Nightmare Fuel / Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Sweet dreams, kids. It doesn't end here. Not by a long shot.

"One of the most frightening sequences in film history is the scene in which the huntsmen come to get Snow White, forcing her to retreat into the woods, which come alive and try to kill her."

— Steven Spielberg, who also burst into tears as a child when he saw the Witch kicking the skeleton who died from thirst.

• The Huntsman attempting to kill Snow White. He doesn't go through with it, but he still draws the dagger and advances on her.
  • What became of the Huntsman? He isn’t seen again after he saves Snow White? As the Queen said, there is a heavy “penalty” for disobeying her. It’s somewhat likely he was executed by order of the Queen for not doing as she asked.
• Queen Grimhilde in general.
  • The Queen, even before her transformation into a witch, has a fixated angry face. It almost looks like a mask sometimes.
  • Her Palpatine-esque Witch form is also quite disturbing, especially in frontal shots like when Snow White spots her staring through the window. The way she stares into the screen makes you feel like she's watching you.
  • The Queen wanted the hunter to present her with the heart of Snow White when he's done killing her. In the original fairy tale, she planned to eat the heart.
  • The queen kicking the skeleton in her dungeon and laughing adds some gratuitously creepy Black Comedy. "Thirsty? Heh, heh, heh! Have a drink!" Because the guy died of thirst with the water jug just out of reach. Especially when you consider that the movie originally was going to show us the guy when he was still alive and not all skeletal. Assuming it was a guy. Maybe it was the previous rival for "fairest of them all"... Whoever was in there though, it's still nightmarish, considering the fact that the water pitcher was right in front of him centimeters out of reach.
    • Also, when she kicks the pitcher over, there's no water in it. Just a single scurrying spider. While the water may have dried up, what if it was empty the whole time? Then the victim died with hope just beyond their reach, and if they did reach it, they would have discovered it was false hope.
    • Talking of skeletons, throughout the whole sequence in the dungeon, we see hundreds of skeletons littered across the dungeon, some hanged by the neck, some in coffins, and next to the skeletons as the Witch is leaving is an axe in a stump which is still stained in blood! It's no wonder that the Queen is hated and feared across the land; she's a vile, sadistic tyrant who does more than want to try and kill Snow White and the Dwarfs; she routinely imprisons, tortures and executes people in many horrific ways!
  • The infamous "transformation into a hag" scene.
    • The music during that sequence is absolutely terrifying! The queen's hands change, with her nails becoming long, ugly and almost claw-like, her hair grows white and you don't have the feeling that swallowing the magic potion is a pleasant experience for her at all. Blink and you'll miss it, but as her hands transform, flashes of lightning reveal the bones inside them, adding even more creepiness. It's also quite reminiscent of Donovan's fate in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade or Stella's Transformation in Help! I'm a Fish.
    • The equally infamous moment when she reveals her ugly face to the camera for the first time. Her crow's reaction says it all.
    • The final shot of that scene, where the Witch looks directly at the audience and the camera blackens out around her, while only her piercing eyes remain visible. This is really a chilling image that remains with you forever...
    • The Scream of Fright, part of the Queen's potion, can genuinely freeze your heart.
  • When she dips the apple into the potion, not only does a skull-face form on the apple's skin, but if you look you can see that the potion is actually moving towards the apple, as it were a living thing eager to infect the apple.
  • Another Black Comedy moment is her frightening her pet crow by "offering" him a bite of the apple; his terror and panic is quite justified.
  • Her leaving the castle. Just the shot of her silently rowing her skiff through the night, surrounded by fog and in the looming shadow of the castle while very ominous music plays. Visually it evokes Phlegyas leading Dante and Virgil across the river Styx while the Queen herself resembles Death heading out to find Snow White, who is completely unaware of the danger already on its way. Spooky stuff.
  • It doesn't help that the Queen's personality and appearance is VERY reminiscent of the legendary Serial Killer Elizabeth Báthory.
  • What makes the Queen a realistic villain is that there are people in real life that are just like her: people who have gotten so jealous of others to the point that they want those people dead.
  • While the transformation was probably temporary or reversible, it's telling just how much the Queen hates Snow White just by the fact that she was willing to destroy her own beauty just to kill Snow White, no matter how briefly, considering how vain and self-absorbed she was. She doesn't even hesitate in the slightest, and actually seems to delight in her monstrous appearance.
  • When Snow White finally takes a bite of the apple, the Queen watches in anticipation of the potion taking effect. She can barely contain her glee as Snow White starts feeling unwell from the apple and the Queen quietly recites the listed effects.
