Tower of Terror

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Before Pirates of the Caribbean, this 1997 Made for TV Movie was the first film to be based on a ride from the Disney Theme Parks, in this case The Twilight Zone Tower Of Terror.

Steve Guttenberg plays the role of a disgraced reporter named Buzzy Crocker who is stuck doing tabloid stories after submitting a story that turned out to be false. He meets an old woman named Abigail who tells him the story of The Hollywood Tower Hotel, which was closed down after lightning struck the elevator and killed its five passengers. She claims that Emeline Partridge, the nanny of child actress Sally Shine, was responsible for the horrible event, which put a curse on the hotel, trapping their spirits there. She begs him to go into the hotel and collect some items she needs to break the curse. Along with his niece Anna, and the inheritor of the hotel, Chris "Q" Todd, Buzzy ventures into the hotel, and is surprised at what he finds.

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Tropes used in Tower of Terror include:

• Actor Allusion: Of a sort. Sally Shine, obvious parody of Shirley Temple, is played by Lindsay Ridgeway. This isn't the only time Lindsay played a Shirley Temple Expy - in fact, the same year this movie was made she was the singing voice for Darla Dimple (in which Shirley Temple meets Enfant Terrible) in Cats Don't Dance.
• The Cassandra: No one believed Abigail about what happened which is good, because she was lying.
• Children Are Innocent: Sally repeatedly shows this quality time and time again. By the end of the movie it becomes something of a plot point, and in the end breaks the curse.
• Dead All Along: Claire Poulet
• Defanged Horrors: Though don't think for a second there isn't any Nightmare Fuel.
• Divorced Installment: The theme park ride is based on The Twilight Zone, complete with the Fake Shemp being used to feature the late Rod Serling hosting the pre-show introduction. The movie drops the Twilight Zone connection, probably to avoid paying royalties. (The version of the ride at Tokyo Disneyland also drops the connection to The Twilight Zone, though partly because the TV show isn't well-known in Japan, and partly because of the fact that the Japanese had different beliefs and customs in regards to the occult and the supernatural.)
• Eureka Moment: "The woman is completely nuts. She probably thinks that she's a witch."
• Everyone Is Related: When it is revealed that Abigail is actually Sally's sister.
• Evil Laugh: Emeline gives one in Abigail's inaccurate flashback.
  • Littered all over the hotel when Buzzy is getting the book. when the creepy owl laughs, before Buzzy nearly gets stabbed with a pen dropped from the ceiling, when he's looking around after that...
• Forgotten Birthday: Played straight, aside from the birthday girl having the biggest overreaction ever in the history of this trope. She finds out sixty years later that a surprise party had been planned. Oops.
• "Friend or Idol?" Decision: Buzzy has to decide between helping the ghosts and getting his career back. He gets both.
• The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: Abigail's whole motivation.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom
• Golden Age of Hollywood: When the accident took place.
• Happily Ever After: Hey, even at its scariest, Disney is Disney.
• Heel Face Turn
• Hell Hotel: Duh.
• Ironic Nursery Tune
• Jacob Marley Apparel: Subverted in that Claire was able to appear in different 1930s outfits when she was pretending to be a present-day actress. Otherwise played straight.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Buzzy and Gilbert.
• Like a Son to Me: Gender Flipped with Sally and Emmiline. After being accused of being the one who wanted to kill Sally, Emmiline is horrified at the mere notion, and says that she loves Sally. "I couldn't love her more if she were me own daughter!"
• Lightning Can Do Anything: Though it is magic lightning, so...
• Motive Rant: Abigail gives one at the end, about how everyone loved her sister but didn't care about her, and how her perceived Forgotten Birthday was the last straw. Her rant gets derailed when the ghost of her sister, the person who loved her the most, shows up in person.
• Next Sunday A.D.: The movie was released in 1997, but took place in 1999. Either that or the characters are rounding up when they refer to 1939 as "sixty years ago".
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Sally Shine is quite obviously Shirley Temple.
• Non Sequitur Thud
• Oblivious Guilt Slinging: Buzzy gets Sally to do this to Abigail at the end.
• Pimped-Out Dress: Sally's Pink Means Feminine, frilly, puffy-sleeved dress.
• Recursive Adaptation: This is the best ever TV movie based on a theme park ride based on a TV show.
• Trunk Full Of Crazy: Abigail has a trunk filled with photos of Sally with her face slashed out, decapitated/mangled Sally dolls, and "I HATE SALLY" written all over the place in red.
• Shirley Template: Sally Shine is a Temple-esque 1930s child actress.
• The Unfavorite: Abigail to Sally, or so she thought.
• Unfinished Business: The ghosts can't leave until they reach the party on the top floor.