Summary
- Disney's animated movies have terrifying moments often overlooked; they are not just bright and happy.
- Dark, scary themes in Disney movies date back to old classics like "Sleeping Beauty" and "Snow White."
- Animated films like "The Black Cauldron" and "The Rescuers" touch upon real, grim subjects like human trafficking.
Disney+ isn't exactly the first IP a person thinks of when it comes to horror, but the fact is that Disney has dabbled with the macabre since the early days. Some of the earliest cartoons produced by the studio pushed the bounds of the art form at the time with depictions of macabre settings and creatures.
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Walt himself appreciated realism and the studio had a reputation for survivalist movies in live-action form even in the early days. Many of the older shorts and full-length movies are genuinely terrifying and can include ghosts, evil witches, dragons, and even demons. Settings include graveyards, abandoned buildings, dungeons, and other dark and creepy venues..
Updated March 18, 2025, by Kristy Ambrose: Now that adults are also watching animated movies, some of Disney's modern horror offerings cater to older viewers. Occult, adventure, mystery, and suspense have also been added to the mix, and Disney still owns the rights to several Studio Ghibli offerings that fans of all ages can enjoy. The level of horror in these animated shows and movies may be a matter of opinion, but Disney has created some of entertainment's most terrifying animated movies, and that G rating isn't as reliable as people might think.
8 Bambi
Starvation, Solitude, And Fiery Death
Bambi
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- August 14, 1942
WHERE TO WATCH
- Runtime
- 70 minutes
Everyone remembers two things about Bambi, and that's either the death of his mother or the adorable springtime scene when the main character is cavorting with his fellow baby animals. The book was a harsh tale of wilderness survival, and some of that carries into the adaptation.
It's easy to forget about how harrowing the rest of the movie is, and a second watch would make someone question if this movie was really meant for kids. The shooting of Bambi's mother is preceded by a harsh winter in which they face near starvation, a factor in her inability to outrun the hunters.
Hardship strikes again when a fire tears through the forest in a scene out of anyone's worst nightmares, with the careless hunters once again being the culprits. In the midst of this fiery destruction, Bambi and his rival buck Ronno battle for the love of Feline. It's easy to forget that Bambi is scary enough to include a serious fight to the death if someone has only seen the kawaii parts.
7 The Black Cauldron
Disney's Decade Of Darkness
The Black Cauldron
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- July 24, 1985
WHERE TO WATCH
- Runtime
- 80 Minutes
In the dark days before the Renaissance, Disney adapted the first two books of Lloyd Alexander's The Chronicles of Prydain into one of their most notorious box office failures, The Black Cauldron. During this period, Disney was trying to follow the competition, which consisted of big names like Rankin-Bass and Studio Ghibli, whose cartoons often had a dark or scary side.
The general aesthetic and setting are already gloomy and dark, making the movie feel like a D&D module about the undead. The Horned King is truly terrifying, as are his skeletal minions. The result was an animated film that was too scary for the Rated G target demographic of the time, but it's amassed a cult following since. The film also has has some of the earliest examples of CGI combined with traditional animation.
6 Sleeping Beauty
A Gothic Horror-Romance
Sleeping Beauty
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- January 29, 1959
WHERE TO WATCH
- Runtime
- 75minutes
The unique artwork that makes Sleeping Beauty so distinctive was a source of negative criticism in the early days, but modern audiences appreciate the aesthetic, citing the angular artwork as a strength as opposed to a weakness. It also gives the movie a more intimidating look, so even the happy scenes have a gloomy and scary undertone.
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The main character is in constant danger, stalked by an evil sorceress who wants her dead. The scene in which our hero touches the deadly spindle is a breathless moment of psychological horror. It might be even more terrifying than the dungeon filled with skeletons, the dragon at the end, or the forest of living brambles.
5 Snow White And The Seven Dwarves
A Tale Of Jealousy And Murder
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- January 14, 1938
WHERE TO WATCH
- Runtime
- 83 minutes
- Studio(s)
- Walt Disney Productions
Snow White was Disney's first full-length animated movie, and despite how conventional it looks now, it was experimental and new for its audio and visual composition along with the animation. This was an adaptation of one of history's most gruesome and terrifying fairy tales, and the writers and animators of the time didn't shy away from making it as scary as the Brothers Grimm intended.
