Usually, when one thinks of Disney movies one thinks of fluffy, happy stuff. But there were times, granted few and far between, when Disney seemed gleefully determined to traumatize the little kiddies. A prime example would be today's film, The Watcher in the Woods. Directed by John Hough, employing many of the same techniques he used on The Legend of Hell House, along with an effective and memorable score by Stanley Myers, creates a memorably creepy little film.
The film tells the story of a family who have just moved into an old English country house, overseen by Mrs. Aylwood (played by Bette Davis). The Dad is a composer (played by David McCullam) and Mom is a Children's Book author (played by Carroll Baker), so the seclusion is appealing to both of them. They have two daughters, Jan (played by Lynn-Holly Johnson) and Ellie (played by Kyle Richards). Even before they move in, Jan starts having weird experiences in and around the house, seeing a glowing mist in the woods, the window she's looking out of cracking in a distinct triangle shape. When she voices her concerns to her mother, they are laughed off as nonsense as is typical of parents in movies like this. Mrs. Aylwood agrees to rent the house to the family in a large part because Jan reminds her of her daughter Karen, who vanished 30 years prior.
Once they move in, strange things continue to happen. Jan keeps seeing an image of Karen, blindfolded and crying out for help in mirrors while her sister Ellie seems to fall into a trance, as if she's channeling someone or something, or writing on mirrors or windows, spelling out important clues or warning of impending danger. Jan is prompted to investigate further as to what happened to Karen, with the help of their neighbor, Mike (played by Benedict Taylor, filling the requisite cute love interest). They discover that Karen was part of an initiation ritual performed by three others, John Keller (played by Ian Bannen), Tom Colley (played by Richard Plasco), and to Mike's surprise, his mother Mary Fleming (played by Frances Cuka). They discover that during the initiation ritual they held in an old church for their secret society that John Keller created, something happened and lighting struck the belfry, setting the church on fire and during this Karen vanished without a trace. And now it would seem she's trying to get back. Is the strange, unseen entity in the woods trying to hinder or help her return? That's what Jan has to try to figure out in this genuinely creepy, if relatively kid friendly spook story.
The film is supported by some great, evocative scenery (especially the titular woods, which are practically another character in the film) and fantastic use of Steadicam to add to the eeriness, which director John Hough uses to great effect. The scripting is a bit of a mess, especially with lead character Jan, who comes across very inconsistently. In some parts of the film, she comes across very much as a smart capable girl, whereas others she seems stunningly dense when faced with some painfully obvious clues that takes her far too long to figure out. Although this may be the result of the notorious production troubles this film went through while trying to get to the screen. The film was re-edited several times and has no less than two (very different) alternate endings to the one we see in the finished film. While this doesn't really take away from the film as whole, these couple moments do stick out, at least to me. Despite this, it's still a fantastic little movie, one that has aged remarkably well, with enough memorable moments to outweigh the less great ones and is a movie I fully recommend checking out.
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