Here Are 21 Things You Didn't Know About Your Favorite Halloween DCOMs, And Yes One Of The Sets Was Actually Haunted
Disney Channel Original Movies from the '90s and early 2000s are all extremely iconic (I know this word gets tossed around a lot, but these films REALLY deserve the title, ok?).
Disney / Via tenor.com
But DCOMs were really at their best when they were of the spooky variety.
Disney / Via giphy.com
We all remember cozying up in our basements, huddled around the TV with a pack of Gushers and a can of Surge, waiting for whatever chills and thrills the new October DCOM had in store for us.
Disney / Via dcomgifs.tumblr.com
So here are some behind the scenes facts from your creepy faves to get you in the mood for the Halloween season. Try not to get too scared!!
1.Kimberly J Brown, who played Marnie in the Halloweentown franchise, recently got engaged to Daniel Kountz who played Kal, her nemesis in Halloweentown II: Kalabar's Revenge.
2.In Twitches, Tia filled in for Tamera's character in the party scene near the end of the film due to scheduling conflicts with Tamera's LifeTime show, Strong Medicine.
"They asked Tia, they said, 'Would you be Tamera for two days?' And she was like, 'Sure, why not? You know, that’s my twin, I can do it.'"
3.Don't Look Under The Bed was uncharacteristically scary for its young audience, causing so many parents to complain to the Disney Channel that the network stopped airing this Halloween classic altogether. Though it is now available to stream on Disney+.
4.WandaVision star Kat Dennings got one of her first ever acting roles when she played Claire in the 2002 DCOM The Scream Team.
5.On an episode of the podcast Inside the Disney Vault, Myles Jeffrey claimed that not only was the set of Mom's Got a Date with a Vampire haunted but he and costar Matt O'Leary caught a ghost on camera.
He recounts that the two had just watched The Blair Witch Project and wanted to make a ghost story of their own on Matt's camcorder (LOL). The set for the vampire's home was an estate owned by the city of Toronto and the previous owners had died on the premises. Not only did they capture a "white, aurora borealis-like, floaty thing" on camera through a crack in a PAD-LOCKED DOOR, but there was also an explosion sound in the house that halted filming for over an hour that no one was ever able to identify the cause of. SPOOKY!!
6.Tamera's character, Camryn, in Twitches lives in the same house that Regina George does in Mean Girls.
7.Kimberly J Brown runs an Etsy store that is fully devoted to selling merch inspired by Halloweentown.
8.The original Boogeyman in Don't Look Under the Bed was even SCARIER than he is in the final cut, but the design was changed before filming began.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the film's director, Kenneth Johnson, revealed that “In the early concept drawings, it was really dark and [had] quills sticking out. It was nightmarish.” So you mean to tell me what we're seeing above is not nightmarish?! I shudder to think what might have been!!
9.If you give Twitches a rewatch you will be shocked to see a very familiar face playing one of the girls' magical protectors: Jennifer Robertson, aka Jocelyn from Schitt's Creek!
10.Contrary to popular belief that Brink! is the first official Disney Channel Original Movie, that title actually belongs to the 1997 DCOM Under Wraps.
11.Another weird Mean Girls connection: Daniel DeSanto who plays Jason and Julia Chantrey who plays Amber D'Alessio (AKA "made out with a hotdog" girl) in the teen classic both appear in Phantom of the Megaplex.
12.Can of Worms, Twitches, and Stepsister from Planet Weird are all based on books.
13.Halloweentown's budget was significantly slashed before filming started.
In an interview with MTV, Halloweentown director Duwayne Dunham revealed that when Disney approached him to do the film "it was like a $20 to $30 million movie." But by the time they actually went into production, the budget had dwindled down to just $4 million, leading them to make creative costuming choices and reuse background actors.
14.Myles Jeffrey also revealed on the podcast, Inside the Disney Vault, that while filming Mom's Got a Date with a Vampire (in which his character's name is Taylor Hansen), confused fans showed up at his trailer thinking that the "MMMBop" singer Taylor HANSON was inside. Ah, the year 2000. What a time to be alive!
Definitely not the same person.
15.The kiss between Francis and Larry in Don't Look Under the Bed almost didn't happen because Disney was concerned about a Black actor kissing a white actor. YIKES!!
Kenneth Johnson, the film's director, explained in an Entertainment Weekly interview that after they cast Ty Hodges in the role of Larry, a Disney executive called him asking what they were going to do about the ending, citing concerns of how their "southern affiliates" would react. Yeesh! Thankfully, Johnson fought to keep the original ending and cited this win as "the most rewarding aspect of doing the movie."
16.A third Twitches movie just might happen and the Mowry twins want Chloe x Halle to be involved.
In a 2020 Instagram Live, Tamera Mowry said, "What y'all didn't know, my sister and I were already kind of like working on a Twitches 3." I'M LISTENING! She even went on to call out a fan who DM'd her with potential plot details, including Chloe x Halle playing their witchy daughters, to which she responded by saying, "I'm down," while literally applauding the idea, which SAME! Let's make it happen!!
17.Halloweentown High was filmed in the same high school as the Luck of the Irish!
18.Under Wraps is the only movie in DCOM history to receive a remake, and it premiered in October of 2021.
19.The ICONIC "Go, Twitches! Go, Twitches!" moment wasn't in the original script, but something that the Mowry twins improvised on set and was later added into the movie.
Disney / Via pinterest.com
20.Caroline Rhea and Charles Shaughnessy, who star as the mom and the vampire in Mom's Got a Date with a Vampire, were reunited in a Season 5 episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch, where they also go on a date.
Caroline also appeared in a Season 6 episode of The Nanny, which famously starred Shaughnessy as Mr. Sheffield. She played herself in an episode where Fran ends up in a game of Hollywood Squares. They just couldn't get enough of each other!
21.Finally, every October, there is a month-long "Spirit of Halloweentown" event in St. Helens, Oregon, where the original Halloweentown was filmed. They recreate important set pieces, like the giant jack-o-lantern in the town square, and let tourists celebrate and explore the town. Some years, cast members from the movies have even shown up to join in the festivities.
Got any spooky DCOM trivia that we missed? Let us know in the comments!
Get your heart pumping with Fall, a new thriller that will take you to terrifying heights. Watch it on demand right now, and on DVD/Blu-ray on October 18.