  • We do not get to see what the Poisoned Apple did to Snow White. After the princess bites the cursed fruit, all we get are shots of the Witch whose facial expressions become increasingly unhinged as Snow White suffers off-camera from the apple's spell before her arm drops to the floor, instrument of the crime falling out of her hand.
  • Also, when she's on her way to the cottage, she keeps muttering and cackling to herself about how Snow White will be vulnerable because she'll be alone, and of course, that she'll be buried alive.
    The Queen/Hag: (muttering) The little men will be away, and she'll be all alone...with a harmless, old peddler woman! (Starts cackling) A harmless, old peddler woman!
  • The way the Queen describes how the Sleeping Death will affect Snow White does not sound pleasant in the slightest.
    Queen: When she breaks the tender peel to taste the apple in my hand… her breath will still… her blood congeal… THEN I'LL BE FAIREST IN THE LAND!
• The infamous forest scene, taking place right after the Huntsman tells Snow White to run, with the forest changing in tone with her fear-induced hallucinations.
  • The creepy looking expressions of the trees staring at Snow White's soul with the glowing wide eyes and gnarled leering faces which makes them look ferocious and murderous, as the page image shows.
  • The alligator logs.
  • The trees' branches trying to grab Snow White by the dress.
  • One tree in the middle of the sequence that momentarily transforms into some sort of demonic alligator-like beast with a gaping mouth as Snow White plummets through a loose patch of foliage, making it look as if it were swallowing her whole. WHILE SHE'S STILL BREATHING.
  • The first monster tree Snow White sees before falling into the water is somewhat different from the others and possibly the scariest of all. Its eyes are wider and more glaring like a demon's.
  • The woods sequence was actually noted as being extremely scary to audiences during its initial theatrical run; some people even rushed out of the theatres in anguish. In fact, when the film was screened at Radio City Music Hall, children in the audience got so scared by the scene that they soiled their pants, causing the entire velvet seat upholstery to be replaced. In addition, as a result of the scene, the British Board of Film Classification of the time ended up giving the film an "A" rating, meaning children below 12 years of age could only see the film if accompanied by an adult.
  • What makes this entire forest sequence particularly terrifying is the fact that for over centuries dark forests have scared travellers by night in similar ways. Every tree can get a scary, threatening shape in the dark. And every child fears the dark just as much.
  • The hundreds of eyes glaring at Snow White look eerie and evil in the darkness. It turns out that it was only a group of cute little animals, though the initial impact really feels like everyone and everything is watching her squirm and run around in fear.
• What the Queen actually does to Snow White is terrifying enough... what about the fate that she had planned for her all along? After Snow eats the apple, the only thing that saves her life is the fact that the dwarves couldn't bear to bury her, and left her in an above-ground coffin instead. Imagine what would have happened if they hadn't...
  • When she's first looking through her spell book, the Queen explicitly says that she plans to use the Sleeping Death on Snow White so that the dwarves will think that she's dead and bury her alive. Apparently, just poisoning her to death wasn't evil enough.
• The Magic Mirror. It having an unearthly, creepy face and voice must've scared a lot of young ones senseless throughout the film's shelf life. It's not evil, and seems to be a True Neutral magical entity, but still, its appearance and voice is really disturbing.
• The birds are suspicious of the Queen at first, but they only try to attack her when they see the vultures following her.
• When the birds recognize the Queen and realize that she is preparing to give Snow White a poisoned apple, they quickly alert the other forest animals that Snow White is in serious danger and rush to the diamond mine to alert the dwarfs. At first, they try shooing them off, until Sleepy mentions that "The Queen got Snow White", which quickly alerts the other dwarfs, a shocking discovery that leaves them really scared, with Doc in particular being so panicked that he can't lead his brothers as usual, so Grumpy has to take his place. The dwarfs have to go to work in the mine as they usually do during the day, leaving a 14-year-old girl alone in the house, but then the animals push and pull them all over the place while looking alarmed. After getting pulled by their hats, tunics and beards for a while, they find out that their friend ended up in danger in their absence and they have to rush back home to save her before it's too late.
  Sleepy: (yawning) Maybe the old Queen, uh, got Snow White.
  Doc: (realizing) The Queen!
  Dwarfs: (also realizing, in unison) Snow White!
  Grumpy: (worried, which is surprising coming from him) The Queen'll kill her! We got to save her!
  Doc: Yes! Yes! Uh, w-w-we got to save her!
