Don’t Look Under the Bed is hands down my favorite Disney channel movie. Yes, I love Cadet Kelly, Halloweentown and a bunch of other classics but I am a child of horror. I LOVE a good horror movies, and as a child, this was the scariest horror movie we had. I do want to note that it takes a lot to scare me and this didn’t scare me but it was close.
Does anyone lay in bed with that one foot out (I don’t know why we all do that) and you start to feel good but then you start to think about that imaginary monster under your bed? Even as an adult? Admit it. You tuck that foot back in. This movie personified that to a “T”.
Frances Bacon McCausland is a teenager who is starting high school and year early. Because she is a young woman entering such a pivotal change in her school career, she feels a though she has to be an adult, so she puts childish things behind her….until childish things catch up with her. Strange things start happening in her town that cannot be explained and one day at school, all the lockers have a “B” spray painted on them except hers. Eyes start to dart towards Frances as the culprit. Soon after, she starts to see a boy following her. He’s surprised she can see him. Meanwhile, her family seems pretty normal but they are dealing with the aftermath of their son’s sudden illness.
Frances finally confronts the boy that has been following her and he tells her that his name is Larry Houdini and he is an imaginary friend. Frances, who is beyond over the antics, refuses to believe that Larry is an imaginary person or that such a thing exists. After much convincing, she comes around and agrees to help Larry defeat the Bogeyman.
Slowly, Larry starts to exhibit changes that neither he nor Frances can explain….or so we think. My favorite part of the movie is going under the bed. As a child, did you ever wonder what it looked like under there? It was fun to see all the things under Darwin’s bed and how they had to use them to defeat the Bogeyman, who was very mischievous and spoke in couplets. His speech was very poetic, which made him creepier. The plot twist in the end was something I did not see coming! You have to appreciate a smart ending.
Now, as a child, I never thought about the kiss between Larry and Fran but watch below to director Kenneth Johnson, who also directed Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century, spoke about what had to do in order add this kiss as apart of the ending.
Don’t Look Under the Bed can be found on Disney+ and I promise that, if you haven’t seen it before, you will fall in love with this movie.
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