For this list of the most frightening films on Disney’s highly successful streaming service, we’ve rounded up some of the essentials, as well as some obscure offerings you’ve probably never heard of, now at your fingertips waiting to be discovered thanks to your Disney+ subscription. Here are the 15 scariest movies on Disney Plus. We even included a few eerie honorable mentions.
Scary Movies on Disney Plus
1. Return to Oz (1985)
Fairly traumatizing. Walter Murch’s sequel to the world’s favorite movie—mostly an adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s books The Marvelous Land of Oz and Ozma of Oz—sees first-time screen star Fairuza Balk take over for Judy Garland as Kansas girl Dorothy Gale. Dorothy returns to the magical Land of Oz to find it overthrown and ruled by the villainous Nome King. She aims to overthrow his evil empire with the help of her friends Tiki’s-Tok, Jack Pumpkinhead and Princess Ozma. Disney/Buena Vista As was perhaps inevitable, Return to Oz has got nothing on MGM’s timeless original, but it’s an eerie, surprisingly bleak, often eye-popping (Oscar-nominated visual effects) novelty, featuring a hallway full of severed heads, and even the threat of electroshock therapy. Yikes! Return to Oz was a box-office disaster stateside, but it performed well overseas. Now it’s a cult classic, one that every curious Oz fan should check out at least once. Just be warned: Stuff gets freaky. Piper Laurie (Oscar-nominated for her bonkers/chilling turn in Carrie) plays Aunt Em.
2. Pinocchio (1940)
Made with a much bigger budget, more time and more resources than Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Walt Disney’s second full-length feature is arguably even more stunning than its predecessor: It’s the only picture that can give Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs a run for its money for the title of greatest animated film of all time. The characters are more deeply developed, and the strides in animation (Pinocchio presents strikingly lifelike drawings of natural and mechanical elements) are substantial. It’s also a more frightening watch, as everything on Pleasure Island is just plain nightmare fuel. The cursed island turns wayward little boys into donkeys in a seriously grotesque fashion. Walt Disney Pictures Forrest Gump helmer Robert Zemeckis directed the live-action remake starring Tom Hanks. Exciting, transporting, profoundly moving, 1940’s Pinocchio is essential American cinema; movies just don’t really get any better than this. It didn’t need to be remade to begin with, but the update should have the top-shelf treatment every step of the way.
3. Don’t Look Under the Bed (1999)
Definitely not a masterwork like Snow White or Pinocchio (in fact, the script is a flat-out mess) this Disney Channel original movie (DCOM) is rather infamous and widely seen as the scariest DCOM of all. Some concerned parents even requested Disney stop airing it altogether. Disney The story is a grab bag that’s not without its pleasures: Erin Chambers stars as a girl named Frances Bacon (really), who sees an imaginary friend named Larry Houdini (Eric “Ty” Hodges II)—and eventually the boogeyman, too. Director Kenneth Johnson (who had worked on TV’s Incredible Hulk and Bionic Woman) clearly knows and appreciates the horror genre. With shadows, music and camerawork, he injects a surprising amount of eery style for a made-for-television family film.
4. Hocus Pocus (1993) and Hocus Pocus 2 (2022)
Distributed under Disney’s Buena Vista banner (that’s for fare aimed at older kids, and even adults), this horror/comedy/musical hybrid initially tanked with critics and audiences, losing Disney as much as $20 million at the box office. Now, Hocus Pocus is a perennial essential on TV and home video, with a Halloween presence comparable to A Christmas Story over the holidays. Disney/Buena Vista Pictures Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy and pre-Sex & the City Sarah Jessica Parker star as the Sanderson sisters, 17th-century Salem witches who survive by sucking the life out of small children. Yeah, it’s kind of surprising this ever got greenlit. Thank goodness it did, though. Minor quibbles with anachronistic references and other details aside, this enterprise is a lot of fun, plain and simple. A Disney+ exclusive sequel premiered Sept. 30, 2022. It doesn’t match the inspired, strange but polished alchemy of the original, but it’s proven to be a hit with fans.
5. Fantasia (1940)
Four words, everybody: “Night on Bald Mountain.” Disney Fantasia, Walt Disney’s ambitious collection of eight animated musical vignettes set to a score conducted by Leopold Stokowski and emcee’d by Mickey Mouse, the first movie ever released in stereo, was so expensive that it didn’t start to turn a profit until its 1969 theatrical re-release. The film has been re-released so often that it is one of the highest-grossing films of all time when taking inflation into account. The next time you have an opportunity to experience Fantasia on the big screen, don’t pass it up. A state-of-the-art sound system—or better yet, a live orchestra—turns this masterwork up to 11. The finale, set to composer Modest Mussorgsky’s “A Night on Bald Mountain,” depicts Satan and his followers wreaking havoc throughout the night. As dawn breaks, church bells and “Ave Maria” drive the Prince of Darkness into the underworld. Fantasia takes you on a journey; that’s for damn sure.
