Disney at the Arclight in August

[innerSpaceman]

I remember it as being pretty darn bad, and horribly disappointing.

[mousepod]

I like it.

So did

April 29, 1983
DISNEY'S BRADBURY

By JANET MASLIN
IN the center of a small, old-fashioned town, the autumn leaves are blowing down Main Street -that is, a wind machine is blowing the leaves across a movie-set evocation of small-town Americana. ''Something Wicked This Way Comes,'' the Walt Disney production of Ray Bradbury's 1962 novel, begins on such an overworked Norman Rockwell note that there seems little chance that anything exciting or unexpected will happen.

So it's a happy surprise when the film, which opens today at the National and other theaters, turns into a lively, entertaining tale combining boyishness and grown-up horror in equal measure. In tiny Green Town, Ill., the arrival of a highly unusual carnival triggers some strange events, which are witnessed by the inseparable team of Jim Nightshade (Shawn Carson) and Will Halloway (Vidal Peterson). The townspeople, at first entranced by the unexpected carnival troupe, are soon affected in increasingly sinister ways that are best not revealed here, but are certainly good for a shock or two.

When Jim and Will figure out what the carnival is up to, they become the prey of its ringleader, a Mr. Dark (Jonathan Pryce), who organizes an entire parade through Green Town just to scout for the boys. Jim and Will watch the parade covertly, picking out two yellowdraped floats for special notice. ''They're coffins!'' cries one boy cries. ''Yeah - kid-sized!'' the other says.

The gee-whiz quality to this adventure is far more excessive in Mr. Bradbury's novel than it is here, as directed by Jack Clayton. Mr. Clayton, who directed a widely admired version of ''The Turn of the Screw'' some years ago, gives the film a tension that transcends even its purplest prose.

The horror here, which involves some elaborate special effects, is very much in the service of a story about a father and son who rediscover each other, which gives it an added dimension. Without Jason Robards as the father who has disappointed Will, and is given a chance to redeem himself through the evil that the carnival creates, the movie might be nothing but eerie. As it is, the tender moments between father and son help keep the science fiction on a human scale.

''Something Wicked This Way Comes,'' which also features the beautiful Pam Grier as a demonic temptress (she is first seen fondling a pet spider) and Diane Ladd as Jim's vaguely neglectful mother, shouldn't bore adults in the audience. But its fancifulness makes it a film best suited to children, though it may scare them at times. One of Jim's and Will's worst nightmares features about 100 tarantulas creeping into one boy's bedroom and, needless to say, creeping all over the boy as well. Children of all ages, be forewarned.

[CoasterMatt]

I loved "Something Wicked This Way Comes" - If he was still in fine form, I'd even be up for a Tim Burton remake of it.

[mousepod]

and so did Ebert.

Something Wicked This Way Comes
Release Date: 1983

Ebert Rating: ***½

Movies / Roger Ebert / Apr 29, 1983

The opening scenes of "Something Wicked This Way Comes" might remind you a little of Orson Welles' "The Magnificent Ambersons." Both films begin with a nostalgic memory of what it was like to grow up in a small Midwestern town, back before everything became modern and a sense of wonder was lost.

What the two films also have in common is a love of language. The screenplay for "Something Wicked This Way Comes" was written by Ray Bradbury, based on his novel, and it's one of the rare American films to savor the sound of words, and their rhythms. That's true in the writing, and it's also true in the acting; Jason Robards, who has the lead in this film, is allowed to use his greatest gift, his magnificently controlled speaking voice, more poetically in this movie than in anything else he's done in years.

The movie is a fantasy, the story of how Dark's Pandemonium Carnival came to town one night (arriving on a glorious carnival train with no engineer at the controls and no passengers in the cars), and of how the carnival's main attraction was temptation.

What could it tempt you with? With whatever you wanted the most. And in the case of the Robards character, an aging small-town librarian with a young son, what he wanted the most was life and youth. The challenge set him is a difficult one. If he can resist that temptation, he can redeem the whole town. If he relents, all is doomed. The scenes involving the carnival are an interesting blend of special effects and nostalgia, including a merry-go-round that spins backward into time.

The carnival owner, Mr. Dark (Jonathan Pryce), is very likely a confederate of the devil. And his assistants include the very beautiful Dust Witch, played by the stately, lovely Pam Grier in a change-of-career role after her decade of tough women.

"Something Wicked This Way Comes" qualifies as a horror film, but it's an altogether different kind than we've been getting lately. The new breed of horror movies are essentially geek shows, exercises in despair in which all hope has been abandoned and evil rules the world. Bradbury's world of fantasy calls back to an earlier tradition, to the fantasies of Lord Dunsany, Saki and John Collier (but not H. P. Lovecraft!) -- horror fantasies in which evil was a distinct possibility, but men also had within them the possibility of redemption. Robards is offered a choice in this movie, and it is a choice. Things need not end in disaster.

There's another interesting thing about this movie. It's one of the few literary adaptations I've seen in which the film not only captures the mood and tone of the novel, but also the novel's style. Bradbury's prose is a strange hybrid of craftsmanship and lyricism. He builds his stories and novels in a straightforward way, with strong plotting, but his sentences owe more to Thomas Wolfe than to the pulp tradition, and the lyricism isn't missed in this movie.

In its descriptions of autumn days, in its heartfelt conversations between a father and a son, in the unabashed romanticism of its evil carnival and even in the perfect rhythm of its title, this is a horror movie with elegance.

[mousepod]

Hell, I might watch it again tonight.

[innerSpaceman]

Eh, it established a beautiful tone ... but descended into crap.

[CoasterMatt]

I wish I owned a copy.

[Gemini Cricket]

Ebert compared it to The Magnificent Ambersons? Hmm. I want to see it now.

[Tref]

Originally Posted by Gemini Cricket

Ebert compared it to The Magnificent Ambersons? Hmm. I want to see it now.

Keeping in mind what was good about TMA was dumped into the Pacific by RKO.


I loved The Black Hole when it was first released, though I admit I think I wanted it to be much better than it actually was. The movie had everything, but a solid script and a decent director. Why the studio handed it over to such an apparent hack is beyond me. What a waste.

Still, I might go. Can you smoke pot at the Arclight?

[Alex]

Ok, I have to eat crow.

I was completely thinking of the wrong movie. When seeing the title Something Wicked This Way Comes I was thinking of The Watcher in the Woods. I don't believe I've seen Something Wicked This Way Comes so I'll concede it is a good movie.

The Black Hole is still a bad movie and Escape to Witch Mountain is on the wrong side of tolerable. I've never cared for 20,000 Leagues but reasonable people can disagree on that one and The Rocketeer is fantastic because Jennifer Connelly has boobies but is otherwise forgettable.