making it ideal for gothic horror fans like myself. The style is good in that it’s realistic and simplistic like many of Disney’s pre-1985 live-action films were. So, it has no overdone, forced, special effects or visuals like too many of today’s fantasy movies do. Yet, the special effects and visuals that it does use are sufficient while the movie still gets the story across. 

Acting and Characterisation

Most of the acting is a little stale except for Bette Davis’s who was the perfect choice for playing the landlady, Mrs. Aylwood. She makes her character come across as mysterious and morbid, kind of a carry-over from her much darker films such as “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" and "Burnt Offerings". The overall characterisation is not bad, but the interaction between Jan and her sister is particularly bonding and sympathetic. 

The Ending Scenes

The main problem I had with the movie was its ending. It cut off too soon for it being a Disney film. The main problem in the story is resolved, but there is not much of a denouement afterwards to resolve the remaining, smaller problems. But it originally wasn't flawed like that. A year before it's nationwide release in 1981, "The Watcher in the Woods" was screened on a limited run in New York. It was this version that had more of an extensive ending which didn't only resolve the problem of the haunting but it showed the reuniting of Jan with her family. This ending should have been left in the movie’s nationwide release. But there was also another ending that was filmed but never used. If it had been, the movie would not be supernatural horror.  

This second alternative ending also included the reuniting of Jan with her family. Unlike the first alternative ending, this one features an alien abduction scene that would have debunked the haunting if it would had been used. It would have totally thrown the movie off because what is presented as a supernatural horror story from the beginning suddenly becomes science fiction horror in the end. This would have been misleading to the audience and would be like cheating the gothic horror fans who’d want to see a supernatural thriller.

"The Watcher in the Woods" is a fun, Disney horror film. If it would have been left with the alien invasion scene, it wouldn't have been Disney's first supernatural horror movie for the big screen. 1983’s "Something Wicked This Way Comes" would have been that instead. That's also based on a novel, one by Ray Bradbury. That's a review for another time, and since I've both read the book and seen the movie, it will probably be a Book-To-Movie review rather than just a movie review. Look out for it here sometime in the near future.

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Have you seen Disney’s 1980/’81 horror film, “The Watcher in the Woods”? What ending would have you preferred? 

Until next time . . .