One of the few cinematic adaptations of Ray Bradbury’s work, Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983) is an anomaly in more ways than one. It’s a Disney movie that was too scary for the family audiences it was marketed to. It’s genuinely tense and terrifying.
It had a fraught production – director Jack Clayton and Ray Bradbury clashed and the studio re-edited it without Clayton’s input – but somehow it still works.
Jonathan Pryce as Mr. Dark brings such a menacing and, I have to say, sexy presence to this role that works so well for this material.
Jason Robards is amazing here. Pam Grier is disappointingly underused.
The two young child actors -- Vidal Peterson and Shawn Carson are great and don’t fall into the trap of being too precious that a lot of child actors do (I don’t think either did much after this).
The effects for the time are surprisingly good and the sequence with the tarantulas will haunt me.
This was mostly considered lost for years but it’s a recent addition to Disney+. It’s time for it to be rediscovered so it can frighten a new generation of children (or those of us who missed it the first time around).c
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