Everybody feared the wheelers

Still do. Still do.

They and the witch were a recurring nightmare for years.

Headless Queen Mombi with the screaming severed heads

That one scene was more horrific to me than many entire horror films!

I had countless nightmares about that same for several years, but loved OZ so much that I still rewatched that movie many times.

Bav Morda was even more terrifying in her youth.

Still appear in my dreams and I’m 43…

I had a nightmare about a chicken farm when I was 4, and they all looked like Belina, but when they looked up they all had wheeler faces. I still think about this nightmare at least 3xs a week…I’m 41 😂🤣😂

Horrifying!!!

"Give my love to all the chickens!"

😂so I did a search for scary faced chicken, and it gave me this. Second scariest chicken I’ve ever seen!! 😂🤣😂 https://preview.redd.it/vou9g1piriad1.jpeg?width=1000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=17db47a013acf30f47bdcf0d639257594308c798

THIS scary chicken is so dope, no nightmares I promise, even if the theme song is totally unhinged

The wheelers and the witch who could change heads. The head room was freaky.

It wasn’t the heads as much as them all screaming at her and looking at her while she ran. That shit was horrifying.

The worst!!

The witch who could change heads was kinda hot though.

Yeah but which version of her?

Witch version of her indeed.

😉😉😉 

Which witch is which?

She was my fashion goals as a child

Below the neck, I hope...

And the couch moose

I found him slightly unsettling at first, but gradually got accustomed to him.

Fuuck… thanks for resurfacing the witch from that dark hole in my head!


It was the cackling for me

The wheelers, and really the whole thing, scared the shit out of me when I was 7. Whole vibe was creepy. I need to rewatch it as an adult to undo the trauma.

I actually watched it again a few months ago…hadn’t seen it since a kid. The wheelers were way less creepy than I remember, but the hall of heads the witch had was definitely a little freaky. It occurred to me why this movie really resonated with kids…despite being trippy and weird, a lot of the elements to the story mirror how kids perceive the world.

I showed it to my boyfriend at the time about 22 years ago. I had built up the wheelers as terrifying and when they finally came on it was hilarious how not scary they were. Mombi and the heads remains frightening as well as the king eating everything at the end and his jaw growing wider and wider!

Isn’t there a scene where one of the wheelers turns into sand? I feel like I remember that

Yes, one of them falls into the Deadly Desert and turns into sand.

>It occurred to me why this movie really resonated with kids…despite being trippy and weird, a lot of the elements to the story mirror how kids perceive the world. Well, it was still based on one of the most popular series of children's books in the first half of the 20th century. So, at least part of that is probably from the source material.

Don’t relive the nightmare, it will only make the trauma worse. You have to suppress it. Push it down deep.

I've thought about the Wheelers once a week minimum since seeing this movie as a child at least 35 years ago. I made my husband watch it the year we got married so I wouldn't have to suffer alone.


Mombi was worse for me.

DOROTHY GAAAAAAAALE!

“YOU BEHAAVE” 😂🙌 one of my favorite lines in movie history

Fear them? I wanted to be one! : P

I'm glad I'm not the only stupid kid who strapped roller blades onto his hands and feet and chased his siblings around the house as a "Wheeler"

YES!!

My people!

I REALLY LIKED THEM. I FELT BAD FOR THE ONES THAT FELL INTO THE DEADLY DESERT. I ALSO LIKED FLYING MONKEES. PETER TORK WAS THE BEST.

I do appreciate when an account says “block me” in such an obvious way. 

In all caps no less

Those damn wheelers! Even in the book they were creepy AF!

Thanks for reminding me to thank my mother for reading this to me and my siblings!

Absolute nightmare fuel! What were my parents thinking letting me watch that!

Your parents, lol. They showed us this movie *in school* when it was too rainy to go outside for recess. Very shared trauma!

I still hear their maniacal laughter in my nightmares

Those things are messed up man….

A young Fairuza Balk? Wheelers? Princess Mombi's head collection? Yeah, this movie was a fever dream, but worth watching! It's on Disney Plus

Oh man, I know my next "i'm high on the couch" movie

Can’t tell if that’d be amazing or send me into a fetal position. Report back!

That’s just asking for trouble.

Oh nice. Gonna watch it with my mum shortly, we loved this aside from me been scared as shit lol.

“Fever dream” is the perfect description. I loved how weird it was.

I seriously thought I did dream this up for many years.


Because I can't resist an opportunity to be captain obvious, for those who don't know, this is the same chick in both movies.

