8. It’s Tough to Be a Bug

For the most part, It’s Tough to Be a Bug is an adorable and humorous jaunt into the world of Disney’s insect stars. They sing, they dance, they fart, they spray acid in your face… It’s cute.

Let’s just say it though. This is one SCARY attraction if you don’t do well with bugs.

It’s that attack scene that really sets some guests teeth on edge. If you fear bees, wasps, and hornets, that little “sting” in the back can be the most unnerving moment you can imagine on a Disney attraction. The creeping bugs around the ankles bit is a proper shriek-eliciter too. The Mirkwood-sized spiders that descend from the ceiling are just icing on the fright cake. If you’re scared of bugs, this is definitely a surprising contender on the scariest attractions list.

7. Countdown to Extinction (aka Dinosaur)

Image: Harshlight, Flickr (license)

Particularly when it opened, this was one INTENSE ride. Years before Expedition Everest opened, Countdown to Extinction offered Disney’s Animal Kingdom’s most intense thrill. Every element of the ride left you white knuckling your seat. The car movements, like those used in Disneyland’s Indiana Jones Adventure, were purposefully jostling and even to this day, the it’s-right-behind-us audio effects are some of the loudest of any Walt Disney World attraction. Combine that with the ticking-clock element of the time travel story and pitch-black darkness and you had one heck of an attraction.

Unfortunately, when Disney’s Dinosaur came out, several changes were made to make the ride more accessible to families—the scariest elements of the audio were dialed back, the car movements were subdued, and the film’s signature character, Aladar, was added to make it more kid-friendly. This is understandable, but there’s a part of us that laments losing the original Countdown to Extinction.

6. Expedition: Everest (at night)

Image: Disney

No list of scary Disney attractions would be complete without Animal Kingdom’s flagship mountain, Expedition: Everest. While the ride’s drops, twists, and turns are substantially more intense than those on the Magic Kingdom coasters, the real thing that gives Expedition: Everest its scary edge is its star: The Yeti.

We’ve talked before about how Expedition: Everest is a spiritual successor to Disneyland’s Matterhorn. Particularly if you decide to ride at night, when thick fog surrounds the mountain and ambient light can’t slip into its forbidding tunnels, there’s almost nothing that can prepare you for startling roar of the Yeti. There’s a true feeling of being chased by a clawing, angry ice-beast with every plunge into darkness. It’s disappointing that the ride’s climactic animatronic has been left inert due to mechanical failures, because the movement really does add an extra scare factor to this already-intense ride.

5. The Hollywood Tower of Terror

In all its incarnations, Disney’s Hollywood Studios’ Tower of Terror remains one of the most reliable scares in Walt Disney World. Like its namesake show, The Twilight Zone, The Tower of Terror uses different tactics to scare audiences than other attractions of Disney fame. Most of the lead up to the ride’s famous elevator drop is psychedelic and disturbing but not necessarily outright scary. Guests are ushered from one eerie, mind-bending scenario to another, letting our foreboding build with each scene.

The entire experience works in tandem to leave you sweating nervously by the time you reach that singular first drop. In the original incarnation of the ride, some guests report there was even a sharp sound of a cable snapping in the dark just before the elevator fell. Even with the ride’s more yo-yo like randomized up and down sequence, it is hard not to give a genuine scream every time that elevator makes its faster-than-the-speed-of-gravity fall.