25 of the creepiest Disney movies ever made

Escape to Witch Mountain (Image via Walt Disney Productions)

20. Escape to Witch Mountain

Made in 1975, the first Escape to Witch Mountain is yet another result of Disney’s strange, sometimes frantic era of the 1970s. It’s based on a novel written by Alexander H. Key in 1968. It was also remade in 1995 and rebooted in 2009. Someone even attempted to create a television series, Beyond Witch Mountain, though the 1982 pilot failed to gain any traction.

Escape to Witch Mountain focuses on siblings Tony and Tia. Both possess psychic powers, including the ability to move objects with their minds, telepathy, and the ability to predict the future. Tia also carries a “star case” with her that contains a strange map inside. The siblings are apparently orphaned.

Eventually, wealthy businessman Aristotle Bolt learns of the children’s abilities. Bolt, who is obsessed with the paranormal, attempts to seize control of the children. Tony and Tia escape and team up with Jason O’Day, an irascible widower. Together, they realize that the siblings are being drawn towards the titular Witch Mountain, site of many strange phenomena.

After a kind of standard chase sequence (which involves a helicopter), the children finally make it to Witch Mountain. There, it’s revealed that they are actually extraterrestrials who have escaped from a dying star system. Tony and Tia board a spacecraft with their alien brethren and fly away. If the possessive millionaire and angry old drifter interacting with helpless children didn’t give you pause, then surely the revelation of Tony and Tia’s origins were enough to weird you out.