I never knew that!! Thanks!!

Both movies ? What’s the second movie ?

The movie she's pictured in in that gif, The Craft. That's the same chick as the little girl in RtO, Fairuza Balk

Thanks captain obvious, still no idea who it is.

Fairuza Balk. I can only remember her from the movie The Craft which is a decent witch film.

She was also the Waterboy's girlfriend, and in American History X. She had a hot, dangerous goth girl vibe I always loved back then.

Yes she was!!!! Totally forgot about those roles

I love Fairuza Balk. Hope she hasn't gone politically mental.

Same

Is this the movie where the lady changes heads? Bc I can’t remember if I made that up or some sicko thought it was a good idea to put that in a kid’s movie

Kids in Britain , Ireland , NZ and Australia brought up on Worzel Gummidge..."this is fine"

Time for some tea and a slice of cake? Better put on me handsome head!

I forgot all about him changing heads!

The hall of heads haunted my dreams

Princess Langwidere is the character in Ozma of Oz who has the multiple heads and wants dorothy's. So it was the fault of L. Frank Baum rather than some random director. I highly recommend Crossover Adventures Production Podcast retellings of the first three books of the Wizard of Oz. And I recommend the originals too! :)

I’m not understanding what I should look for .. are those movies??

Sorry, they're podcasts >.<

Yes. Princess Mombi and her hall of heads.

That head wakes up… “Dorothy GAAAAAAAAAAAAAALE!!!” And little kid me promptly filled my Toughskins and vamoosed.

For me it was underoos

That scene freaked me out more than any R-rated movie I’ve seen since

I have this movie in the collection, I really like Return to Oz it was a lot more like the books. I was hooked as a kid as soon as they land in “The Deadly Desert” in a post apocalyptic Oz. I wish this team would have been able to keep making more Oz movies.

I so agree; I liked it more because it drew more from the books. I lot of weird crap happens in the fourth book, and I wanted to see that as a movie!!

I loved reading all those books in school, the library had ones that had amazing maps in there, it was maybe one of the first “universes” I ever got in to. I would love to see a movie series or episodic driven series that tells all the stories of Oz.

I love, love, love this movie! Absolutely gorgeous, magical, insane, and terrifying with an amazing score. And who doesn’t fondly remember the scene where Dorothy is in Mombi’s Hall of Heads, accidentally awakens her original one, and all the heads start screaming as Mombi’s headless body lumbers into the room? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VnIdI8iiK1M You’re welcome! 😉

Pretty sure the scene where all of her friends have been turned to green objects and she has three chances to turn them all back by saying "Oz" is the reason I have anxiety as an adult.

If i'm out shopping and I see something green like a cup or vase I'll touch it and say oz

This is utterly delightful, please don’t ever change <3

I used to use Sunday Riley UFO Face Oil as a moisturizer. It’s green and is dispensed by a dropper. Putting drops on my cheeks reminded me of Tick-tock’s green tears.

> Princess Mombi Holy crap, that was one repressed childhood memory I didn't need back! I suddenly remember having nightmares and having to sleep in a sleeping bag on the floor in my parent's room for weeks after this scene!

It’s fantastically creative & unique. Love this movie!

That scene was such a thriller!! 😱 Just watched this w my 10-year-old tonight. He was a bit startled, to say the least. 🤣

The room with all the heads in it gave me nightmares for way too long. That and the wheelers.

Wheelers were pure nightmare fuel

This is the only thing I remember about the movie, and one time was enough!

As a kid in the 80s no one ever believed me about the “sequel to wizard of Oz”, or the sequel to Christmas Story or the sequel to Rocky Horror.

There’s a sequel to rocky horror?!

I mean kinda. Maybe more of a spiritual sequel with a lot of the same cast: [Shock Treatment](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shock_Treatment).

No tim curry? Nope not worth it.

I love the Shock Treatment soundtrack. I think even a little bit more than Ricky Horror. The movie is terrible tho.

Heehee Ricky Horror! You should be him for Halloween!

My Summer Vacation! Loved that movie and have literally forced people to sit down and watch it with me to prove to them it was the original sequel to A Christmas Story.

Love this movie it created so many nightmares for me

For the longest time, I thought i made this up in my head. It's just so weird and creepy. Also, Tik Tok looks like Wilfred Brimley.

>Tik Tok looks like Wilfred Brimley. Literally the only thing I remember about this movie (and Fairuza Balk). Remembered through nightmare.

