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Something Wicked This Way Comes

Catalog Number
166
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Primary Distributor (If not listed, select "OTHER")
Release Year
Country
VHS | SP | Slipcase
93 mins (NTSC)
N/A | N/A | N/A
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Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983)

Additional Information

Additional Information
Trailer (end):
Disney Halloween Video Promo

In Greentown, Illinois, a small town enjoying the innocence of an upcoming autumn as the days grow shorter, two young boys—reserved Will Halloway and somewhat rebellious Jim Nightshade—leave from an after-school detention for "whispering in class" and hurry off for home. When the boys hear about a strange traveling carnival, Mr. Dark's Pandemonium Carnival, from a lightning-rod salesman, they decide to see what it is all about, but Will is fearful, as most carnivals end their tours after Labor Day. When the ominous Mr. Dark, the Illustrated Man, rides into town on a dark midnight, setting up his massive carnival in a matter of seconds, the boys are both thrilled and terrified. It seems to be just another carnival at first, but it is not long before the forces of darkness begin to manifest from the haunting melodies of the carousel—which can change your age depending on which way you ride it—and from the glaring Mirror Maze. With his collection of freaks and oddities, such as the Fat Man, Mr. Electro, and the blind Dust Witch, Dark intends to take control of the town and seize more innocent souls to damn. It will take all the wit and hope of the two boys to save their families and friends, with aid from an unlikely ally, Will's father, the town librarian, who understands more than anyone else that "something wicked this way comes".

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times gave the film three-and-a-half stars and said

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.[5]

Janet Maslin said the film "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... turns into a lively, entertaining tale combining boyishness and grown-up horror in equal measure"; according to Maslin, "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."[6]

The film currently holds a 60% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 25 reviews.

Related Releases3

Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983)
Release Year
Catalog Number
166VS
Primary Distributor (If not listed, select "OTHER")
Catalog Number
166VS
Format
Packaging
94 mins (NTSC)
Country
Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983)
Release Year
Catalog Number
166VF
Primary Distributor (If not listed, select "OTHER")
Catalog Number
166VF
Format
Packaging
94 mins (NTSC)
Country
Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983)
Release Year
Catalog Number
SV11211
Primary Distributor (If not listed, select "OTHER")
Catalog Number
SV11211
Format
Packaging
94 mins (NTSC)
Country

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