There comes a morning each year, pre-dawn, that it happens. I crawl out of bed and things feel slightly chilly. The furnace hasn’t been turned on yet, and ever sensitive to cold, I put on long sleeves and slippers to do my morning writing before the sun. I start getting a powerful hankering to watch my autumn movies. This year when that happened, in September, I finally watched Something Wicked this Way Comes. Now, Disney isn’t a studio known for its horror films. Over the years, however, they’ve produced some family-friendly efforts toward the scary end of the spectrum. I tried to make the case in Holy Horror (and a list on IMDb agrees with me) that Pirates of the Caribbean falls into that gentle horror category. I’ve read established writers on horror claim that The Watcher in the Woods was the movie that frightened them most. I don’t think Something Wicked falls into that category, but I can say I liked it better than the novel.
And that’s saying something, because it was written by Ray Bradbury. Bradbury’s stories were an integral part of my childhood. In fact, much of my fiction writing is modeled on his work. I didn’t really care for the novel Something Wicked this Way Comes, which I read last year. The film is an improvement. And it had a tortured way to the silver screen. It began as a short story. Bradbury himself adapted it into a screenplay anticipating a role for Gene Kelley. This was in 1958. When that didn’t pan out, he wrote it as a novel. Filmmakers began to show an interest in the early seventies, but the movie didn’t come out until 1983, after Disney bought the rights and took over production. The screenplay is mostly Bradbury and the soundtrack rips off Star Wars more than once.
Bradbury could get a little too nostalgic about boyhood. His yesteryears seem far too innocent to me. Although, having a few scenes where Jim shows curiosity about sex was a bit racy for Disney, I should think. Jonathan Pryce does a fine job as Dark, and the mood isn’t bad for family-friendly fare. I was never much of one for carnivals. I can’t do rides and it’s easy to see through the games you can’t win and even if you do your prize is cheap. Other entertainments always appealed to me more. Still, the film sets a mood, and that’s generally what I’m after when the mornings begin to feel chilly and I’m looking off into another winter.
