Disney’s ‘The Watcher in the Woods’: The Creepy Alternate Endings That Didn’t Make The Final Cut
Disney’s ‘Dark Phase’ spawned some disturbing offerings. There’s Watcher in the Woods, for example, a 1980 supernatural thriller with horrific undertones. However, the movie managed to become a cult classic among Disney fans. And it turns out the film could have ended differently. We’re breaking down the horror movie’s alternate endings.
‘The Watcher in the Woods’ tells the story of a missing teen
In 1980, Disney was going through something of an ‘adolescent’ phase. Cutesy teen comedies like Hayley Mills’ The Parent Trap weren’t working anymore. The solution, oddly, was to go to a dark place.
And they overshot the mark with director John Hough’s The Watcher in the Woods. It starred screen legend Bette Davis as a British estate owner named Mrs. Aylwood. She reluctantly sells her haunted house to a young American family.
Sisters Jan (Lynn-Holly Johnson) and Ellie (Kyle Richards of Halloween Kills) discover an evil supernatural presence in their home and grounds. Mrs. Aylwood, a widow and bereaved mother of a missing teen, heightens suspicions with odd behavior.
Carroll Baker and David McCallum rounded out the ensemble cast as the parents of Ellie and Jan.
If you’ve seen the movie, you know how it ends. We’ll only say that the very ending is perhaps the only classically ‘Disney’-esque aspect to this eccentric film.
Davis is outstanding as the icy-cold, unhinged Mrs. Aylwood, and she gives the movie all the momentum it needs to be heart-stoppingly disturbing — especially for kids of the day.
Disney had two alternate endings for ‘The Watcher in the Woods’ [Spoilers]
According to Wikipedia, there were two alternate endings for Watcher in the Woods. Both are detailed in a 2002 Anchor Bay DVD commentary.
The original climactic “other world” ending features a “Watcher,” an insect-like alien that kidnaps main character Jan from inside a creepy chapel in the woods and takes her to another dimension. Additionally, Mrs. Aylwood’s daughter met a similar fate.
The snarling creature was meant to be terrifying. Producers created a puppet of the ‘Watcher,’ similar in style to Jim Henson’s emaciated Skeksis from The Dark Crystal (1982).
Producers ultimately abandoned the “other world” scenes and occult references.
The first theatrical ending appeared only briefly in New York City before producers pulled it. Moreover, the friends of still-missing Karen (Tom, Mary, and John, played by Richard Pasco, Frances Cuka, and Ian Bannen) are questioned following Jan’s disappearance during a séance meant to bring Karen back.
The alien monster did appear in this version to retrieve Jan. What follows was unclear to most audiences. Moreover, it left viewers confused, thinking the horror movie lacked an ending.
Finally, the third ending that survives today can be seen on the movie’s official copies. In it, the terrifying “Watcher” puppet is replaced with a light pillar or beam that represents the Watcher.
In the annals of alternate horror movie endings, however, these tend to add confusion. Disney’s final version toned down the occult and removed the puppetry, making the already-scary movie more watchable for younger audiences.
A remake of the Disney film starred Anjelica Huston
You know a movie is good when a remake comes along. And that’s exactly what happened with Watcher in the Woods. Melissa Joan Hart directed the made-for-Lifetime-television film. Anjelica Huston (The Royal Tenenbaums) was a worthy replacement for Bette Davis as Mrs. Aylwood. However, the movie was a lackluster retelling of an already beloved film.
To sum up, the movie’s 2002 DVD commentary revealed that even the production of the movie was creepy and unbalanced. And that’s exactly how it should have been.
