4. Injun Joe’s Cave (Tom Sawyer Island)

You: Gee, Injun Joe, why do you live in such a dark, brooding cave?
Injun Joe: Oh, I just really love the quiet and mmmmmMMUUURDERING PEOPLE.

One of the most fun articles I ever wrote for Theme Park Tourist was an only-partially satirical piece about how Tom Sawyer’s Island might be the scariest place in Walt Disney World, particularly if you visit when the island is mostly empty (there’s a few excerpts from it here). There are several ways in which Tom Sawyer’s Island messes with guest’s base fears—the unstable barrel bridge, the claustrophobic mystery mine, the creepy little owl looming over guests in the mill.

However, I was only partially joking when I pointed out that Injun Joe’s Cave might legitimately be the scariest place in Walt Disney World.

The sign at the entrance of the cave warns guests they are about to enter the hideout of the infamous Injun Joe-- a grave-robbing sadist with a penchant for carving up widows. Inside, you find a close-quartered labyrinth so dark that you are forced to rely on erratic lanterns for light. The very walls wail as you stumble across a hellish prison cell.

Image: Jett Farrell-Vega

Spotting blue light ahead, you hurry towards the hopeful warmth of the sun only to find yourself in a forbidding chamber. Giant skulls leer down, glowing with unholy light. Rats skitter in the darkness. You imagine footsteps, the breath of a hidden stranger, the possibility that every corner might hold the homicidal Joe. You feel the cold sweat of true fear. If the horrors haven’t been smeared on thick enough, you come to another cavern—a bridge spanning the gaping mouth of a bottomless pit.

As you turn the corner, you freeze… a figure stands in the dark, a looming, broad-shouldered silhouette.

Courage escapes you. Your knees shake. It’s him.

Injun Joe.

A scream hangs on your lips.

“Mikey, will you hurry up! Your Dole Whip is melting!!!” the woman shouts, tromping past you with a quick scowl like she doesn’t approve of your staring.

You take a moment to verify that you haven’t soiled yourself and take your final steps back into the sun, a survivor of Injun Joe’s cave.

3. Summit Plummet

Image: Disney

Care to pepper your Walt Disney World vacation with some literally-skin-searing fear? Look no further than Blizzard Beach’s Summit Plummet, the third tallest and fastest water slide on the planet. You don’t need theming or hype to feel genuine terror on Summit Plummet. It takes some serious guts to brave this beast of a water slide, particularly considering that some guests have described it as the longest five second rug burn ever.

Summit Plummet is a slide so massive that many guest’s bodies literally can’t handle it. Not only do you have to overcoming a genuine fear of the brutal effects of gravity just to step onto the monstrous thing, but guests regularly describe that it seriously hurts. You just can’t blaze down a chute that fast without building up an uncomfortable amount of friction. Want a similarly terrifying but slightly-less-exfoliating experience? Try Typhoon Lagoon’s 50-foot Humunga Kowabunga for a similar thrill.

2. Shark Reef

Image: Josh Hallett, Flickr (license)

There is no way to describe how terrifying Typhoon Lagoon’s Shark Reef was unless you tried it before it closed in 2016. The premise for the experience wasn’t fully intended to be scary—an opportunity for guests to snorkel through a clear lagoon with a broad range of tropical fish.

Oh, and a bunch of sharks.

Now, Disney wasn’t flinging guests into waters infested with great whites or ravenous tiger sharks. The denizens of shark reef included leopard and bonnet sharks, as well as a few sting rays. From the outside, you can tell they are seriously little tiny sharks. However, once your body hit that icy cold water, it was seriously easy for your brain to convince you you’d entered a frigid lair of hungry hammerheads. There is something seriously scary about the unpredictability of sea-life if you aren’t used to regular diving and snorkeling, and Shark Reef evoked this fear in spades. Many guests described it as easily the scariest attraction they ever experienced at Walt Disney World.

1. The ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter

Tomorrowland’s ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter was an attraction terrifying in so many ways that it defied logic. Originally intended to be called “Nostromo” as a tie in to Ridley Scott’s Alien, how it even came into being is a baffling and fascinating story.

Never experienced it yourself? Yes, the rumors are true. Disney actually did have an attraction where guests voluntarily allowed themselves to be lashed into seats in the dark while a murderous alien tromped through the room, breathed on your neck, slobbered on your skin, and—we are not making this up—licked your head.

It was a different time… and fans LOVED it.

Disney did everything they could to warn audiences how scary Alien Encounter was, even including a disturbing pre-show where an adorable alien named Skippy was vaporized by a malevolent Tim Curry-bot. It didn’t matter. Eventually the pressure became too great and Disney opted to rebrand the attraction as the reviled (and shockingly resilient) Stitch’s Great Escape. Still, for those who experienced it, there is no doubt that the ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter definitely won its place as Walt Disney World’s scariest attraction ever.

How would you reorder this list? Are there any attractions Disney past or present that you would add?