WARNING: This Article May Contain Spoilers
So, here’s a little spin-off from my Horrifying Childhood articles to focus specifically on the horror twists on some beloved Disney characters that have hit our screens in recent years. I guess now is the most apt time of all, what with the release of Poohniverse: Monsters Assemble being released next year. Now, not all the characters in this article will be represented in the upcoming film but they will definitely terrify those Disney babies out there…
The Little Mermaid
In both versions of this story, the Hans Christen Anderssen and Disney, Ursula is the villain – however, what if Ariel was the evil one all along? Well, that seems to be the way this film takes the story, just this time her name is Aurora but she still has the same red hair. My assumption is that her motive is to protect the temple that Dr Eric Prince (you see what they did there?) and his students have dug up in the Caribbean but if that’s the case, why buy the land and allow him to keep digging? Also, why do it by seducing him instead of killing him as quickly as she did the fisherman when we first meet her. But then I guess we would have no film that way. It gradually began to dawn on me that her whole plan was to use Eric to raise the god Dagon, the demon that mermaid and mermen alike pray to. The annoying thing is, because of the drawn-out seduction, there’s very little to the actual film as she only kills one person in the beginning to be able to walk and that’s it!
Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare
I don’t know if this was done on purpose, but the moment Peter tries to take James at the beginning, it reminds me a lot of the opening to It when Pennywise kills Georgie! It’s almost as if Peter Pan has made some sort of deal with the devil to keep bringing young boys to Neverland – playing on the idea of it being a representation of the afterlife. Especially considering that Pan kills a whole school bus of children after asking them who wants to go to Neverland with him! What I couldn’t understand however, is why Peter’s voice kept changing or the relevance of the Tinker Bell character in the whole plot. I guess you can’t have Peter without Tink, and I get that “she” is actually Timmy Carter, the first victim of Pan’s, but her character just didn’t seem to impact the story in this case. In a weird kind of way, this film flips the characters of Peter Pan on their head – Pan becoming the bad guy and James Hook the hero, even though it is only in order to take revenge for his own kidnapping as a young boy. This opens a question for me, why did he not send James and Timmy to Neverland when they were children? Why did he keep them?
Bambi: The Reckoning
I need to put this out there straight away, I absolutely loved the introduction to this film however I really don’t think there was any need for Bambi to drink polluted water. OK, yes, the toxins could explain its unbelievable size but, this is a stag that would naturally have a hate for the human race as well as longing for revenge considering they shot his mother and clearly hit his mate with a car! It’s not like animal revenge horrors don’t already exist – Orca and Jaws: The Revenge to name two! So why did this have to be any different? Instead, this film could have simply been a fight for survival, simply running from an animal fuelled by pure hatred, and there would be no need for Grandma’s strange clairvoyance which seemed to make no sense to me anyway. Remove this subplot and the film is still just as good. I have to admit, this film probably has some of the best death scenes out of this whole article! Considering Bambi tears one of the characters in half with just the use of his antlers!
Alice in Terrorland
I’ve always looked at this story, with adult eyes anyway, as being some sort of commentary of drug taking, as it feels like some sort of hallucination. This film kind of follows the same idea just this time it’s a fever dream rather a drug hallucination! I have to admit, she’s a little older than I expected however considering the original character is believed to be seven years old, you can’t really base a horror film around someone so young. For such a short film, so much is focused on Alice and her grandmother compared to the actual horror retelling of the original story. I was expecting something a little bit darker than this film was, but I don’t know if that was because Alice’s interaction with the inhabitants of “Terrorland” were intermittent instead of being a constant tale. The white rabbit is a little weird, but I wouldn’t say he’s scary even though he’s clearly a little crazy. In the simplest terms, this film is just downright odd, and I was a little confused as to whether her hallucinations were supposed to be telling her that she has been in Terrorland all along and her grandmother is the Red Queen, considering Grandmother seems to be the one that has made her sick…
Cinderella’s Curse
For anyone who knows the original Cinderella story, or got some idea of it from Into the Woods, you will know that it was pretty dark before Disney got their hands on it. The fact that this film starts with some sort of Necronomicon, it feels almost like they have decided to cross Cinderella with The Evil Dead. The only downside is that following this rather dark opening the film takes on a rather slow pace. I do wonder however, what exactly Cinderella’s curse is. It does seem like she may be able to have visions of the future as we see flashes of some kind of massacre at the Prince’s ball or is it the fact that she curses everyone using the book. For me, I think this really should have been called Cinderella’s Revenge instead, simply for the way they treat her at the ball let alone what her step-mother has put her through throughout her life. And for that I say good for her! I also love the touch of her murdering people with her glass slippers.
Side Note: The fairy godmother and what I assume are her henchmen, are damn creepy!
Screamboat
Moving away from the fairytales they stole and on to a character who is truly a Disney creation – Mickey Mouse! Now don’t ask me why “Steamboat Willie” is a rat instead of a mouse, but that’s the way the director chose to go. Maybe they didn’t want to damage Mickey’s memory too much? I have to admit, I was expecting our killer to be much larger than he is. Instead of making him this man-sized rat, “Steamboat Willie” remains small. It’s such a small detail, buried in the violence that ensues throughout the 1hr and 40 minutes, but they match the whistle from the 1928 film which means it turns from this joyful little tune to something much more sinister. Let’s just say you may not want to hear anyone whistle for a while! As if basing the whole film on an early Disney character wasn’t enough – there’s a group of girls who are CLEARLY a homage to the Disney princesses – Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Jasmine and Belle. It took me a moment to work out the fifth girl until she said the words I want to be where the people are clearly making her Ariel. I have to admit, I was expecting this to be cheesy and, considering it’s by the same people that made Terrifier, a little gory but honestly it’s a lot better than that!
