Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786301708456
Format: NTSC
ISBN: 6301708458
Label: Buena Vista Home Vid
Manufacturer: Buena Vista Home Vid
Publisher: Buena Vista Home Vid
Studio: Buena Vista Home Vid
Theatrical Release Date: 1983-04-29

Ray Bradbury adapted his own novel for Something Wicked This Way Comes, Jack Clayton's beautiful rendering of the turn-of-the-century fantasy of a mysterious carnival that literally blows into a small town to taunt and tempt the inhabitants. Jonathan Pryce (Brazil), the handsome but demonic proprietor of Dark's Pandemonium Carnival, preys upon the vanities, the delusions, and the regrets of the townspeople by granting their wishes at the expense of their souls. Jason Robards, as the meek librarian Charles Halloway, becomes his unlikely nemesis when his son Will, with his best friend Jim Nightshade (a deliciously dark name in its own right), discovers the secret of Dark's nightmarish carnival. When they become hunted by Dark's minions (including Pam Grier as the beautiful and mysterious Dust Witch), Halloway must confront his own fears and regrets to save the boys. Clayton captures the idyll of childhood in the fall with rich autumnal colors, his camera gliding along with the energetic boys as they tear through field and forests. The climax, however, gets lost in a cacophony of competing special effects, imaginatively visualized but never very terrifying, as if producer Disney resisted the uneasy undercurrent of the story. It's more dark fantasy than horror, a nightmarish adventure filtered through the memory of a man remembering his childhood in mythic terms. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Rating:
Summary: great movie
Comment: The order was sent on time and was in great shape.
Price was the lowest I found any wear.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Something Wicked this way comes
Comment: I saw this while shopping for a different DVD and thought I remembered it was good. Got it and its a timeless Bradbury Classic made into a all time classic movie. Jason Robards was excellent as were the other actors. Highly Recommend!!!! All around good for young or old!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Spooky
Comment: An erie movie from the 80's. Look close at Mr. Dark. Does he look familiar? I'll leave that one up to you to find out who he is, and what other movie he has been in. A great halloween spooker of a movie!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Very good
Comment: One of my daughter's fave from when she was younger. Great movie to add to your DVD collection.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Decent Adaptation of Ray Bradbury Novel; It Needs a Better Ending Though
Comment: "Something Wicked This Way Comes" starts brilliantly with the arrival of "Mr. Dark's carnival" in a small, quiet town. They are no ordinary carnival, however, because mysterious Mr. Dark (Jonathan Pryce) seems to know the desires hidden in the hearts of townspeople. In fact, he knows how to make them come true. You get what you want, but it comes with a price to pay.

The film captures the darkly poetic touch of Ray Bradbury's 1962 novel with believable descriptions of the lives of main characters - two boys Will Halloway and Jim Nightshade, Will's father Charles Halloway (Jason Robarts) - living in this peaceful town. Will and Jim are the first to notice something is not right, after witnessing the carousel going backward. The effects are decent (but not great, even by the standard of the 80s). The pace is good, the atmosphere is nice (Miss Foley's "nephew" is really creepy) and the acting is all fine, especially Jason Robarts and Jonathan Pryce. After all the director is Jack Clayton, who made a great psychological thriller "The Innocents."

However, after the library scene the film suddenly becomes confusing, as if someone had decided to hurry the story and skip the key chapters of the original book. The pace suddenly becomes rushed; some parts of the film remain unexplained; Charles Halloway forget his broken wrist; Will suddenly wakes up; Dust Witch (played by Pam Grier, too brief time), very interesting role in the book, suddenly disappear.

I know changes care inevitable, but some things should not be removed from the original. "Macbeth" is not "Macbeth" without three witches. In film version of "Something Wicked This Way Comes" almost everything about the Witch (including the riveting bullet catching scene of the book) is gone. As a result the undercurrent nature of the evil that was suggested in the book's final chapters (the Mirror Maze, etc.) becomes pointless. I'm afraid what happens in the film's concluding chapters only puzzles the viewers who haven't read the book. The film somehow manages to wrap up the story neatly with lots of special effects, but the logics and philosophy that are suggested in the film's earlier chapters are totally missing.

Ray Bradbury adapted his own book for the film and he is no stranger to the task of cutting and changing the source material. But I believe this was not what he and Jack Clayton really intended. The film is good, but is deeply flawed, telling us that here is a book that is waiting to be turned into film again.

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