When you think of Disney World, you probably think of cherished family memories and happily ever afters. But, Disney can also have a…creepier side.

Between attractions, movies, merchandise, and more, here are all of the times that Disney has given us nightmares rather than sweet dreams of fairy tales.

ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter

Back in 1995, ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter attraction opened in Tomorrowland at Magic Kingdom and it was a TRUE horror-themed attraction. The original plan for the attraction involved having guests encounter xenomorphs, which were the species of alien featured in the 1979 movie Alien. However, Disney decided to take a different direction with the attraction and develop an original storyline because Alien was an R-rated movie and was deemed to be too scary. Though, you could find a scene from the film on the Great Movie Ride in Disney’s Hollywood Studios, so the rights to the movie didn’t go to waste.

So, instead, Disney sought help from George Lucas who developed a storyline for the ride in which guests become the helpless prey to a ravenous alien monster. So…not all that much less scary. In fact, just the pre-show was traumatizing enough — a sinister robot named S.I.R. demonstrated new teleportation technology that you were volunteering to test. To demonstrate, the robot used a cute alien but based on its screams it became clear to the audience that the technology wasn’t really all that advanced.

The attraction itself was an immersive theater where guests were strapped down into a seat and the theater came to life around them with…well…aliens. In the pitch dark. So, harnessed into the seat, guests watched as something went astray with the teleportation device leading to a bloodthirsty alien being teleported into the room. And, that’s when the lights went dark. From there, the special effects in the theater made it so that you could hear, smell, and even feel the alien roaming the room around you. Plus, if the idea of a hungry alien lingering around the room didn’t scare you enough, a “maintenance technician” comes to try to help restore the power but after some gruesome sound effects, you were splashed with a warm liquid…we’ll let your imagination figure out what that was implying.

So, definitely not the family-friendly ride that people had come to expect from Disney.

Up until this point, the “scariest” rides that had opened up in the parks were the Haunted Mansion and the still VERY new Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. So that was what guests had to compare before hopping in line for this new ride with their kiddos. Needless to say, the attraction started to lose popularity among guests pretty quickly and it was eventually closed in 2003 to be replaced with an equally nightmare-inducing attraction (for totally different reasons!) — Stitch’s Great Escape.

The “cute-ified” version of the attraction included almost all of the same effects and concept, except instead of a giant alien being transported into the room, Stitch was. And, he went on the same rampage through the room while guests were strapped down to their seats. Just sub out murder with eating hot dogs. That’s the basic gist. Kids were still walking out of the theater with all the terror needed for their nightmares so Disney closed the attraction temporarily, only reopening it at the busiest days of the year, until announcing its official removal in 2020.

For now, the theater that stirred up a lot of tears and fears now sits abandoned with nothing new announced for the space.

Click here to see Disney Animatronics: The WEIRD, the BAD, and the UGLY!

Snow White’s Scary Adventure

Another attraction that was known for causing children to have nightmares for months after returning from their Disney World vacation (also…umm…maybe well into adulthood? Just sayin’) was Snow White’s Scary Adventure. The ride was a classic dark ride involving loading into a slow-moving vehicle and journeying through a variety of different, often blacklit, scenes in the dark. 

It initially opened in 1971 with a storyline that was deemed to be a little too scary for kids by their parents and later closed to be refurbished in 1994 to tone down the scary factor. Though it still terrified kiddos.

The entire ride was filled with evil laughs from the Wicked Witch and music that made you feel like something just wasn’t right. And if that wasn’t enough, you stumbled upon the Evil Queen in her less flattering form A LOT. But really, this ride shouldn’t have been as scary to guests as it was — it was really just painted cutouts of the witch popping out at you throughout the ride. But, somehow it struck the wrong chord with people and many kids (including some DFB team members) rode it with their eyes squeezed shut the entire time.

The ride eventually closed in Disney World in 2012 to become what we now know as Princess Fairytale Hall and we got a much happier ride based on the classic Disney movie — Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. If you’re still dying to have the pants scared off of you by an inanimate object though, a version of this ride does still exist in Disneyland. Plus, the attraction even got a bit of a renovation in Disneyland recently to eliminate a few scares and make the attraction more immersive.

Check Out 9 of the SCARIEST Rides in Disney World, According to You HERE!

