The Watcher in the Woods is a 1980 supernatural horror film directed by John Hough and starring Bette Davis, Carroll Baker, Lynn-Holly Johnson, Kyle Richards, and David McCallum. Based on the 1976 novel by Florence Engel Randall, the film tells the story of an American teenage girl and her younger sister who become entangled in a decades-long missing person case involving a girl who disappeared in the woods surrounding their new home in the English countryside.
A co-production between the United Kingdom and the United States, The Watcher in the Woods was one of several live-action films produced by Walt Disney Productions in the 1980s, when the studio was targeting young adult audiences, and was among their earliest films to receive PG-rating in the United States. Principal photography took place at Pinewood Studios and the surrounding areas in Buckinghamshire, England, in 1979.
The Watcher in the Woods had its world premiere at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York City on April 17, 1980, but was pulled from release after ten days, and future screenings were canceled by the studio because of an overwhelming negative response from critics and audiences. Several changes were made thereafter, including the excision of a pre-credits sequence, as well the filming of an entirely new ending, which was directed by Vincent McEveety without Hough's involvement. Disney re-released the revised cut of the film on October 9, 1981, and it grossed $5 million.
Though critical response to the film was varied and included numerous unfavorable reviews, the film went on to gain a cult following in the years following its release. Another adaptation of the novel was released for television in 2017 starring Anjelica Huston.
Plot Americans Helen and Paul Curtis and their daughters, Jan and Ellie, move into a manor in rural England. Mrs. Aylwood, the owner of the residence who now lives in the guest house next door, notices that Jan bears a striking resemblance to her daughter, Karen, who disappeared inside an abandoned chapel in the woods thirty years earlier.
Jan senses something unusual about the property almost immediately and begins to see strange blue lights in the woods, as well as triangles and glowing objects. On one occasion, she sees the apparition of a blindfolded girl in a mirror in front of her. Shortly after the family settles in, Ellie goes to buy a puppy she inexplicably names "Nerak". After seeing the reflection of the name "Nerak" (Karen spelled backwards), Jan is told about the mystery of Mrs. Aylwood's missing daughter by Mike Fleming, the teenage son of a local woman, Mary.
One afternoon, Nerak runs into the woods and Ellie chases after him. Jan, realising that her sister has disappeared from the yard, goes into the woods to find her, eventually locating her at a pond. In the water, she sees a blue circle of light and is blinded by a flash, causing her to fall in; she nearly drowns, but Mrs. Aylwood saves her. Mrs. Aylwood brings Jan and Ellie to her home, and recounts the night her daughter disappeared.
Later, Mike discovers that his mother was with Karen when she disappeared, but she evades his questions. Meanwhile, Jan attempts to get information from John Keller, a reclusive aristocrat who was also there that night, but he refuses to speak to her. On her way home, Jan cuts through the woods, where she encounters a local hermit, Tom Colley, who tells Jan he was also present at Karen's disappearance. He claims that during a seance-like initiation ceremony on the night of a lunar eclipse, Karen vanished when lightning struck the church bell tower.
Jan decides to recreate the ceremony during an upcoming solar eclipse, hoping it will bring Karen back. She gathers Mary, Tom and John at the abandoned chapel, and they attempt to repeat the ceremony. Meanwhile, Ellie, while watching the eclipse from the front yard, suddenly goes into a trance-like state, apparently possessed, and enters the woods. At the chapel, the ceremony is interrupted by a powerful wind that shatters the windows, and Ellie appears. In a voice that is not her own, she explains that an accidental switch took place thirty years ago, in which Karen traded places with an alien presence from an alternate dimension; thus, the Watcher has been haunting the woods since, while Karen has remained suspended in time.
The Watcher leaves Ellie's body, manifesting as a pillar of light, fueled by the "circle of friendship". It engulfs Jan and lifts her into the air, but Mike intercedes and pulls her away before the Watcher disappears. Simultaneously, the eclipse ends, and Karen, still the same age as when she disappeared, reappears – still blindfolded. She removes the blindfold just as Mrs. Aylwood enters the chapel.
Cast
Production Development The Watcher in the Woods is based on Florence Engel Randall's 1976 novel A Watcher in the Woods. Producer Tom Leetch pitched the project to Disney executive Ron Miller, stating that "This could be our Exorcist." Brian Clemens adapted the novel into a screenplay. However, Disney decided that Clemens' version—which had a different conclusion than that of the novel—was "too dark and threatening and black," and had Rosemary Anne Sisson revise it. This script was later revised again by Gerry Day in July 1979. Miller recruited John Hough to direct the film after seeing his previous movie, The Legend of Hell House with Roddy McDowall.
Casting According to director John Hough during his audio commentary on the 2002 Anchor Bay DVD release, casting the role of the young Mrs. Aylwood was complicated, since the character is featured in two separate time periods; Bette Davis, who was already cast as Mrs. Aylwood, was considered for playing both the young and old versions of the character.
