Don’t Look Under the Bed (Image via Disney Channel)
2. Don’t Look Under the Bed
Don’t Look Under the Bed has been called the scariest Disney Channel original movie, and for good reason. Where many other films made for Disney’s television network have a, well, let’s call it charming level of effort, not all of them are easily forgettable.
Frances McCausland is an intelligent young girl who starts high school a year early. However, things soon go wrong for Frances. Someone is pulling odd and difficult pranks throughout town, and every suspects it’s her. Frances attempts to track down the true culprit. She’s aided by Larry Houdini, an older boy who can only be seen by other children, as he is an imaginary friend. Larry claims that Frances is being targeting by the “boogeyman”, which is already a strange sentence before you remember that it’s being delivered by an imaginary boy.
These pranks are indeed caused by a boogeyman. But, how are you supposed to catch one, anyway? Things get more complicated when Larry himself begins to turn into a boogeyman. Apparently, that happens when kids stop believing in an imaginary friend too early. Sure, okay.
Things eventually turn out fine, because it’s Disney, duh. But there’s some truly scary stuff along the way. Creepy hands leap out of mirrors, kids are pulled beneath beds, and creepy porcelain dolls move of their own accord. The Boogeyman itself is satisfyingly strange, with lots of Lovecraftian horror thrown in.
Plus, Don’t Look Under the Bed deals with some surprisingly mature themes. Frances’ younger brother, Darwin, is recovering from leukemia. Some of the major plot points deal with the fear of death, grief, and guilt that go along with such a major illness. If the scary monster doesn’t do it for you, then surely you’ll be affected by themes like this.