Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983) ****
I'd been meaning to review this one for a few years now, as it's always been on my shortlist of "best PG horror movies" (along with the original Poltergeist and The Lady in White). I have a vivid memory of Octo yelling "OH NO!! WAHHH" while the two of us were watching this sometime in the late 80s. The particular scene had to do with a bunch of spiders crawling up out of the sheets while the kid character huddles in the corner of his bed, freaking out.
Now, having come back to this one 20 years later, I found it to be a little less terrifying that I remembered, but overall it has an atmosphere that matches what I remember appreciating so much. I think it would be stretching it a bit to call this a possible contender for the "A Christmas Story" of Halloween. It has that same nostalgia soaked vibe, though with perhaps less irony--but then, Halloween doesn't need irony the way that Christmas does. Lady in White might be another contender for that category--and JPX has already nominated the also excellent but R-rated Trick-r-Treat as his "go-to" Halloween flick.
Anyway, part of the cool nostalgia soaked atmosphere comes from the very stylized setting--the story is of a demonic carnival coming to a quaint little Ohio Valley town. The cinematography captures that sense of artificial perfection that you get when walking down Main Street in Disney World, which it of course borrows from the early masters of horror movies, the German expressionists.
Also part of the atmosphere is the mad fun chaos that accompanies any carnival--from the soul sucking carousel to the wish destroying hall of mirrors to the scary spider witch lady, the whole place is ripe for boys' fantasies and nightmares to come true.
The one flaw here is that some of the allegories do get a bit ham-fisted, and the boys' relationship fades to the background over the 2nd part of the film in favor of a morality tale. But there's still a cool central showdown between two class actors, Jason Robards and Jonathan Pryce. Pryce in particular is very cool as the demonic grandmaster of the carnival.
5 comments:
Wow, I haven't seen this film in so long. Great pick, I always loved this movie. Maybe next year I need to do a theme of favorite films from my youth.
I had this book for years and never read it. When I first saw this review I was thinking I'd never seen the movie, but apparently I did and screamed like a girl during the spider part. Did we watch it when you guys were still living in Virginia? What was with us and all the scary flicks? It made our youngest brother cover himself with blankets with only one eye showing so he could still watch.
Oh wait, was that why we did it? Heh heh. Nice review. Way to invoke the nostalgia.
Something Wicked This Way Comes is part of my “poster series”. There are still several horror movies from the 80s that I have never seen yet their movie posters are burned in my psyche. Each year I whittle down the list more and more but I still haven’t seen this one. Excellent review!
Wow, this review almost slipped by me!
I was really harsh on this movie and now I feel kinda bad.
I can't honestly remember if I've seen this movie in it's entirety. I may have to revisit as well. Plus - Jason Robards! I love him.
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