6. The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Like fellow holiday classic Gremlins, this red-blooded Halloween-Christmas mashup is one of the scariest movies ever aimed at children. The Tim Burton-produced stop-motion musical has grown so iconic and popular that it’s become its own brand, but it’s important to remember just how special the film is on its own merits. The Danny Elfman songs haunt, and the German Expressionism-inspired visuals are breathtaking. Film critic Roger Ebert even compared the picture to Star Wars. Touchstone Pictures/Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images
7. The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
In some circles, this one gets flack for softening elements of Victor Hugo’s 1831 novel. Look, if everything on the page made it to the screen, an entire generation of kids would still be in therapy, and this would have been Disney’s first R-rated cartoon. As it is, The Hunchback of Notre Dame is quite intense—not to mention touching, funny, rather breathtakingly drawn and operatic. In a four-star review, Roger Ebert called this a “high point” of the Disney Renaissance that began with The Little Mermaid and ended at the turn of the century. Disney Bold statement alert: Tony Jay’s fear-mongering, narcissistic, genocidal Judge Claude Frollo was the most twisted and horrific Disney villain since Snow White’s relentless stepmother. Compare Frollo’s bigotry, mind games and hatred to baddies like Jafar and Captain Hook. Those two look adorable by comparison, don’t they?
8. Mr. Boogedy (1986) and Bride of Boogedy (1987)
Mr. Boogedy has already become one of Disney+’s surprise fan favorites thanks to its big scares and fun. This bizarre TV movie centers on a gag gift salesman and his family as they move into a home haunted by colonial-era spirits. Disney Mr. Boogedy is actually a repurposed, re-edited, stitched-together if you will, failed network pilot. As an ABC Sunday movie, it was so popular that a sequel, Bride of Boogedy, aired the following year. Bride is newly available on Disney+.
9. The Black Hole (1979)
Released hot on the heels of Star Wars (you know, before Disney owned Star Wars), the first-ever PG-rated Disney movie centers on a space crew who discover a missing vessel on the rim of—you guessed it—a black hole. Disney The Black Hole is a cheesy mashup of elements from earlier, better sci-fi hits that never amounts to much of a movie in its own right. The most impressive thing about it is the tone of palpable menace established in the first half before things start to unravel and it becomes clear there isn’t much story here. Other scary highlights include some surprisingly grisly deaths, and a rather terrifying robot named Maximillian. The Black Hole was nominated for two Academy Awards: Best Cinematography and Best Visual Effects (which it lost to Apocalypse Now and Alien respectively).
10. Halloweentown (1998)
Debbie Reynolds, Kimberly J. Brown and Judith Hoag star in this Disney Channel original movie about generations of good witches. Halloweentown first aired on Oct. 17, 1998, on the Disney Channel. The Disney Channel
11. Halloweentown II: Kalabar’s Revenge (2000)
In the family-friendly follow-up to the 1998 ratings hit, the Piper clan take on an angry warlock with a nefarious plan to transform all mortals into whatever their Halloween costume is. Disney
12. Halloweentown High (2004)
In Halloweentown High (aka Halloweentown 3), good witch Marnie organizes a student exchange program between Halloweentown High and her mortal high school. Disney Disney
13. Return to Halloweentown (2006)
This Disney saga was originally planned as a trilogy, but Return to Halloweentown revamped the franchise, with Sara Paxton taking over the role of Marnie Piper.
14. The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949)
The first half of this early, RKO-released Disney novelty is winsome and poetic; the back half becomes fairly chilling. An adaptation of The Wind and the Willows leads into Disney’s take on Washington Irving’s story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Bing Crosby voices Ichabod Crane, an 18th-century dandy who courts the affections of the beautiful Katrina Van Tassel. Ichabod is antagonized by the Headless Horseman, and it all leads to a conclusion that’s surprisingly grim for Disney fare. The projectile flaming pumpkin is a giddy 3D-without-3D scary treat, so striking and memorable it was referenced in Tim Burton’s 1999 R-rated Sleepy Hollow. Disney
15. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
The one that started it all, the first animated feature in history, is one of the key American artistic triumphs of the 20th century. Walt Disney bet the farm on this musical fantasy, and a lot of people thought he was nuts to believe audiences would connect with hand-drawn creations for 80 minutes. Well, Snow White made grown men weep, and it became the highest-grossing film ever upon release (dethroned the following year by Gone With the Wind, still the all-time adjusted box-office champ). Disney In addition to some pure Gothic horror notes, and some visuals inspired by German Expressionism, Snow White features a big bad named one of the ten most unforgettable film villains by the American Film Institute: Snow White’s wicked stepmother, a scheming royal witch who will stop at nothing to destroy the lovable princess, purely out of vanity. Disney+ is getting a lot of attention for its newer content like the awesome Mandalorian series. One of the very best things about this new streaming service is that it will introduce a new generation to timeless, historically significant works like Snow White. Scary honorable mentions now streaming on Disney+: Tim Burton’s wonderful live-action short Frankenweenie (1984) and the 2012 animated feature-length remake of the same name. And, of course, Bambi (1942). Disney Quick question: Where is The Watcher in the Woods (1980)? Just thinking of that one still gives us the heebie jeebies. What do you think of Disney+? What’s on your Disney+ wish list? Let us know in the comments! Next, check out the best family movies on Netflix.
