John Hough’s “The Watcher in the Woods” (1981) made history for being the very first horror film to emerge from the Walt Disney company, during their weird period of brand experimentation and multiple creative mishaps.
It stars former figure skating champion Lynn-Holly Johnson as Jan, who moves with her family into an old home tucked away in England. Once they settle in, Jan and her sister (Kyle Richards) discover that the owner of the residence, Mrs. Aylwood (Bette Davis), had a daughter named Karen who has been missing for 30 years. Not long after that, Jan has visions of Karen, blindfolded and trapped in a living room mirror.
It gets weirder from there.
“The Watcher in the Woods” arrived around the time when Disney was producing middle-of-the-road animated films (ranging...