Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983)
Average Rating: 6.2/10
Reviews Counted: 24
Fresh: 14 | Rotten: 10
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 4
Fresh: 3 | Rotten: 1
liked it
Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 8,923
Movie Info
After a carnival comes to Green Town, the good citizens are compelled to follow their deepest desires, caught under the spell of the malevolent Dr. Dark (Jonathan Pryce) who can grant those desires on one condition: that the grantees will forever join his freak show. Dr. Dark is after two young boys from the town in particular, while others in the town would certainly be easy marks. The sour-faced, older schoolteacher (Mary Grace Canfield) wants to be a seductive young woman, Ed the bartender
Apr 29, 1983 Limited
Sep 21, 1999
Cast
-
Jason Robards
Charles Halloway -
Jonathan Pryce
Mr. Dark -
Diane Ladd
Mrs. Nightshade -
Pam Grier
Dust Witch -
Royal Dano
Tom Fury -
Vidal Peterson
Will Halloway -
Shawn Carson
Jim Nightshade -
Mary Grace Canfield
Miss Foley -
Dick Davalos
Mr. Crosetti -
Jill Carroll
Teenage Girl -
Jake Dengel
Mr. Tetley -
Jack Dodson
Dr. Douglas -
Bruce M. Fischer
Mr. Cooger -
Ellen Geer
Mrs. Halloway -
Arthur Hill
Narrator -
Sharan Lea
Young Miss Foley -
Peter Risch
Little Person No. 2 -
Angelo Rossitto
Little Person No. 1 -
James Stacy
Ed the Bartender -
Tony Christopher
Young Ed
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All Critics (25) | Top Critics (5) | Fresh (14) | Rotten (10) | DVD (8)
Possibilities for a dark, child's view fantasy set in rural America of yore are visible throughout the $20 million production but various elements have not entirely congealed into a unified achievement.
The plot concerns a mysterious carnival outside a small town in the early 1900s that grants the wishes of the town's citizens, with dark consequences.
Ultimately, though, it's an uneasy blend of horror and whimsy, with the allegory being hammered a little too hard for comfort. It's also marred by some dreadfully tacky special effects and set designs.
Top CriticA lively, entertaining tale combining boyishness and grown-up horror in equal measure.
Along with The Watcher in the Woods, it may be Disney's only honest-to-God effort to tell us a horror story.
The property was snapped up by Disney, which promptly sucked the life out of it, turning it into a scrubbed and innocuous coming-of-age tale. Too bad.
WICKED needs to be viewed as a different kind of film
Try as I might to get into this movie, based on the classic Ray Bradbury tale, I've found myself blocked by its off-putting ways.
Bradbury's tale connects fear and dread to concupiscent desire and disordered regret — fantasies of wealth or women, preoccupation with lost beauty or physical ability.
A film that does not seem to know whether it wants to be genuinely frightening or a fantasy fable.
Two or three chilling scenes make up for the periodic patches of dead air.
Moments of genuine creepiness
Elicits a brand of fright that can only be experienced in childhood nightmares. It's the ultimate adult rendition of a child's worst fears.
A scary movie that keeps things within relatively safe bounds for the eight to ten-year-old set.
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Movie: ID: 12545 Title: Something Wicked This Way Comes Release Date: 1983-04-29 00:00:00.0 MPAA: 2 Status: 1
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