The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror

Both of the previous attractions we’ve talked about here are now closed, but we can’t talk about scary things around the Disney Parks without talking about the Tower of Terror! Located in Disney’s Hollywood Studios, the attraction is all-around creepy from start to finish.

Beginning when you first step foot into the queue, you’re greeted by Cast Members who are in character all. of. the. time. and seemingly enjoy how creepy they get to act. And, the queue is almost scarier than the ride itself with ominous music, cobwebs in the “lobby” that make it feel like you’re entering a hotel that has been abandoned for good reason…

…including an offputting bust that feels like it’s watching you as you move.

And, when you finally make it to the pre-show, you step into a creepy library to learn about a variety of doomed hotel guests that were transported to the fifth dimension when (on Halloween night!) lightning struck the hotel and they vanished from the hotel’s elevator. 

You then venture down through the boiler room of the hotel (to make things even creepier) before loading into a rickety looking service elevator. Once you’re loaded into the elevator, you go up into even more creepy scenes where the same doomed guests appear in a spookier form waving to you (!!). Then you literally enter the Twilight Zone and soon enough you’re plummeting to the ground in a series of elevator drops.

And, the scares aren’t over when you get to the bottom — there’s an infamous creepy doll waiting to greet you on your way back to the unloading area, if you are lucky enough to spot him. He’s actually named Caesar from a real episode of the show The Twilight Zone. Legend has it (yes, rides from 1994 have legends behind them) that if Cast Members don’t greet Caesar, he’ll cause mischief on the ride for the day.

If the ride is down when you attempt to ride, someone must have forgotten to tell him “hi!” So, it really all combines to keep you on edge from first entering the queue all the way to when you get off the ride.

Learn All About the Creepy History of Disney’s Tower of Terror HERE!

Disney Hotel Decorations

Attractions aren’t the only thing in Disney World that have been known to cause a sleepless night or two — some Disney hotels are decorated with some rather terrifying props too! Over at Disney’s BoardWalk Inn, you might find yourself stumbling upon some chairs that you just can’t unsee. These chairs are replicas of the ones that used to be found on carousels in the 19th century. Nannies would sit on them to relax while the kids rode, which is why they’re deemed “Nanny Chairs.” These ones have names just like many real nanny chairs did (named for the child the nanny was sitting) — meet Todd, Paul, Alex, and Carrie. 

And, if looking at them isn’t enough to freak you out at least a little, what’s even eerier is that they’re known to move around the resort and you never know exactly where you’ll spot them. So, yeah, creepy chairs with a personality of their very own…totally not creepy, Disney. (OK, so it’s really just Cast Members that enjoy moving the chairs around from time to time, but still. Spooooooky chaiiiirs!)

Disney’s BoardWalk Inn also used to be known for its terrifying clown slide and we’re not talking about the slide itself — you just have to give one glance to know what’s been haunting our nightmares for years. Luckily, this is a sight that you can’t see in Disney World anymore, as they recently renovated the slide to have less of the creepy clown vibe. Imagine if your pool view room had those eyes peering into your window all night long (yeah…the eyes LIT UP at night, further solidifying a place in your nighmares!).

But the BoardWalk Inn isn’t the only place to get spooked by decor — Disney’s All-Star Movies is also home to this bad boy. The GIANT Jack In the Box can be found in the Toy Story section of the resort and all you can do is try not to look up (or out your window) when you’re staying here to avoid the scare.

It’s really just not fair that these are located so close to where we sleep in Disney World, right?

Did You Know About These 9 Hidden Secrets in Disney World Hotels?

Disney Channel’s “Don’t Look Under the Bed”

Well, if those decorations are enough to have you checking the room before you go to bed to make sure that nanny chairs haven’t mysteriously appeared in the corner, then this Disney Channel movie is DEFINITELY one that you’ll need to avoid. It’s pretty much every kid’s nightmare to wake up to a monster under the bed and that’s exactly what happened in Disney Channel’s Original movie Don’t Look Under the Bed. And yes, a Disney channel movie made the list. That’s just how creeptastic this is. 

In the movie, a young girl discovers that there is an actual Boogie Man living under her bed and that monster is going around the neighborhood terrifying other children. Luckily, she ends up recruiting her brother’s imaginary friend to help get the monster out. But, the movie itself is actually pretty scary and even the commercials for it were known to cause some nightmares for kids.

