Review of Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983) by Tom D — 08 Sep 2007

Genuinely eerie. I recommend it purely on the strength of Jonathan Pryce's role. He is excellent as Mr Dark the carnival owner and, with Jason Robards, really carries the film.

I first saw it when I was about seven and it scared me witless, and with good reason. It's the sense of the uncanny, and the innate weirdness of carnivals that make this film as good as it is. That and the writing of Ray Bradbury, a master of the weird and wonderful.

There is a particularly good scene towards the end of the film where Dark rips pages out of the boy's grandfather's diary, counting away the wasted years of his father's life. Pryce is so menacing and Robards is so helpless that it's quite an affecting scene..

The story is excellent but it's execution (in terms of direction and camera-work) leaves a little to be desired. I understand there was a significant amount of post-production studio meddling. It gets far too graphic in places though. The violence seems really out of place, as it's the threat of the Carnival that's the really unnerving thing. There are a little too many dodgy effects too.

Then again there are some really effective moments. It's downfall is that it swings to easily from the truly moving to the truly cheesy. It isn't consistent enough to be really great.

But as I said, the story is absolutely fantastic and Pryce as Dark is really evil. For those things alone I recommend you give this film a go.