Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983) on Netflix
PG19831h 35mFantasyMysteryThriller
A carnival appears overnight in Green Town, Illinois, led by Mr. Dark. Twelve-year-old neighbors Will Halloway and Jim Nightshade explore it after a salesman warns Jim a storm is coming.
- Netflix3.4/5
- IMDb6.7/1013,134 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes61%
Trailer
Plot summary
Green Town, Illinois, is home to Will Halloway and Jim Nightshade, twelve-year-old neighbors and best friends born a minute apart on Halloween. Will's father, Charles, is the town librarian, and Jim lives with his mother. One afternoon the salesman Tom Fury sells Jim a lightning rod and tells him a storm is approaching. That night, a carnival appears in town, Mr. Dark's Pandemonium Carnival, assembled overnight. Townspeople are drawn to its attractions: a bartender who lost an arm and a leg sees them restored, and Miss Foley, the boys' teacher, wants her youth back. Will and Jim slip inside to look around and come upon a carousel that is closed off. Mr. Dark confronts them.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Bradbury said in a 1981 issue of Cinefantastique that his top choices for Mr. Dark were Peter O'Toole and Christopher Lee, but to keep the budget down Disney cast the then relatively unknown Jonathan Pryce.
- Clayton picked Georges Delerue, who had scored his films The Pumpkin Eater and Our Mother's House, but Delerue's score was removed and replaced on short notice with one by James Horner after concerns about its "aggressively sinister" nature.
- A cut sequence would have been one of the first uses of computer-generated imagery blended with traditional animation in a Hollywood film.
- Shawn Carson later recalled the considerable discomfort he and Vidal Petersen experienced from the irritating urticating hairs of the 200 tarantulas used in the sequence.
- Disney spent $4 million on re-filming, re-editing and re-scoring, delaying the planned Christmas 1982 date by five months; Gordon had to rework Clayton and Nelson's original cut around new material directed by visual effects artist Lee Dyer.
- After a late casting swap, Carson's blond hair was dyed jet black while co-star Vidal Petersen's dark hair was bleached blond to fit the new casting.