Click HERE for The SCARIEST Movies On Disney+ (Right Now)

Mr. Boogedy/Bride of Boogedy

And, there’s another Disney movie that was sure to scare you to the bone just by looking at the posters.

Mr. Boogedy was released in 1986 and followed the story of spooky ghosts who haunt the unassuming Davis family in a town called Lucifer Falls (yes, seriously).

And, a year later, this movie somehow got itself a sequel called Bride of Boogedy just to be sure that the kiddos wouldn’t sleep for another straight year (at least we didn’t).

We Watched These 10 Super Creepy Movies on Disney+ So You Don’t Have To

Disney Entertainment With a…Creepy Twist

Now, at Disney World, we’re all for the upbeat music, fun dance moves, and catching some of our favorite characters on stage or making their way down the streets of the parks. But, that’s not always what you get when you sit down in the theater or stake out a spot on Main Street, U.S.A. Over the years countless children have been spooked by the glowing Spectromen that used to lead the SpectroMagic Parade in Disney World…

…and good luck to those who take their unsuspecting kids onto It’s Tough To Be a Bug in Disney’s Animal Kingdom. It may be based on a cute Disney movie, but guests gathering into the theater are in for simulated bee stings, crawling spiders, and lots of other bugs that are unleashed during this attraction. It’s all in the name of fun, but still…total nightmare fuel. (Good luck confidently sitting all the way down on a seat in the dark after this show!)

Even Maleficent’s portion of the Festival of Fantasy Parade in Magic Kingdom is pretty nightmare-inducing — it’s a GIANT dragon and it seems like the performers are literally trying to scare you. Plus, Prince Phillip is fighting the dragon the whole time. Oh, and did we mention that Maleficent isn’t just spitting fire, she literally CAUGHT ON FIRE mid-parade a few years ago. That was NOT part of the plan but, for guests there, sure left them with a spooky memory!

And, speaking of parades, Disney unleashes the “Happy Haunts” from the Haunted Mansion on the streets of Magic Kingdom during a portion of the Boo To You Parade featured during Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party. When the holiday event was taking place (though it currently is not), the parade featured a full-blown Haunted Mansion section fit with gravediggers that used their shovels to VERY loudly scrape the pavement and create sparks on the ground. And, for many kids watching the parade, that’s when it stops being fun.

You know how lots of kids like to sit right at the front of the parade route? Imagine what looks like an undead person aggressively scratching a shovel inches from your face! In all fairness, this IS mega cool too and a part of the parade many guests look forward to most. But if you’re not expecting it, it can be loud and frightening! So, sometimes you’re not even safe in the parks!

Check Out 10 Things That Are Surprisingly SCARY in Disney World HERE!

Disney Merchandise

Another place that you’re not suspecting to get a fright in Disney World is shops, but we’ve stumbled upon a few different items that still linger in our minds to this day. First up is the Stitch Crashes The Lion King Collection. Maybe it was the red eyes…or maybe it’s the weird slugs on his head, but the thought of this plush sitting in the room while we sleep is just…terrifying.

And, hey, we get it, sometimes the plush doesn’t turn out as cute as you want — we can forgive Disney for that. But, TWICE?! That’s right, Stitch isn’t the only plush that haunts our dreams. Disney also released a Simba plush that was one of the most terrifying versions of the little lion that we’ve ever laid our eyes on. Just look:

But plush aren’t the only thing that guests who scare easy have needed to avert their eyes from throughout the years. We’ve also spotted an Alien Popcorn Bucket Keychain that looked like it was foaming at the mouth rather than serving up delicious buttery popcorn…

…and if you’ve ever ventured into the Italy Pavilion at EPCOT, then you might know about the rather beautiful but also TERRIFYING masks that can be found inside the stores.

While we sure do love adding Disney souvenirs to our home, these are ones that we’d rather not have anywhere near us when we sleep.

Check Out Disney World’s Most Cringe-Worthy Souvenirs of All Time!

Well, we hope you aren’t reading this one late at night! And, if you’re not scared enough, you can watch our video below to hear about more creepy tales from Disney World!

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Check out our latest video and then comment below. Have you ever been scared by something at Disney World?

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The post 8 Times Disney Was TOTAL Nightmare Fuel first appeared on the disney food blog.