  Sneezy: She'll kill her!
  Happy: What'll we do?
  Doc: Yes, yes, what'll we do?
  Grumpy: C'mon! (mounts Mr. Deer) Giddyap!
  • As the dwarves and forest animals are rushing to the dwarves' cottage to prevent Snow White from eating the poison apple. A fast-paced and urgent variation of the "Heigh Ho" is heard the entire time.
  • The dwarves chase sequence is intercut with the Queen gleefully waiting for Snow White to finally eat the apple. With the speed-up variation of "Heigh Ho" resulting in a powerful example of Mood Whiplash since the music for Snow White seconds away from biting the apple being very ominous.
• The evil Queen plummeting to her doom, being crushed afterwards by the very boulder she was trying to push onto the dwarfs. This is a pretty nasty death when you think about it.
  • Dear Lord that last scream of hers.
  • The dwarfs look down below at the incident. Given they were all set to tear the Queen limb from limb, whatever's left of her down there leaves them pretty spooked.
  • There's a certain evil look the flesh-hungry vultures give each other from their perches when the evil Queen falls to her doom that's... pretty creepy, to say the least.
  • The remainder of the scene is shown in haunting silence as the pair of vultures look on in malice and fly down for the fresh meat lying below before the scene fades.
• The build up to it. At first things start to play off like a Mook Horror Show, with the furious dwarfs making a bee line for the Queen as she limps up the cliff in desperation, only to reach a dead end. She panics for a moment...then her fury at the dwarfs threatening her rises, and lightning brims as she starts dislodging the nearby boulder, immediately turning the tables. She would have crushed the dwarfs had not she been pretty much cast down by a random bolt of lightning.
  Queen: The meddling little fools! (Picks up a stick to try and send a giant boulder down onto the dwarfs) I'll fix ya. I'll fix ya. I'll fix ya! I'LL CRUSH YOUR BONES!!!
  Grumpy: Look out!
  (The Queen cackles maniacally)
  • In the original radio adaptation, the witch herself is killed by the lightning, not the fall!
• The theme-park ride "Snow White's Scary Adventures" is legendary for freaking people out, as it condenses most of the film's scary moments into five minutes of a ride. It had a warning posted that it may be too scary for some people several decades ago, until the ride (at WDW) was finally dismantled in the early 2010s.
  • The ride has realistic-looking SKELETONS on the walls of the dungeon, something that would be more appropriate for rides like the Haunted Mansion or Indiana Jones Adventure instead of a ride based on a princess movie. Tokyo Disneyland’s version features the most skeletons of any version, while Paris’s version has one so horrifying it is nicknamed the “Paris Fright”, which drops on the riders from above. The 1971 Magic Kingdom version is considered by far the scariest, though, with no moments of levity, seven Witch figures, and an implied victory for her, all behind a cutesy facade. The original 1955 Disneyland Witch is easily the most realistic, grotesque, and frightening version, though.
  • In all the ride's versions the terryfing dark forest segment is always frightening in its own way. The monstrous ugly-looking trees lean on the guests' cart or try to grab them with their clawed branches-arms while the log-alligators snaps at them. In the Tokyo version, the trees looks even more demonic and ghoulish with very long, sharp teeth from their gaping mouths. The Disneyland ride lost its dark forest during its 2021 update into "Snow White's Enchanted Wish", to make room for Snow White receiving her wish for the one she loves to find her.
• One of the trailers for the Platinum Edition of the film is certainly ominous if nothing else, as it depicts many of Disney's most harrowing moments (like Scar betraying Mufasa and Ursula panting as she grows into her Kaiju form).
• The Platinum Edition's menu is very creepy, using a loop of the Magic Mirror's theme.
• If you're a little kid playing around with the bonus features of a 2000s DVD or Blu-ray release, the "Dopey's Wild Mine Ride" game is certain to give you a fright. You're blazing through a tunnel in a mine cart, and it's so dark that it's impossible to see anything that isn't directly in front of you. You have to play minigames to rescue the seven dwarves, and failing any of them causes the Evil Queen to give you a Jump Scare. To top it off, the game is narrated by the Magic Mirror, voiced by none other than the late Tony Jay, who gives him a deep, booming voice with an ominous reverb. Even the Mirror's newfound snarkiness and the fact that he's on your side here doesn't stop him from sounding incredibly scary, especially when he's warning you of the dangers of the mine.
  Magic Mirror: Keep your arms and legs inside the cart until the adventure has come to a full and complete stop... as in journey.

---