Just in time for Halloween, Disney Plus has released the 1983 dark fantasy horror film, Something Wicked This Way Comes, as part of the streamer’s October update. For those who haven’t seen the movie in decades or are experiencing it for the first time, its arrival for spooky season makes it the perfect time to watch.
The film, which is based on the 1962 Ray Bradbury novel of the same name, has never been available on streaming before and is out of print on physical media. After debuting on Disney Plus, the chiller quickly began climbing up the streaming chart, reaching the #10 spot in just days.
What is Something Wicked This Way Comes about?
Best friends and next door neighbors Will Halloway and Jim Nightshade, who were born one minute apart on Halloween, are warned by a traveling lightning rod salesman named Tom Fury that a storm is coming into town. As such, he sells Jim a lightning rod to protect his home, where he lives with his single mother.
Coinciding with the approaching storm is the arrival of Dark’s Pandemonium Carnival, which comes rolling into the small town of Green Town, IL. Though the boys are initially intrigued, they soon learn that a malevolent force has arrived with it.
The carnival is led by the mysterious Mr. Dark, played by Jonathan Pryce of Game of Thrones fame, and more recently, The Thursday Murder Club. When Dark catches the boys snooping around a closed-off carousel that can turn people younger or older, depending on which direction it goes, he becomes suspicious of the pair.
As the boys attempt to learn the secrets of the carnival, Dark begins to cast a spell on some of the adult townspeople, who become entranced by the attractions. Local bartender Ed, an amputee, sees his missing arm and leg return in a hall of mirrors, while the boys’ teacher Miss Foley suddenly becomes a young, beautiful woman.
Will and Jim inadvisedly return to the carousel where they witness Dark and his assistant Dust Witch torturing Fury, and flee when they’re found out. Dark then begins tormenting the boys with hallucinations—including one arachnophobic scene in which they are attacked by dozens of tarantulas—before leading a town-wide search for them.
As Dark searches for the boys, he begins threatening Will’s father Charles Halloway (Jason Robards; Philadelphia, Magnolia), the town librarian. It’s then up to Charles to help the Will and Jim escape Dark’s clutches, save the town, and shut the carnival down for good.
Did people like Something Wicked This Way Comes?
Something Wicked This Way Comes came out during a period in the mid-80s when Walt Disney Pictures was releasing some pretty dark films. Two years later in 1985, Disney released the creepy Wizard of Oz sequel Return to Oz, as well as the animated dark fantasy film, The Black Cauldron.
Despite the film centering on two young boys, Something Wicked This Way Comes was decidedly not a family film, featuring some pretty terrifying imagery. In addition to the tarantula scene, there’s also a brief but disturbing shot of a child’s decapitated head, as well as an electrocuted corpse.
The film was also technically a financial flop, grossing just $8.4 million at the domestic box office on a $20 million budget. Though, through home video and cable television airings it eventually gained a following, cementing itself as a cult classic.
Something Wicked This Way Comes also has mixed reviews, with a 61 percent critics score and 64 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.
When the film was released, Roger Ebert gave it a generally positive review, rating it three-and-a-half out of four stars in the Chicago Sun Times. At the time, Ebert praised it as being “one of the few literary adaptations I’ve seen in which the film not only captures the mood and tone of the novel, but also the novel’s style.”
Still can’t decide whether to watch Something Wicked This Way Comes? You can watch the trailer here.