The magical world in which the story is based also takes its inspiration from the traditional story, using the dark castles and thick forests of northwestern Europe to set a dark and mysterious tone. The murder plot, complete with the shady Huntsman and the ornate "heart box" is adapted in chilling detail, and the scene in the secret laboratory is one of the most terrifying animated scenes ever made.
4 Night On Bald Mountain And Ave Maria
The Most Evil, Followed By The Most Holy
Fantasia
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- November 13, 1940
WHERE TO WATCH
- Runtime
- 124 minutes
The original Fantasia was one of the most ground-breaking pieces of animation ever produced. Plenty of critics, producers, and creators thought that a compilation of cartoons accompanied by orchestral music was a strange concept that nobody would like. Audiences saw it differently, however, and the movie has been revamped and rebooted in response to popular demand.
Some of the sequences that make up Fantasia are more popular than others, and among the most recognizable is the final entry, Night on Bald Mountain And Ave Maria. Mussorgsky, the composer who wrote the musical score, also wrote a poem to accompany the music, which inspired the frenzied dance of the demons and spirits. The short movie was made to be so deeply disturbing that the sequence featuring the holiest of holy songs, Ave Maria, was decided on to close out the sequence and give the viewers some much-needed repose.
3 The Rescuers
A Plot That's Just Too Real
The Rescuers
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- June 22, 1977
WHERE TO WATCH
- Runtime
- 77 Minutes
Human trafficking is a tough subject to talk about in any venue, but it's at the core of the plot in The Rescuers. The plight of the main character is terrifying partly due to its grim realism. There are no ghosts, spirits, or evil magic to deal with. Instead, the villain is a narcissistic kidnapper armed with a shotgun.
It sounds more like a movie like Taken, which has a similar plot, but this time it's the clever local critters that have a particular set of skills. Little red-headed orphan Penny is being used by Madame Medusa for dangerous work looking for a lost treasure when The Rescue Aid Society gets her desperate message for help.
The torture that Penny endures at the hands of Medusa should be preceded by a trigger warning. The flooded caves where Penny is forced to search for "the big diamond" are also a living nightmare.
2 Atlantis: The Lost Empire
Occult, Survivalism, And Body Horror
Atlantis: The Lost Empire
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- June 2, 2001
WHERE TO WATCH
- Runtime
- 95minutes
Atlantis: The Lost Empire combines several genres that only adults will recognize, like film noir, survivalist, and anti-mecha, just to name a few. This movie's opening scene depicts an apocalyptic explosion that destroys a whole civilization in cataclysmic destruction, setting the stage for an adventure thriller with some high stakes and terrifying antagonists.
As scary as monsters are, the real horror is always a greedy human being with a gun, which Milo also has to face in addition to the mysterious Atlantean gods who seem to have the power to possess the bodies of their descendants. All of this with a second apocalypse brewing to wipe out the already shattered underwater society.
Just Milo's recruitment for the expedition to the lost city is terrifying. He's essentially kidnapped by a mysterious stranger and coerced by a creepy old man into leading his team to Atlantis, and the first thing that happens is an enormous robot monster attacking the sub and wiping out most of the crew, leaving the survivors stranded in a hostile underground cavern from which there may be no escape.
1 The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow
Terrifying Ghost Or Halloween Prank?
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- October 5, 1949
WHERE TO WATCH
- Cast
- Bing Crosby, Basil Rathbone, Eric Blore, J. Pat O'Malley, John McLeish, Colin Campbell, Campbell Grant, Claud Allister, Oliver Wallace, Pinto Colvig, Leslie Denison, Alec Harford, Edmond Stevens, Billy Bletcher, Jud Conlon, Mack McLean
- Runtime
- 68 Minutes
The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow is actually the second part of a two-part compilation entitled The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. It also includes an adaptation of a story from The Wind In The Willows. The moral of this story is that not everything is what it seems, but that doesn't make the visage of an angry ghost any less terrifying.
The story begins with ethereal scenes of the New England countryside and its dark, quiet hollows and covered bridges. Ichabod is an outsider at odds with a local over the affections of a pretty girl. Instead of a duel or some other violent confrontation, Brom Bones comes up with another plan to rid himself of a rival. The humble professor was so scared by the vision of the Headless Horseman that he left the region and never returned. This cartoon is so scary that anyone who sees it understands exactly how he felt.
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