A Controversial Disney Horror Movie Returned To Streaming Charts - Is It Worth Watching?
Disney and horror aren’t really synonymous with each other. Disney consistently presents itself as a family-friendly company, and there’s nothing really family-friendly about traumatizing children and making them cry. And yet, Disney has dabbled in horror aesthetics every now and then, most notably with The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), but it rarely goes full horror.
However, over on Disney+, Disney decided to rerelease one of its most forgotten and most controversial horror movies. After decades of obscurity, Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983) has risen from the grave and become one of the most streamed horror movies of the season, ranking within Justwatch's Top 100 movies at the time of writing. But what even is it, and why has it taken Disney+ and the internet by storm?
Why Is Disney’s ‘Something Wicked This Way Comes’ So Controversial?
To understand what makes Something Wicked This Way Comes so controversial, you have to understand the time period it was released in. The 1980s were a veritable gold mine for horror titles, with movies like Poltergeist (1982) and A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) turning a substantial profit. Most of those horror movies skewed toward adults and teenagers, so seeing a horror movie targeted at younger audiences was uncommon.
By today’s standards, a lot of the scares in Something Wicked This Way Comes may seem tame, but for young children, it can be a lot. There are scenes of torture, a fair amount of death, and arachnophobes, in particular, will find one scene extra scary. But by far the most gruesome scene is one that involves a pretty realistic child decapitation via guillotine. Sure, it’s all makeup and special effects (and some damn good special effects at that), but to see a scene as violent as that in a Disney movie is pretty shocking to say the least.
In other words, Something Wicked This Way Comes feels like classic childhood nightmare fuel. It’s the kind of movie that a kid will watch when they’re really young, see one scene that will scar them and make them cry, and then it will haunt their dreams for years to come. It has a similar vibe to Return to Oz (1985) or The Secret of NIMH (1982). Sure, they’re PG, but some of the imagery and content definitely push that boundary a lot.
Why A Disney Horror Movie Rocketed On The Streaming Charts
Knowing what Something Wicked This Way Comes is doesn’t quite explain its sudden surge in popularity. Why would this movie suddenly become one of the most talked-about films of the Halloween season? To figure that out, we have to look at how Disney has treated the film both before and after its release.
By all accounts, Something Wicked This Way Comes was a disaster for Disney upon its release. It only made $8 million on a budget of $20 million, and even then, it had numerous reshoots that ballooned its final budget way beyond what it was initially supposed to be. Disney took creative control away from director Jack Clayton and effectively re-edited the film into what it is today, which was critically divisive to say the least. After its disappointing box office haul, Disney wrote it off as a failure and moved on.
However, the film would receive a strong cult following, mostly from the few who watched it as kids and had the imagery stick with them. Disney rarely, if ever, capitalized on this, though, as it decided to focus on more wholesome Halloween content like Hocus Pocus (1993) and Halloweentown (1998) as opposed to actually scary Halloween movies. Disney also hardly rereleased the film on physical media, and even then, it would be pulled from sale and placed back into the Disney Vault shortly after, never to be seen again. Case in point, the film only received a physical Blu-ray once through the now-defunct Disney Movie Club, and secondhand copies of it now sell for nearly $100. Add all that together, and you have all the ingredients for a piece of lost media.
Should You Watch ‘Something Wicked This Way Comes’?
The question still remains though if Something Wicked This Way Comes is worth watching. After all, plenty of rare movies eventually see the light of day, like the original cut of The Thief and the Cobbler (1993), but the end result may leave a lot to be desired.
In the case of Something Wicked This Way Comes, it’s still worth a watch if only because of how unconventional it feels. Not a lot of live-action Disney movies attempt to genuinely scare its audience, and the lengths that Clayton went to deliver frightening imagery is commendable. There’s a grim tone that permeates the film, but it’s never mean-spirited. There’s still a sense of wonder and mystique to the film’s plot that captures a certain degree of imagination. It’s creative, even if some of its scares can be a bit much for kids.
Then again, in an era where more and more younger audiences are watching films that are 100% not age-appropriate, like Terrifier 3 (2024) or The Conjuring: Last Rites (2025), Something Wicked This Way Comes may make a great, and safe, gateway horror film for kids. Provided there’s an adult in the room with them, the scares are never too terrifying. Adults will appreciate the artistry that went into the tone and aura the film generates, and kids will be unnerved by just how disturbing it all seems. If you think your kids are able to handle something a bit more intense than Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971), consider giving Something Wicked This Way Comes a shot.
