Although Disney is capable of some dark materials, grisly horror movies aren’t exactly what most people think of when they log onto Disney+. That might soon change as audiences wait for the latest releases.
Thanks to the merger with Hulu, Disney+ subscribers now have access to a wide variety of content, some of which has been called out as not-so-Disney-friendly. Even so, horror hounds seemed to have gravitated towards the magical streaming service.
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Directed by Michael Sarnoski and starring Lupita Nyong’o, Joseph Quinn, Alex Wolff, and Djimon Hounsou, A Quiet Place: Day One (2024) is currently one of the most anticipated horror films, and fans are wondering if and when it will come to Disney+. The question is, is it truly the right platform for the grim and twisted creature feature?
Should Disney+ Embrace Its Horror Movies?
While the movie will go to Paramount+ before anywhere else, given that Paramount Pictures is the main distributor, What’s On Disney Plus makes the following observation.
“Paramount does have some licensing deals in place for its films. Currently, “A Quiet Place: Part Two” is available to stream on Hulu and Hulu On Disney+ in the United States. So, in a few years, it’s possible that Paramount might license its films to Disney.”
A series about vicious monsters creeping in the silence is far from the average Disney-related release, but it’s not like Disney hasn’t had its own brush with the horror genre before. Disney+ has had several surprisingly shocking releases in the past few years.
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Many of the recent horror features on Disney+ have been incredibly dark for the House of Mouse, and many of them are Disney+ originals. Entries like Haunted Mansion (2023), Werewolf by Night (2022), and even the Disney/Hulu adaptation of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps have been legitimately scary.
Fear Takes Root
Even without Hulu’s involvement, Disney has quite a history of horror spanning even back to Walt’s time. What young kid wasn’t terrified of the forest of freaky trees in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) or the ghoulish visage of the Horned King and this army of the dead in The Black Cauldron (1985)?
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Even today, Disney’s princesses are trading in their crowns for more mature roles in monster movies, as Elle Fanning (Maleficent’s Aurora) is rumored to lead the next Predator sequel. And let’s not forget that since its acquisition of Fox, Disney also had the Xenomorph under its banner with Alien: Romulus (2024).
Even the theme parks aren’t immune from Disney’s foray into the horror genre, as fans of The Haunted Mansion, Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, and Expedition Everest can all agree. With or without A Quiet Place’s involvement, Disney has been no stranger to more intense scares.
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While it’s highly unlikely The Walt Disney Company will grace us with a gruesome and gory slasher flick any time soon, that’s not to say it’s incapable of giving audiences what they want. Cute cartoons and princess flicks are all well and good, but sometimes viewers like a touch of darkness with their Disney magic.
Does Disney need more horror movies? Tell us what you think in the comments below!
