When you think of the many accomplishments of animation pioneer and studio mogul Walt Disney, producing horror films is not one of them. At the same time, several Walt Disney films have featured horrific moments that made strong impressions and scared children such as the boys-into-donkeys transformation scene in Pinocchio (1940) or the fire-breathing dragon at the climax of Sleeping Beauty (1959). A few Disney productions even flirted with the supernatural and creepy folk tales such as The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1949) and Dr. Syn (1964) with its title character disguised as a demonic-looking scarecrow who haunts the marshes at night. Nothing, however, can top Darby O’Gill and the Little People (1959) when it comes to merging the ordinary with the fantastic. The film plunges the viewer into a fairytale Ireland where magical and terrifying things occur and some scenes could actually give the kiddies nightmares, making this my favorite Disney live-action film.
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Break Up the Dance and Other Film Shorts from Poland

At an early age Roman Polanski began to realize his true ambition to be a filmmaker with a series of short films which were made during his time as a student at Poland’s prestigious National Film School at Lodz. His debut film Morderstwo [English title, Murder aka The Crime, 1957] – a three minute short without dialogue about a senseless murder – and the one that followed it, the three-minute Usmiech Zebiczny [English title: Teeth Smile aka A Toothful Smile, 1957], about a peeping tom, were atmospheric studies in violence and voyeurism that disturbed his fellow filmmakers and raised speculations about the young filmmaker’s dark side. His third short, Rozbijemy Zabawe… [English title: Break Up the Party, 1957], however, aroused considerably more controversy over his directorial methods.
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