Here’s why Don’t Look Under The Bed ended up being the Disney Channel’s last horror movie. The Disney Channel has a long history of producing family-friendly TV movies with spooky or supernatural elements, usually - and befittingly - aired during the Halloween season. While films like Under Wraps, Mom’s Got A Date With A Vampire and the Halloweentown series certainly borrow elements from the horror genre, they couldn’t really be classified as “proper” horror movies given that they’re more wholesome and comedic than scary.
Don’t Look Under The Bed differed from the Disney Channel’s usual Halloween output. First aired in October 1999 and helmed by sci-fi bigwig Kenneth Johnson, it was only the second-ever Disney Channel Original Movie to receive a TV-PG rating. The film follows a teenage girl named Frances Bacon McCausland (Erin Chambers) whose hometown is plagued by a series of mysterious pranks she gets blamed for. With the help of an imaginary friend called Larry Houdini (Eric “Ty” Hodges II, Even Stevens), Erin soon finds she’s being framed by a boogeyman (Steve Valentine, Crossing Jordan).
So far, so kid-friendly; well, not quite. As tame as the plot of Don’t Look Under The Bed might sound, the movie had some genuinely frightening elements. Not only is Steve Valentine’s boogeyman a creepy character, as Don’t Look Under The Bed progresses Erin learns imaginary friends become boogeymen when their kids stop believing in them. It turns out Larry used to be her younger brother’s imaginary friend that she encouraged him to stop believing in after he was diagnosed with leukemia – kick-starting Larry’s own creepy, American Werewolf In London-like transformation into a boogeyman. There are some pretty grown-up motifs nestled in there too like childhood illness, the fear of growing up and loss of innocence.
While the Disney Channel and director Kenneth Johnson were going for a “scary but not too scary” vibe (according to an interview with EW), it seems Don’t Look Under The Bed had the opposite effect. Consequently, the Disney Channel was allegedly flooded with complaints from parents who thought the movie was too scary and dark for younger viewers. Legend has it the Disney Channel stopped airing Don’t Look Under The Bed in response and the parental backlash is likely the reason why the network hasn’t made a horror movie - or at least one quite like this - since.
Of course, the Disney Channel didn’t completely cease its spooky output post-Don’t Look Under The Bed, but the network toned down its so-called horror-themed content in the wake of the 1999 movie. For Disney Channel fans not too mentally scarred by Don’t Look Under The Bed, however, it's currently available to watch on Disney+.