Trivia / The Watcher in the Woods

• Executive Meddling: The film's original ending was to have The Watcher be a partly angelic, partly insectoid being who takes Jan to its spaceship in order to help Jan reverse the swap between Karen and the Watcher. However, Disney wanted to rush the film's release to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Bette Davis' film career. Hence, the effects of the UFO sequence weren't finished in time for the film's release, resulting in an ending that was unintelligible. In turn, Disney pulled the film from release, and instead of finishing the effects needed for the UFO sequence, made a new ending altogether with a different director.
• Missing Trailer Scene:
  • A clip from the original ending, which features Jan's mother asking Karen's childhood friends what they saw when they reenacted the "secret club" initiation with Jan, appears not only in the trailer, but also in the "Walt Disney and You" ad that appeared at the end of numerous Disney videos in The '80s.
  • The original opening credit sequence shows a young girl who is playing on the edge of the forest when she is frightened by the Watcher. She drops her doll and runs away, and the doll is struck by a bolt of lightning; the opening credits roll over the doll's burning, melting face. A brief shot of this sequence was shown in a trailer, but the entire scene was cut from the film, leaving only a production still of the burning doll.

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