Tower of Terror, a Disney Movie for Halloween

The story began in 1939, in Hollywood. The Hollywood Tower Hotel is holding a Halloween party. In the ballroom located on the 12th floor, guests are swinging to the sound of music while a few latecomers, a young movie star and a bellboy are waiting for the elevator to arrive at the ground floor.

The young movie star, Sally Shine, is there with her nurse who doesn't seem to be the most agreeable person out there, she is angry because Sally takes some time to allow reporters to take photos as well as to greet her fans before agreeing to enter the elevator.

The doors of the elevator close, then the machine rises at the same time a thunderstorm begins, throwing lightnings everywhere. At one time, one of those many lightnings falls on the electric circuit of the elevator from which the occupants disappear forever.

Los Angeles, sixty years later, Buzzy Crocker, a journalist who writes false stories about ghosts and other strange phenomena, gets the visit of an old lady, Miss Abigail Gregory. Miss Gregory would like Mr Crocker to investigate about what happened in the Hollywood Tower Hotel on Halloween 1939. Miss Gregory tells Buzzy she's Sally Shine's sister and that she knows the secrets behind her disappearance.

With a great deal of help from his niece, Anna, Buzzy Crocker accepts the mission and heads to the Hollywood Tower Hotel where he meets Chris "Q" Todd, the current owner and unique descendant of the bellboy who disappeared in the hotel sixty years ago. The owner confides him that the tower is haunted.

Tower of Terror movie is a Buena Vista production and has been made after Disney's popular attraction the "Twilight Zone Tower of Terror" which one can find in several Disney attraction parks.

The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror is based on the elevator technology in order to produce the fast fall of the elevator cart. The Tower of Terror attraction was inspired by the series The Twilight Zone.

The movie hints at the Hollywood actress, Shirley Temple, as the young actress, Lindsay Ridgeway, performing Sally Shine's role, is dressed, haired, greets and acts in the same way as Shirley used to do.

Cast of Tower of Terror, the movie (principal actors):

Steve Guttenberg

Buzzy Crocker, the journalist

Kirsten Dunst

Anna, Buzzy's niece

Nia Peeples

Jill Perry, Buzzy's ex-girlfriend

Michael McShane

Chris 'Q' Todd, current owner of the Hollywood Tower Hotel

Amzie Strickland

Old Abigail Gregory, Sally Shine's sister

Lindsay Ridgeway

Sally Shine, the young movie star

John Franklin

Dewey Todd, the bellboy

Wendy Worthington

Emmaline Partridge, the nurse

Melora Hardin

Claire Poulet, an actress

Shira Roth

Abigail, when she was a child

Inspired by the TV series The Twilight Zone, the actual name of the Tower of Terror is "Twilight Zone Tower of Terror"; a Disney attraction which consists in a frightening ride tower. The very first Tower of Terror was released in 1994 in Disney's Hollywood Studios. Since 1994, several other Tower of Terror rides opened in the world: Disney Hollywood Studios, Disney California Adventure Park and Walt Disney Studios Park.

The Tokyo Disney Sea, in which the tower is named Tower of Terror, is slightly different than its American siblings in that that it comes with a different storyline.

The story told in the attraction is almost the same as in the movie: an old hotel in which a mysterious elevator brings their passengers to the Twilight Zone disappears at the time the hotel was struck by lightning.

Tower of Terror is an excellent movie to watch with the whole family if...

If you're fan and nostalgic of the movies the Disney company used to produce for many years, if you don't want your kids to watch horrific movies whit a lot of blood, if you consider that there is no need to go too far in fearful scenes and situations to spend a great Halloween-ish moment.

However, if you just like movies like Friday the 13th or Halloween series, then Tower of Terror isn't for you.

Happy Halloween!