12 Scariest Creatures In Live-Action Disney Movies

Yet another gem from '80s-era creators at Disney. The Watcher in the Woods has got to be one of the strangest Disney films ever produced, with a very horror movie-esque feel to it. 

The “villain” isn't revealed until the end of the movie, after an hour of creepy forest scenes and a blindfolded girl haunting Lynn-Holly Johnson's Jan. And then, this wild creature comes entirely out of left field. 

Apparently, an alien - known as “The Watcher” - had accidentally swapped places with a local girl decades before, and it basically just wants to get back home. So, after a strange cult ritual, the alien leaves, and the girl is finally returned home. Alright then.

The ‘80s were a peak time for scary creatures in films supposedly made for children. Case in point are the Wheelers from 1985’s Return to Oz. 

The Wheelers are creatures whose hands and fit are, in fact, wheels. They attack Dorothy after she first comes back to Oz and discovers that the Yellow Brick Road is in ruins and all the citizens have turned to stone. 

They are led by the Lead Wheeler, and they do all sorts of dark deeds for Princess Mombi until her demise.

If you thought your fear of sharks couldn't get any worse… well, meet zombie sharks. Yep, that's right.

These undead sharks were the unfortunate causalities of the Devil's Triangle curse that was set upon the crew of the Silent Mary. As the crew tries to kill Captain Jack Sparrow, they send their ghost sharks to finish the job. 

Of course, Captain Jack is able to wiggle his way free by essentially lassoing one of the sharks and making it pull him to safety on a nearby island.

Wizards, dragons, virgins being sacrificed to save a kingdom - just your average family-friendly film, right? That's what Disney is known for, after all.

Back in 1981, well before Panem and the Hunger Games, there was the kingdom of Urland. Urland's annual lottery consisted of randomly choosing two virgin girls to sacrifice to the terrifying Vermithrax Pejorative, a 400-year-old dragon with an incredible name.

If the totally metal name itself wasn't scary enough for youngins, the looming dragon with big teeth sure did the trick for the kids who were brave enough to watch this film. 

We wouldn't blame you if you'd wanted to watch the 1959 film Darby O'Gill and the Little People just to watch a young Sean Connery at work. 

But you might be surprised when the very creepy Banshee pops up and announces that she's essentially taking the soul of Connery's love interest, Katie O'Gill, after she comes down with a fever. To add points to the scary factor here, the Banshee is going to transport her soul via a death coach driven by a dullahan - a headless rider. 

In case you don't go watch this eh, unique film, don't worry - Katie ends up surviving and ending up with Connery.

Oh, we're really going back into the Disney vault for this one. Hot off the success of Star Wars, 1979's The Black Hole introduced audiences to a crew of space explorers. As they come across a ship thought to be abandoned, they meet Dr. Hans Reinhardt, who says he has lived on the ship alone for 20 years as the rest of the crew perished. 

For company, he built drones and a bodyguard robot named Maximilian. If a sentient robot wasn't already scary enough, it turns out that the robots are actually the lobotomized members of Reinhardt's crew, who had led a mutiny against the insane Dr. Reinhardt. Underneath the drones' faceplates are, in fact, zombie-like versions of the crew's heads. 

And if that wasn't enough, the end sees Maximilian and Reinhardt merge into one being at the end of the film.