Tower of Terror (film)

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Tower of Terror
Directed by	D. J. MacHale
Produced by	Iain Paterson
Written by	D. J. MacHale
Starring	Steve Guttenberg Kirsten Dunst
Music by	Louis Febre
Cinematography	Stephen McNutt
Editing by	Barry Zetlin
Distributed by	ABC
Release date(s)	1997
Running time	89 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

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's Hollywood Studios in Lake Buena Vista, Florida and was originally a presentation of The Wonderful World of Disney.

[edit] Plot

The movie begins with a flashback to Halloween, 1939. That night, at the Hollywood Tower Hotel a group of people- aspiring singer Clair, her boyfriend Gilbert, child star Sally Shine, her nanny Emiline Partridge, and bellhop Dewey Todd- 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. The guests on the elevator disappear...

In the "present," the Hollywood Tower Hotel is now believed to be cursed and haunted by the spirits of the elevator riders. No one is able to make a success of it- except would-be reporter Buzzy Crocker (Guttenburg), who hopes to write a fake newspaper article on the story with his niece, Anna. Later, the pair meets Abigail Gregory, a mysterious old woman who knows much about the hotel. She tells him that Mrs. Partridge tired of being a nanny to spoiled brat Sally, and dabbled in witchcraft. Abagail states that Mrs. Partridge cast an evil spell that night, designed to send the elevator patrons into The Twilight Zone. But because Mrs. Partridge did not complete her magic, the spell was only half-successful, trapping the riders as spirits in the earthly realm.

Happy to have found an angle for his story, Buzzy explores the hotel, making Anna dress up like Sally Shine to take pictures. Along the way, many ghostly occurrences occur, leading the two to believe that there may be something to the legend. Their belief is sealed when they meet the ghosts themselves! Buzzy hopes to publish the story and goes to Jill, editor of the L.A. Banner. She does not believe him, and the pair instead does more snooping on their own. This leads to many discoveries. Mrs. Partridge was not a witch...but Abigail is! She has the power to reverse the spell, if the elevator is repaired. Dewey Todd's grandson, a fat, fun-loving, man named Q, happily does this. Abigail says she can use her spell book to free the ghosts from limbo, if the team can find "identifiers" for all of the elevator riders (something that belonged to each of them.). They are told to recreate their actions in the elevator on Halloween, which will send them to the party and let them rest.

While Q is fixing the elevator, Jill finally believes the story and has Buzzy type the story. While doing so, Buzzy realizes that it was young Abigail who cast the spell all those years ago-and they have given her the means to complete it! At 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". Buzzy, Q, and Jill rush back to the hotel-too late!

Unaware of this change, Clair, Gilbert, Mrs. Partridge, and Dewey Todd get on the elevator. Anna runs on as well trying to stop the others from boarding as Sally runs off as the elevator moves upward. Sally then joins the adults as they confront Abagail. Abigail tearfully and sorrowfully admits that her heart burned with jealousy for her more talented sister ("I...I couldn't sing. And I couldn't dance.) The fabled party fell on her birthday ("it was my birthday!"), and proved to be the final straw. Abby cast the spell, and even claims to have immortalized Sally by making her part of the mystery-but Buzzy and his friends nearly destroyed that. She loudly cries, "NEVER AGAIN!" as time ticks down.

The elevator passengers are going upward toward doom as the clock counts down. Realizing that the spell could be reversed (a rule states that "a spell can be countered by its contrary), Buzzy asks Sally (who doesn't know the wrinkled old woman before her is her sister) what she would say to Abby if she could. Sally reveals the shocking truth-the party was a surprise party for her older sister! She also claims to have a present for her sister-a locket with her name on it. It matched a locket Sally had. Abby, Buzzy, Jill, Q and Sally run for the service elevator to try and catch up with the others. At the last moment, Anna leaps from an emergency exit and rejoins the other living ones in their elevator. The enchanted lightning strikes again, and the groups plummet downward toward the Twilight Zone. As they fall, Abby begs Sally's forgiveness. Sally says, "I forgive you, Abby!" and the two sisters hold their lockets. They giggle and turn into a shower of sparkling gold dust which hits both elevators. The groups are saved, because (as Jill figures out), "a spell of passion can be reversed by true love"-in this case, Sally and Abby's.

The spirits, in their elevators, also stayed out of the Twilight Zone due to their actions. All finally ascend to the Tip-Top Club, which is restored to its former glory. There, Sally rushes to meet her parents, and the trio ascends into Heaven. Mrs. Partridge goes next, followed by the bellhop. Clair makes her (very) overdue singing debut, and Gilbert finally gets to propose to her. This action lifts them into Heaven, along with the other party goers. The room is dusty and dirty again...but Abby, young again, appears. She asks, "Where's the party?", and Sally rushes to her, giving her the present. The two sisters join hands and vanish into the night, breaking the spell on the hotel at last.

The movie ends with the successful re-opening of the hotel. Jill and Buzzy have a relationship, and all is complete.