Now - you might be thinking, what the hell, Jack?
Disney?
What’s scary about Disney?
Well - I mean first and foremost, I’d point you towards a few specific scenes in Snow
White and Bambi - and we’ll all collectively agree that there’s nothing more terrifying
than the Queen with her red apple, you know what I’m talking about.
And Bambi’s mum - never forget.
However - throughout the history of Disney Studios, there’s a few unwanted stains on
their cinematic catalogue that the executives would much rather forget.
But guess what?
We haven’t forgotten!
So - let’s take a look shall we?
Hello horror fans and welcome back to the scariest channel on YouTube - Top 5 Scary
Videos.
As always, I’ll be your horror host Jack Finch - as we scour the long lost halls of
Disney’s dusty vaults - and take a look at the Top 5 Scary Disney Films.
Roll the clip.
The internet is awash with myths and urban legends about the origins of Walt Disney and
his magical world of animation - his body is frozen cryogenically and buried beneath
Cinderella’s castle - he was maligned with the Nazis - yadda yadda yadda - but, forget
about those - because what we’re concerned with is Disney’s attempts to meander their
way into the realms of science fiction and horror - with a demographic vastly made up
of kids.
Bad combination - but it makes for some great retrospection.
Before we jump into this video guys - you know the drill by now - if you’re a fan
of this video, creepy Disney films - animated horror - or just Top 5 Scary Videos in general
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Also - make sure to stick around all the way till the end of this video, where I’ll be
reading out some of your more humorous comments from the past few days.
On with the show.
Kicking off at Number 5 - The Black Cauldron
Ahhh - without a doubt, my favourite Disney film ever made.
Which kind of explains a lot - but when you really rummage through it, The Black Cauldron
was an underrated early 80s masterpiece that was completely misinterpreted by the general
public.
Seriously, this film was torn to shreds and almost bankrupt Disney’s Animation Studios.
And because of that - Disney have went out of their way to make sure that it’s forgotten,
branding it the black sheep of their animated canon.
Do you want to know something even more terrifying?
The Care Bears Movie was more of a commercial success than this poor guy.
Talk about salt in the wound.
The Black Cauldron has no musical sequences, one of the few Disney films not to do so.
Instead, it has one of the most haunting, creepy - and masterful musical scores ever.
It’s dark and gloomy in all the right places - reflecting the animations bleak and unfiltered
style.
This film isn’t bright - it isn’t colourful - and it’s source material is drawn from
some seriously dark fiction.
The Black Cauldron is loosely based on The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander - a
series of novels that pay tribute to the ghouls and spectres of Welsh Mythology.
And for what was intended to be a kids movie - it really doesn’t pull any punches.
Disney were so ashamed of it that despite it’s 1985 cinematic release - it wasn’t
made available for commercial purchase until 1997, which is where it ended up in the laps
of people like me - and we absolutely loved it for the dark, oftentimes disturbing tale
that it was intended to be.
Coming in at Number 4 - The Black Hole
Who knew that Disney made a terrifying science-fiction horror mashup starring Anthony Perkins, AKA
- the literal Norman Bates.
Norman Bates is in a Disney film.
Let that sink in guys.
Well, after the success of Star Wars in 1977 - pretty much every studio on the face of
the Earth thought it would be a good idea to make a sci-fi film - and what was Disney’s
approach?
A studio famed for Bambi, Dumbo and the like - they decided to make a dark, cosmic horror
riff featuring a mad scientist trying to fly a spaceship into a black hole.
Released in 1979 - The Black Hole was the first ever Disney feature to receive a PG
rating.
And PG is pretty generous, because not only does it feature a mad scientist - it also
depicts an army of faceless robots that are in fact lobotomized humans that tried to mutiny
but failed - some straight up murder, mild cursing - adult themes - a terrifying demon
android named Maximilian - and an ending that is far from happy.
What the hell, Disney?
Next up at Number 3 - The Watcher In The Woods
Straight up - Disney’s first and only intentional horror film.
And while it missed the mark on the whole, it was still jam-packed with some real horror
pedigree.
