After years of being excluded from streaming, Something Wicked This Way Comes is finally making its Disney+ debut this month. The 1983 horror flick—which author/screenwriter Ray Bradbury directly adapted from his 1962 dark fantasy novel about a mysterious traveling carnival—had previously only seen sporadic VHS and DVD releases, last being distributed in 2021 through Disney’s Movie Club.
Now, its inclusion on Disney+ may very well pave the way for other dark Disney films of the ’70s and early ’80s—such as Dragonslayer—to join the ranks of the тιтanic streaming platform, including one 45-year-old thriller starring Bette Davis that is one of the studio’s most enigmatic and historically fascinating oddities to date.
After Something Wicked This Way Comes, Will Disney Finally Put Watcher In The Woods On Streaming?
Released in 1980, The Watcher in the Woods follows the Curtis family’s move into a remote English manor owned by one Mrs. Alywood (Bette Davis), an aging widow who decides to rent the property to the Americans after their eldest daughter, Jan (Lynn-Holly Johnson), notices strange lights and apparitions in the woods and around the estate.
Soon after, Jan and her sister, Ellie (Kyle Richards), discover that Mrs. Alywood’s 17-year-old daughter, Karen (Katharine Levy), disappeared 30 years ago after participating in an otherworldly ritual with her friends during a solar eclipse. As she continues to investigate, Jan becomes convinced that Karen’s spirit is still out there, and resolves to reenact the ritual and bring her back.
Released the same year as Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, The Watcher in the Woods likewise features a mirror scene in which Ellie writes Karen’s name backwards as “Nerak.”
Despite its eerie ambience and Davis’ performance, The Watcher in the Woods underperformed commercially and drew criticism for its original ending, which cast “the Watcher” as a horrific, insect-like creature resembling Jeff Goldblum’s The Fly. Nevertheless, the film stands as a bold departure from Disney’s traditional formula, and—seeing as Walt Disney always championed innovation—it persists as an emblem of experimentation.
Disney Made A Bunch Of Creepy Movies The World Has Forgotten About
Something Wicked This Way Comes and The Watcher in the Woods aren’t the only eerie movies Disney released in the ‘70s and ‘80s, however. From 1978-1985, they also produced Return from Witch Mountain, The Black Hole, Return to Oz, and The Black Cauldron—all films dealing with topics like sci-fi and the supernatural amid an ample sprinkling of gothic imagery.
Though many of these тιтles remain obscure or long forgotten today, the streaming era has brought films like them to the forefront of nostalgic cult classic options—especially during the spooky Halloween season. Thus, the inclusion of movies like The Watcher in the Woods on streaming isn’t only an October treat: it’s a cinematic walk through Disney’s transitory brush with horror.
