Tower of Terror (film)
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Tower of Terror is a 1997 television film, directed by D.J. MacHale. It is based on the theme park attraction The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at Disney-MGM Studios in Lake Buena Vista, Florida and was originally a presentation of The Wonderful World of Disney.
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[edit] Plot
The movie begins with a flashback to Halloween, 1939. In the middle of a party, a group of people, including a young girl named Sally Shine board the elevator in order to go the party on floor twelve. When the elevator gets to floor eleven, however, a bolt of lightning violently strikes the elevator.
In the "present," Buzzy Crocker (Guttenburg), is doing a fake newspaper article with his niece, Anna. Later he meets Abigail Gregory who tells him that Emmiline Partridge, Sally Shine's nanny and one of the people on the elevator, cast a spell and that she was a witch. She claims the spell didn't work and the ghosts were trapped in the elevator.
Knowing that he probably won't see a real ghost, Buzzy has Anna dress up as Sally Shine. He meets Claire Poulet who he thinks he hired her as an actor. Buzzy brings the story to Jill sho works at the LA Banner. He was fired for a false story a few years earlier and she doesn't believe him but she does a check on Abigail Gregory and finds out that Abigail was Sally Shine's sister and that Abigail was jealous of her little sister.
Buzzy and Anna find out that Miss Partridge didn't cast the spell. Claire Poulet was one of the ghosts. To free the ghosts, the elevator must be fixed. Dewey Todd's grandson, Q, fixes the elevator. Earlier in the film, Buzzy got the spell book for Abigail. Abigail says she can use the book to free the ghosts from limbo.
While Q is fixing the elevator, Jill finally believes the story and has Buzzy type the story. Buzzy realizes that Abigail cast the spell and they go back to the hotel. Abigail recites the spell: "I call forth the might of the starry realm to once again bring fire energy pierce the night. Fire of the north, and wind of the east, come back to this place, come back, come back. It's the midnight hour of ancient power. Dark light of the underworld be my guide. What was then will now be again. I summon the black forces to turn back the clock, and complete our revenge. Strike them down one and all; cast their souls into the underworld of eternal misery".
The elevator was supposed to crash but she didn't have identifiers for all the people. This time she did. Anna tries to warn the ghosts. Sally gets out of the elevator, and Anna gets stuck in. Buzzy and Jill arrive. Abigail explains why she cast the spell. She didn't know that the party was for her. Buzzy, Jill, Q, Abigail, and Sally get on a service elevator in the same shaft. The spell can only be broken by its contrary. Abigail doesn't know the contrary of the spell. Anna escapes the elevator through the escape hatches. The spell hits both elevators, and the elevators drop like on the ride. Sally forgives Abigail by giving her her birthday present, a small gold braclet with two hearts ingraved "Sally" on one and "Abby" on the other. Abigal accepts it and the spell is broken. After the long fall, the ghosts once again try to reach the top floor, floor 12. They do and finally get to the party. Sally finds her parents and disapears. seeing her job is done, after blowing a kiss to Buzzy, Miss Partridge disapears too. Claire starts to sing her long awaited singing debut. Dewey finds his father and they too disappear. Gilbert proposes to Claire and they disappear, as do the party. Abigal then shows up like a little girl and disapears with her sister. Q inherits the hotel and he reopens it.
Tagline: Hotel Guests Check In...But They Don't Check Out!
[edit] Main cast
The director D.J. Machale has written a series of books, "Pendragon", that, as of December 2006, spans over 7 books. His wife, Eva, has worked on the show Whose Line Is It Anyway? and he has cowritten books as well. Kirsten Dunst also starred in the Spiderman movies later on in her career.
- Steve Guttenberg — Buzzy Crocker
- Kirsten Dunst — Anna Petterson
- Amzie Strickland — Abigail Gregory
- John Franklin — Dewey Todd
- Nia Peeples — Jill Perry
- Michael McShane — Chris 'Q' Todd
- Lindsay Ridgeway — Sally Shine
[edit] Trivia
- Even though the Disney World attraction Tower of Terror is meant to be part of the Twilight Zone, this movie makes no reference to the Rod Serling TV show.
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- The film was shot at the actuall attraction.
