Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983)

User Rating:

6.6/10   

Director:

Jack Clayton

Writers:

Ray Bradbury (novel) and
Ray Bradbury (screenplay)

Release Date:

29 April 1983 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Family | Fantasy | Horror | Mystery

Tagline:

After he fulfills your deepest, lifelong dream...he'll tell you the price you have to pay.

Plot:

In a small American town, a diabolical circus and its demonic proprietor prey on the townsfolk.

Plot Keywords:

Carnival | Young Boy | Lightning | Circus | Devil

Awards:

2 wins & 7 nominations

Cast

Jason Robards	...	Charles Halloway
Jonathan Pryce	...	Mr. Dark
Diane Ladd	...	Mrs. Nightshade
Royal Dano	...	Tom Fury
Vidal Peterson	...	Will Halloway
Shawn Carson	...	Jim Nightshade
Mary Grace Canfield	...	Miss Foley
Richard Davalos	...	Mr. Crosetti
Jake Dengel	...	Mr. Tetley
Jack Dodson	...	Dr. Douglas
Bruce M. Fischer	...	Mr. Cooger
Ellen Geer	...	Mrs. Halloway
Pam Grier	...	Dust Witch
Brendan Klinger	...	Cooger as a Child
James Stacy	...	Ed, The Bartender

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Australia:PG | France:-12 | UK:PG | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

Morrisville, Vermont, USA

Company:

Bryna Productions

Trivia:

The music for the film was originally composed by Georges Delerue, but it was rejected by Disney for a less somber score, and was replaced by James Horner's more upbeat score. Portions of Delerue's score can be heard in the film's theatrical trailer.

Quotes:

Charles Halloway: I, uh, have the honor, sir.
Mr. Dark: And have had for many years, I do believe. All that time spent living only through other men's lives. Dreaming only other men's dreams. What a waste.
Charles Halloway: Sometimes a man can learn more form other men's dreams than he can from his own. Come visit me, sir, if you wish to improve your education.
Mr. Dark: I will, and I may improve yours.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Mystery Science Theater 3000: Devil Fish (#10.11)" (1998)

Maybe they should have used the screenplay that Stephen King wrote instead…

It's so tiring to hear people say you should just read the book, so I'll try not to, although I've done that for more movies than I can remember. In this case, Disney took many of Ray Bradbury's intentions for the movie and destroyed them in post-production. This is, of course, all in the IMDb's trivia page for the movie (which also mentions that Stephen King wrote a screen adaptation of the novel which was rejected), so I don't feel bad about telling how insignificant this movie is compared to Bradbury's novel, which is nothing less than magnificent.

It's amazing to me how this movie turned out, given that not only did Bradbury write the novel, but I'm pretty sure he was involved in the screen writing as well. As I read the book I was curious as to how they would put a lot of the scenes on the screen, and then I watched the movie and was disappointed to learn that the way they would put them on screen was to gloss over them like they were never there. The ending of the film, for example, completely leaves out what could have been a brilliant climax, and not very hard to film, where Charles Halloway has the showdown with the witch onstage in front of a crowd of apprehensive fans.

The movie is shot on a series of cheap and unconvincing sets, cleverly made but clearly artificial, and is miscast almost from top to bottom and completely devoid of a single performance that deserves to be in an adaptation of Bradbury's work. I can tell that both of the boys who played Jim Nightshade and Will Halloway were competent actors, but they were never asked to really capture the emotion and fear that their characters displayed in the novel. They can't have been asked very often to put more into their performances, otherwise something better would have shown up on screen, although it's interesting that Vidal Peterson, who played Will, took three more roles after this film, the last one a full 15 years ago, and Shawn Carson, who played Jim Nightshade, never acted again after this movie. But I digress.

Of more importance involving the casting, 61 year old Jason Robards was signed on to play 54 year old Charles Halloway, the aging father of 12 year old Jim Halloway, and no effort at all was made to make him look younger than his 61 years in order to more closely resemble his 54 year old character, which I only mention because a 54 year old father of a 12 year old boy is already a stretch. Of more importance to the story, however, are the characters of Mr. Dark and the Dust Witch.

Mr. Dark (also known as The Illustrated Man), the sinister proprietor of the sinister carnival, is played by the startlingly non-threatening Jonathan Pryce, who doesn't display a single tattoo in the film, except for one shot in the film where he lifts his shirt sleeve for the boys to show a moving tattoo which is projected on his clear skin. If you knew how many brilliant ways this man's tattoos were described in the novel (something like a civilization of souls trapped in Dark's flesh, Mr. Dark himself is described as a crowd of frightening people because of all of the people tattooed onto himself). Then, of course, we have the Dust Witch, who is transformed from a brittle, blind, decrepit and extremely dangerous old hag in the novel and into Pam Grier in the movie. PLEASE.

I hate going on and on about stupid things that are wrong with movies, especially ones that are based on books that I've read because I could go on for pages and pages, but there is so much here that needs to be said that I can hardly help myself.

I guess the most important thing that I need to say is that there is a massive chasm between the novel and the movie, not only in subject matter that was left out, but in overall quality. The novel is so brilliantly written and such an experience to read that it deserves a better movie than this. There were some interesting parts of the film, but for the most part, my thoughts can be summarized as follows – Something Wicked This Way Comes is a film that absolutely itches to be remade.