Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983)

Ray Bradbury calls the 1983 adaptation of his novel Something Wicked This Way Comes the best adaptation of any of his work. He wrote the screenplay (although there was a rewrite that he protested), but the film did not do well at the box office. I found it, however, to be an elegant, dream-like bit of horror, and in some ways better than the novel, in that it streamlined the story.

Once again the setting is small town American, although this time we know it is Greentown, Illinois, and appears to be during the 1930s. Two boys, Will and Jim, are excited to learn that a carnival is coming, which is strange considering it's October. Will's dad (Jason Robards), who works at the library, is an older father, and regrets that he can not be as active with his son as he might. Jim's father is absent, but his son imagines him having great sea adventures.

The carnival is run by Mr. Dark (Jonathan Pryce). In the film, it's much more clear what the carnival does--they offer its visitors their deepest desires, but at a price. So a former football star who has lost two limbs regains them, but is reverted to childhood. A once-pretty schoolteacher is given youth and beauty, but becomes blind. And the carousel enables someone, by either riding forward or backward, an adjustment in age.

The film, directed by Jack Clayton, strikes just the proper mood. There are hallucinations of tarantulas, and billowing storm clouds, and of course grotesque carnival freaks. A lot of the plot is excised from the book (the film runs a neat 94 minutes), but manages to capture what it's all about.

Something Wicked This Way Comes is horror for those who might not like horror, but appreciate a literary quality in their cinema.