FILMS
The Film That Scared (Scarred?)Me Most as a Child: The Watcher in the Woods
I was six when I saw Disney’s 1980 Thriller
What scared me as a child? Thoughts of being trapped, caught in another dimension, distorted underwater calls for help, rituals that were catalysts for trances or unearthing evil.
I have few memories from being six, but I remember one of my earliest cinematic experiences — The Watcher in the Woods.
One of my mom’s best friends took me and my sister (aged four) to see the movie. She thought it would be great for little kids because it was Disney. What could go wrong?
First, the movie begins with a family with two daughters moving out to this old manor in the woods. There’s an old woman, played by Bette Davis, who watches the new family from her cottage window. She seems evil. However, her missing daughter, Karen, has haunted the woods since she disappeared thirty years prior.
The mysterious and gloomy atmosphere continues as the missing daughter tries to reach for help from some other dimension. Before Karen was lost, she and her friends played some occult-like circle game. They blindfolded Karen, and because of whatever magic they invoked, Karen disappeared.