According to Hough, Davis "desperately" wanted to play both parts; so much so, that the production crew had make-up and hair specialists flown in from Los Angeles in order to work on Davis in preparation for screen tests; the goal was to reverse her age appearance by thirty years. After the screen tests were completed and viewed by the crew, Hough was concerned about Davis playing the younger character, and felt that the make-up and hair work had "maybe knocked about twenty years off of her age, but not forty"; Davis was 72 years old at the time. Upon viewing the tests, Hough cued for the crew to leave the screening room, and said, "Bette, I don't think you've made it". After taking one long drag from her cigarette, Davis replied: "You're goddamn right". British actress Georgina Hale ended up taking the role of the younger Mrs. Aylwood; according to Hough, she took the part largely because of her admiration for Davis.
In casting the leading part of Jan, Diane Lane had been the initial choice, but she declined. The part eventually went to Lynn-Holly Johnson, who had gained attention in the United States as a professional figure skater, as well as for her acting role as a blind ice skater in the 1978 film Ice Castles, for which she received a Golden Globe nomination.
Carroll Baker, who was living in London at the time, was asked to play the part for Hough (who had long admired her work). She accepted the role. Eleven-year-old Kyle Richards—who played Ellie, the youngest sister in the film—had previously worked with Hough on Escape to Witch Mountain in an uncredited role as a younger version of her sister, Kim Richards. Kyle, who had a "somber" and "more serious" disposition to that of her sister, had previously appeared in several horror films, particularly The Car (1977) and Halloween (1978).
The film's principal cast was formally announced in September 1979.
Filming Principal photography for The Watcher of the Woods began in August 1979. Sources state the film's production budget was between $6 million and $9 million. The film was shot primarily at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, England and in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire.
St. Hubert's Manor, the house used in the film, was located near Iver Heath; it has since been deconstructed and turned into apartments. Hough used several locations that are also seen in Robert Wise's The Haunting, most notably the grand mansion in which John Keller's character lives; this was the same house used for filming The Haunting (Ettington Park, Warwickshire). The shoot lasted a total of twelve weeks. During filming, producer Ron Miller would often intervene to tone down intense scenes, leading to "unhappy compromises" between him and the filmmakers.
Special effects The special effects sequences (much of which appear in the film's excised alternate endings) were completed at Disney studios in Burbank, California by Harrison Ellenshaw after filming in England was completed. Ellenshaw's previous credits included Star Wars (1977) and The Black Hole (1979). Art Cruickshank and Bob Broughton oversaw the photographic effects, while Cruickshank completed miniature photography. Hough was disappointed with the way the alien appeared on film, and recalled: "The animation was out of my control. I had no say. The last four minutes undid all the good work of the previous 87 minutes when the monster came out,” he continues. “It moved in a very stiff way, and it really wasn’t up to what we were later going to see in later films."
Post-production Ending reshoots The film's original intended ending featured an appearance by the growling Watcher, a skeletal, insectoid alien, which picks Jan up in the chapel and disappears. At this point, the two were supposed to fly across an alien landscape to the Watcher's crippled spacecraft. Inside, Karen was trapped in a pyramidal prism. According to Sam Nicholson, the visual effects supervisor, "For some reason, the girl who disappeared imbalanced this alien's craft when she went through this portal. Which in turn caused this alien to crash." Jan reached out to Karen, and when the two embraced they were teleported back to the chapel. The girls then returned to the manor, where Mrs. Aylwood and her daughter were reunited. As they walk arm in arm, Jan explains everything to Ellie: the Watcher – who was switched with Karen by accident during the eclipse – needed Jan to free the girl. The visual effects for the "other world" scenes were not finished in time for the release because the film was rushed out to coincide with Bette Davis's 50th anniversary as a film actor in 1980 (Davis was first hired by Universal Studios in 1930). Rather than finish the existing effects shots, Disney opted to rewrite and reshoot the ending, toning down the references to the occult.
The first official theatrical ending, which was shown in the film's brief 1980 screening in New York City (see Release history) featured only part of the original ending, eliminating the "other world" sequence and replacing it with Helen's interrogation of Tom, Mary, and John at the chapel, after Jan disappears during their re-enactment of the séance. It did, however, include the appearance of the alien creature as it picks up Jan and disappears into thin air. While Helen is questioning everyone in the chapel, Jan re-appears, and emerges from a beam of light, hand-in-hand with Karen. The girls return to the house, where Mrs. Aylwood and Karen are re-united in the front yard, and Jan discusses the watcher with Ellie. This ending forced the film to rely on Jan's brief, cryptic explanation to provide closure. This conclusion to The Watcher in the Woods was nearly unintelligible as a result, thus giving the film the reputation of not having an ending. It also omitted Mrs. Aylwood's condemnation of recreating the séance on the basis that it was witchcraft.