Disney’sTower of TerrorMovie Is Bad, But Not as Bad as You’d Think

in the first place this calendar month , the Tower of Terror drive at Disney ’s California Adventure permanently closed to make way for a Guardians of the Galaxy ride , coming later this class . And though the Tower of Terror at Walt Disney World in Florida remains , the CA closure prompt us of the movie the drive urge on 20 year ago .

In October of 1997 , The Wonderful World of Disney on ABC air Tower of Terror , starring Steve Guttenberg and Kirsten Dunst . It take the story of The Twilight Zone - themed Disney drive ( such as it was ) , withdraw The Twilight Zone , and adds enough subplots and side characters to stretch out it into 90 minutes . And though it sound dead terrible , it ’s not ! It ’s by no means expert , but it ’s not absolutely terrible , especially if you range it on a curve ( which is to say “ a 1997 made - for - tv set movie ” ) .

The storey begins on Halloween , 1939 . At the pop Hollywood Tower Hotel , lightning strikes while five people are in an lift and they abruptly disappear . The tale becomes legendary . Sixty years after , a woman claiming to know what happened to the missing passenger meets Buzzy Crocker ( Guttenberg ) , a discredited diary keeper who now uses his niece Anna ( Dunst ) to bogus spooky photograph for the tabloids . But when Buzzy realise the legend of the Tower is real , he adjudicate to write an clause about it , hoping it ’ll be his big rejoinder .

Argentina’s President Javier Milei (left) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., holding a chainsaw in a photo posted to Kennedy’s X account on May 27. 2025.

Again , there ’s more to the film than just that , though : Buzzy has a amorous interest , all the miss the great unwashed have back story , the hotel caretaker plays a part , and there ’s a twist , too . It ’s actually a little overstuff for a Disney TV pic .

And yet , if you ’re a fan of the drive the film is based on , there are good deal of thing to savor . The costume design , the hotel lobby , the particular outcome , even the dial above the elevator — all of it screams “ Disney Theme Park . ” There ’s even an actual “ fall , ” just like the ride , near the end of the picture .

However , that come after lots of tenacious , expounding - filled negotiation view and Buzzy ’s copious tiptoeing around the tug , encountering the character of “ panic ” safe for Sunday night television . These can be a little grating but at least the film is attempting to be a household - friendly , supernatural secret … until all that just gets thrown out the windowpane .

William Duplessie

That ’s when the ghosts start appearing to Buzzy and Anna in human phase , and any actual mood or tone up the film was going for disappears in party favor of hijinks . At one point a woman ( a nearly unrecognisable Melora Hardin , who afterward play Jan on The Office ) talks to Buzzy at the hotel . They walk the reason , flirt , and later we find out she ’s one of the ghosts . It destroys any sense of spookiness the film was fail for .

Both Guttenberg and Dunst give their best , more or less over - the - top “ we ’re in a Disney goggle box motion-picture show ” functioning . But that think of every emotion is exaggerated ; everyone is entirely aghast when they should be surprised , and dead terrified when they should just be scared . Still , watching the film you all remember why Guttenberg was such a pop wiz in the ‘ 80s . Meanwhile , Dunst , two year before she was set to break out , has screen presence but her Anna never really feels like a fully - make a character .

Tower of Terror is full of problems : dumb logical system question , confutable carrying out , an teemingness of exposition , and more . But if you roll with the punches and recall this is a Disney goggle box movie from the ‘ 90s , the production intent , the playacting , the hokey story — all of it makes the film moderately sport . That does n’t make it dear , but it stands as a whole monument to the now - departed ride .

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