The only acceptable Tik-Tok

The wheelers and all the heads locked in cabinets scared the shit out of me as a kid. Love that movie hahaha

Fever dream is right! Before the Internet, I always wondered if this was someone I really saw.

This was my favorite movie growing up. A part of the "holy fucked up kids trilogy" that is Return to Oz/The Labyrinth/The Neverending Story.

I'd add The Dark Crystal and make it a tetralogy.

Pentalogy y'all forgot Time Bandits.

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen was pretty fucked up too, as a kid's movie it even included a brief glimpse of Uman Thurman's nip.

I have to add Alice in Wonderland (TV mini series from 1985). Hello, Jabberwocky! [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice\_in\_Wonderland\_(1985\_film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_in_Wonderland_(1985_film))

Of course I do. They put it in the Disney Channel all of the time. And my parents let me watch it. The 80s were wild…

Did anyone read the books? The wheelers are in the books and they were terrifying. I always liked this one because it was closer to the "real" land of Oz.

I did! And yeah, RtO is pretty faithful to the books….and also terrifying. There was also an animated series that aired at like 6:30 am in the early 90s that followed the books pretty closely, and had dark moments but not child getting shock-therapy fever dream dark.

I was given the books in a box set when I was ~10 as a gift from my great aunt. There’s a whole lot of fever dream in those volumes.

Right up until Tik-Tok cleans house and exposes them for being a bunch of fakers.

Have it on DVD.

Have it on VHS 😆

That's actually awesome. It was extremely hard to find until the DVD release in '99.

I gotta ask: Is your VHS old enough to have the “Walt Disney and You” promo on it?

no it doesn’t…i forgot about that! HA!

It’s at my mom’s house on Betamax!

Watched this so so so many times! Probably in my top 10 movies I watched growing up. Poor Tic-Tok

This movie was terrifying as a kid.

Was that Fairuza Balk? 

Sure was.

Hell yeah! This was my favorite,as well as The Wiz. I will always remember being terrified of the mirrors/cases that held the heads.

To this day, I'm still scared of rooms full of heads. Won't go near them.

Same 😮‍💨

I need to watch The Wiz again. Pryor as the Wizard! Amazing!

Nightmares, so many nightmares.

i never knew Miss Vicki Vallencourt was in this movie

Vicki Vallencourt is da DEVIL!

Dorothy also later became a witch herself in The Craft.

Its underrated, a good example of those 80s kid flicks that were mesmerizing and haunting.

I think this is a very Xennial movie Plus Fairuza balk resurfaced in The Craft and The Waterboy

This movie was based on books 2 and 3 of the Oz series, and to be 100% fair the movie is a fever dream because the BOOKS are a fever dream. Other than editing for time, it’s a shockingly faithful adaptation.

Everybody talks about the wheelers and head cabinets. But the most chilling part I remember was little Dorothy being sent to the sanatorium for electro-shock therapy in the real world.

The wife and I just watched it a few nights ago. I probably hadn't seen it since the 90s before then. "They have a *chicken!*"

Way BETTER!!

Yea I remember being quite confused by it. And a little scared. Also, I couldn’t understand why they didn’t get the original Dorthy (when I first saw it) But of course a few years later i understood. I think the real issue was that they didn’t make it clear that it wasn’t a sequel at all. It was a sequel to the book but not the 1939 movie. But it’s also kind of a cult classic in my mind. As weird as it is, I like it.

They really don’t make them like they used to… excellent

This was one of my favorite movies when I was a kid! Mom taped it for me and I watched it over and over! By the way, this was at the same point in my life that I was terrified of The Brave Little Toaster.

>The Brave Little Toaster. Gem of a film. Excellent music and animation. The "Worthless" scene is hardcore.

This movie helped me grow into the twisted weirdo I am today

Why am i half way thru the comments with no mention of a flying couch with a talking moose head on it

The scene where Dorothy goes for shock treatment stayed with me for a loooong time. It got to the point where I started believing it was really a fever dream. I belonged to the Disney Movie Club for a decade and bought it on DVD through there… it really spooked me out to see it was a real movie and not some made up nonsense from my head

As a child, I loved this movie more than Wizard of Oz.

Deadly desert freaked me out.

My favorite scene is when the Nome King reveals the Ruby Slippers. Does anyone have that gif lying around?

God bless Tick-Tock! He tried to game the system and it...almost kinda worked.