It’s interesting then, that Disney executive Ron Miller publically pitched this film as
Disney’s version of The Exorcist.
Hey - it was the late 70s - they were struggling for content.
Attached to the film was John Hugh - the man responsible for the 1973 cult classic The
Legend of Hell House - and for the most part, The Watcher In The Woods was a decent attempt
at a supernatural horror flick.
But - Disney?
What’s going on bud?
Your audience are children - what were you thinking?
The first version of this film featured a bizarre, perplexing ending for what is essentially
a haunted house story - and critics tore it to shreds, making Disney think twice about
dipping their toe into the chilly pond that is horror cinema.
It was later re released, with a completely different ending that tied the whole thing
together - and surprisingly, Disney were left with a genuinely creepy and eerie ghost story.
But - who was going to watch it?
Well, no one.
Sorry Disney.
The kids weren’t ready for it.
Swinging in at Number 2 - Return to Oz
And - mark my words - this film is terrifying, straight up - even if it IS a kids film.
Return to Oz creeped the hell out of me as a kid, and it still does now.
And what a shock it was to go from Judy Garland’s wonderful Wizard of Oz - we’re off, we’re
off, we’re off - to this horrifying skin-flaying Gorgon of a movie.
Although, Return to Oz was technically a lot more faithful to the L. Frank Baum books set
in the magical land of Oz - it was a complete and utter 180 from the tone and visual style
of the 1939 classic.
And it scared kids so much that there were mass walkouts during its cinematic release.
It was conjured up during the so-called Disney Dark Ages of the 80s - where, much like with
The Watcher in the Woods - the studio was struggling to interpret exactly what their
growing audience wanted.
And what did we get?
Well, a young, insomniac Dorothy Gale getting electroshock therapy in a mental asylum, headless
princesses - the deeply disturbing Wheelers, who, what the hell?
I’ll take flying monkeys any day over those guys - and of course - a living, breathing
collection of women’s heads in glass cabinets.
It wasn’t intended to be - but Return to Oz was possibly one of the scariest Disney
films ever made.
Although - there is one that takes that title over all others.
Finally - coming in at our Number 1 spot - Something Wicked This Way Comes
Those poor, poor kids.
Disney - what were you thinking?
Put it this way, if Something Wicked This Way Comes was released as a Hammer Horror
film - it wouldn’t have felt out of place.
Starring a young Jonathan Pryce as the terrifying and mysterious Mr. Dark - the proprietor of
a nightmarish and arcane carnival that rolls into the sleepy town of Greentown, Illinois
with the intention of taking over and forcing the townspeople to do his demonic bidding.
It’s not a happy film at any point - it’s a straight up, dark and twisted tale of a
villain and his victims.
Based on the novel of the same name written by Ray Bradbury, Something Wicked was meticulously
loyal to its source material - with director Jack Clayton working closely with Bradbury
to deliver on it’s horror filled plot.
Clayton was also responsible for adapting Henry James’ horror novella The Turn of
the Screw - into the 1961 horror classic, The Innocents.
And that’s exactly why Disney picked him up - because he made horror films, really,
really well.
And that’s what this is - it’s a horror film, and it’s genuinely creepy for the
most part - and it was made by Disney Studios.
Who knew?
Well - there we have it folks.
Let us know if you think we missed any scary Disney films in the comment section down below.
Derek Edwards says - Always awesome content and always an awesome t-shirt!
Keep up the great creepy work - love it.
Well Derek - that’s some incredibly high praise, cheers for being a horror fan my good
buddy.
I see a lot of comments asking where I get my t-shirts, and to be honest - they just
kind of come to me, if I see it - I buy it.
I’m terrible at shopping so I have to be impulsive.
But - I’m glad you all appreciate them.
They appreciate you to.
TheAbyss92882 says - Good video but you need to try harder to scare me.
Well - I guess that’s the end of that, then.
Cheers for sticking around all the way to the end guys - it’s always a pleasure, never
a chore to see you guys.
As always - I’ve been your host Jack Finch - you’ve been watching Top 5 Scary Videos
- and until next time, take it easy.