Tower of Terror is a 1997 American supernatural horror television film written and directed by D. J. MacHale, and starring Steve Guttenberg and Kirsten Dunst.

Journalist Buzzy Crocker writes for a supermarket tabloid, The National Inquisitor, after his termination from the Los Angeles Banner (where his then-girlfriend Jill works as editor) for publishing a fake news story.

Sometime later, an elderly woman named Abigail Gregory comes to visit Buzzy, and explains that on Halloween in 1939, she was witness to a bizarre incident in the Hollywood Tower Hotel, when five hotel guests – singer Carolyn Crosson, Crosson's boyfriend: actor Gilbert London,[notes 1] much-loved child star Sally Shine, her nanny Emeline Partridge, and bellhop Dewey Todd,[notes 2] – mysteriously disappeared without a trace when lightning struck the elevator they were in on their way up to a party at the hotel's Tip Top Club.

Buzzy investigates the shuttered hotel and finds a book of spells mentioned in Abigail's story, also discovering the curse can be reversed by its "contrary".

Q is reluctant, but he decides to help his deceased grandfather and the four guests, especially as he stands to inherit the hotel if an explanation to the 1939 event is revealed.

Buzzy realizes that finding the personal effects of the guests (a lock of Sally's hair, Ms. Partridge's handkerchief, Dewey's spare bell-boy hat, Gilbert's Oxford spectacles, and Carolyn's locket) and repairing the elevator have given Abigail the means to complete the curse.

Sally has kept the present she wanted to give to Abby - a golden friendship bracelet with two hearts engraved with their names - assuming she would forgive her.

Anna manages to leap from an emergency escape hatch, rejoining Buzzy and the others, but at exactly 8:05 pm, lightning strikes the hotel again, and both cars plummet towards the basement.

Executive producer George Zaloom said, "What we've done is to create a story line based on some action things that occur at the attraction."

"[8] On March 22, 1997, when it was announced that ABC would be reviving The Wonderful World of Disney, it was revealed that Kirsten Dunst would be starring in a new film for their Sunday line up, entitled Tower of Terror.

[10] When asked why the film would be shot in California, rather than at Disney-MGM Studios' production facilities, Disney spokesperson Craig Martinelli said, "...it's logistics more than anything else."