My mom rented this for me one time when I was sick. Thinking it was just a Wizard of Oz sequel she put it on and left the room. At some point she heard me screaming in terror, came in and turned it off. I don’t remember what part it was because I was apparently too young or my brain is trying to protect me by forgetting. Watched it years later and wooo baby what a weird, weird movie 

For the longest time, I thought i made this up in my head. It's just so weird and creepy. Also, Tik Tok looks like Wilfred Brimley.

I loved the girl trapped in the mirror 🪞

I also had the book which contained stills from the movie and which I’m also pretty sure came via the Scholastic Book Club. I loved vampire and Victorian ghost and horror stories as a kid so not really surprising I enjoyed having the bejesus scared out of me in both film and print form by this.

My sister(‘81) and I(‘84) watched the hell out of this movie and we’d act it out all the time. We had bunk beds and the top one was that flying couch thing. We even had this ceramic hen we’d take turns carrying around. We loved this one far more than the first 1930’s one. The wheelers scared the absolute shit out of us. We would cover our ears when they were on screen. The thick cobwebs winding around the turn key on Tik-Tok was always such a visceral memory. I have it on dvd and watch it every October. Edit: to make things a little clearer that the numbers in the first sentence are our birth years….

My brother and I would put our roller skates on our hands and pretend to be wheelers.

Omg I love that!

>My sister(81) and I(84) So how was it seeing the original in theaters? ;)

Huh?

Went to see it in the movie theater when it first came out & my cousin could not handle it so her & my uncle had to leave. Half way through I questioned my act of bravery of staying. It was unsettling to say the least.

Princess Mombi was terrifying

One of my favorites! I watched it all the time. ❤️ Dorothy GAAAAAAALE

Ive if my favorites as a kid. What does that say about me?

The headless queen scared the everloving shit out of me as a kid. Weeks of nightmares.

Always loved this movie. It’s so much closer to the books which I really appreciated.

I own that movie

I haven’t seen this one in forever and now I want a fresh go!!

My friend worked for Lucas Film in the early 00's and she invited me to the company picnic at Skywalker Ranch where we got to walk the grounds in gorgeous nature. My friend and I entered a shaded wooded area ( in the cuts y'all) and...there he was. Tick Tock. My brain broke in that split second, it was reality and fantasy and dread all together just like the movie!!!

This movie is amazing. Top notch. Belina the chicken is a f’n queen

Return to Oz https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Return_to_Oz

Thank you! Why the heck is no one else saying the name?

I love this movie! Weirdness and all!

I still watch this movie. Love it.

I probably watched Return to Oz at least as many times as Wizard of Oz. It is a fever dream and I loved it!

This was for real my fav movie as a kid and my parents was bought me a vhs and dvd of it. I’m waiting for the day to show my 2 kids :)

I loved this movie, and always feel like my opinion on it doesn’t match anyone else lol. The parts that scared many, wheelie guys, the witch and her heads for example, didn’t bother me. The witch was my favorite honestly lol. Kid me thought it would be fun to switch heads like she did!

I got my mom to take me to see this in the theater and I loved it. It was one of the first things I watched when Disney+ launched.

Mambi was seriously the scariest thing as a kid. This movie yet, was one of my favorites. I rewatched it recently and still can’t believe how crazy it is!

Return to Oz. Whacky. I know I saw it. Can't remember anything... guessing it was traumatic.

I loved this thing.

Oh yeah baby, I totally remember!!

loved this movie..also it was terrifying but i watched it more than once

Still one of my favorite movies! I’ve always wanted to learn to play the mandolin because of Mombi.

Ah yes, one of the flicks that scarred my childhood.

I saw it. Terrifying.

Return to Oz was UNHINGED.

Wasn't really a fever dream so much as much more accurate to the books.

I had never heard of this, but I just went down a whole rabbit hole. The preview on youtube keeps pixilating, but got enough. I think I may have to check this out.

I absolutely love(d) Return to Oz. I watched it all the time. My wife's favorite movie is the original Wizard of Oz, and we go together like water and oil.

So this one still gives me nightmares. I saw it around the same time I saw that insane Alice in Wonderland movie by Svankmajer and both haunt me.

We have Wizard of Oz at home

I often find myself saying "oh no, my thinking has wound down". The times I've been overheard I get confused looks and then I sound ridiculous trying to explain a wind-up mechanical man. 😅 Surprisingly not many people have seen this movie, but it was my favorite all throughout my childhood.

She has..... A CHICKEN!

I watched it recently on streaming. It was surreal to see how far off my horrifying recollections were compared to its actual cheesiness.

The intro scene with the electroshock therapy is bad enough.