La foire des ténèbres

This is a very eerie and dark film for one made by Disney. It contains all sort of dark and bright side of the human nature such as greed, envy, temptation, and at the same time it also embraces joy, hope, courage, and friendship. Although, the core of the movie is a fight between good and evil, it is not preaching at all. Yet it does have a conviction of fear.

It's like one of campfire folk tales that comes at you very slowly from your behind and some unexpected moment it grubs your neck. Something Wicked This Way Comes is a that kind of movie.

I don't consider this film as a horror film because it reminds of me something from my childhood memory and it is beyond horror. Do you remember the line your mom used to say when you were bad? "Be good or ..... will come and get you"

To me, Mr.Dark fits into the blank much better than any other monsters.

This is always touted as a movie for children but not much is mentioned of the way it is also aimed at adults. The narration is skillfully done by Arthur Hill. In the beginning he speaks of his "first look into the fearful needs of the human heart." Maybe it's just me, but that sounds fairly mature. And the theme of the movie, selling ones' soul to the devil is both scary and grown up. And the final theme, the one of love overcoming regret is very adult. Ray Bradbury (Fahrenheit 451 and Martian Chronicle fame) adapted his own story for the screen and did a wonderful job. This movie has a lot of mood and atmosphere too. This is a movie both children and adults can enjoy.

In Green Town, Illinois, the twelve year-old boys Will Halloway (Vidal Peterson) and Jim Nightshade (Shawn Carson) are neighbors and best friends. Will's father Charles Halloway (Jason Robards) is an old man and the local librarian while Jim and his mother wait for the return of their father and husband that will never occur. The boys know everyone in town, including their school teacher Miss Foley (Mary Grace Canfield) that misses her beauty and youth; the lonely barber Mr. Crosetti (Richard Davalos) that has no girlfriend or wife; the greedy owner of a cigar store Mr. Tetley (Jake Dengel) that is obsessed with money; and the bartender Ed (James Stacy) that has severed arm and leg and dreams on being a football hero. One day of Autumn, Jim buys a lightning rod from the salesman Tom Fury (Royal Dano) that tels that a storm is coming. During the night, the boys overhear a mysterious train and they run through the woods to see the arrival but they do not see a living soul. However, they find the Mr. Dark's Pandemonium Carnival ready to be enjoyed and they snoop around. Soon they realize that frustrated and greedy people are vanishing in town and the evil Mr. Dark (Jonathan Pryce) and the Dust Witch (Pam Grier) from the carnival make their dreams come true. In return, Mr. Dark seizes their souls. Now Mr. Dark is seeking the boys out but Charles Halloway has a journal from his father about the autumn carnival that might be their last chance to defeat the evil.

"Something Wicked This Way Comes" is an impressive movie with many layers with a story by Ray Bradbury. It is amazing how a story about greedy, vanity and shattered dreams can be seen and understood in different levels, depending on your age and life experience. The dialogs and lines are mature, but children will have a different understanding. Unfortunately this little gem is underrated and not well- known. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): Not available on VHS, DVD or Blu-Ray

Ray Bradbury and the makers of this film ventured into foreign territory for the Disney Studios, they went to explore the dark side of humanity and came back with the honest truth that much of humanity is plagued and there are shiny bright spots within. This film explores the petty desires of everyday people, their eagerness to give what is really important in life up for things like vanity, lust, money, etc... The story centers around two small boys, Will and Jim, and how their lives change and the townfolk around them when a carnival comes to town. The atmosphere is chilling to say the least. It is easily the darkest of any Disney film(even considering the outstanding The Hunchback of Notre Dame). It uses dark landscapes, eerie haunting music, and bleak characterizations to perfection. The acting is good all around with two standouts. Jason Robards plays Will's father, and is the epitome of flawed goodness. He suffers for his goodness but has strength of heart. Robards is wonderful, and I felt myself wishing this man had been my father(or my father more like him). For an actor to be able to create that appeal is a true feat of integrity of performance. On the other side, in a simply sinister portrayal of evil incarnate is the performance of Jonathan Pryce, an overlooked and underappreciated English actor. His performance is scary, and he chews up every and each scene he is in. The script by Bradbury himself, based on his novel, is full of rich texture and subtlety. As with just about every film adaptation, the film is not the book...but then if you wanted that you only have to sit down and read...one page at a time.

Ten years old I was when I first saw "Something Wicked This Way Comes"… It was a movie that I loved and got fascinated with from the very first moment and long afterwards. Today I re-watched it for the first time in more than twenty years and, although I still definitely loved it a lot, it also brought me to draw another additional conclusion: this film is far too disturbing for 10-year-olds! Okay it's a Disney production and the story qualifies as a fantasy, but there are a few petrifying characters as well as a handful of sequences that are downright nightmare-inducing, like the giant spider invasion in the bedroom or the climax on the merry-go-round. Scenes like these, as well as several others, apparently got unconsciously burned on my retina because I immediately experienced flashbacks to childhood nightmares when I saw them again. I've always been intrigued by the "darker" kids' movies (other favorites include "Dark Crystal", "Island at the Top of the World", "Return to Oz" and "Escape from Witch Mountain"), but "Something Wicked etc…" is inarguably the darkest of them all.

The story sprung from the versatile mind of the widely acclaimed and immensely popular author Ray Bradbury. He loved this story so much (or maybe didn't trust anyone else?) that he himself adapted his own novel into a movie script and, for the direction, opted for the reliable and highly professional Jack Clayton. The result became a, as mentioned already, pitch-black fantasy movie that is perhaps flawed and definitely comes across as dated in the year 2012, but it still ranks as the creepiest and less sentimental Disney movie ever released. The arrival of the ominous Dark's Pandemonium Carnival is an all but joyous event in a sleepy little town during autumn. The eerie Mr. Dark and his crew particularly target the nostalgic and phantasmagoric adults in town, who are all too willing to sacrifice whatever it takes make their dreams come true, whether it's richness, lust or eternal youth. The most rational person in town is actually a young boy, Will Halloway, and he has more than his hands full with helping his friend Jim and even his own father Charles to resist the carnival's Temple of Temptation. "Something Wicked This Way Comes" is a masterfully narrated story, with a terrific gloomy atmosphere and wonderfully imaginative decors & set pieces. The merry-go-round, the mirror palace, the exotic show … They're all very uncanny! My main complaint is actually that, after a rather slow-paced and patient introduction of the film, the middle-section and especially the finale, seem overly rushed and incomplete. I think I would have much rather seen "SWTWC" as a mini-series, perhaps in three or four episodes of one hour running time each, but further elaborating on all the hinted sub plots like Jim Nightshade's father, Tom Fury the lightening expert and the background of the townspeople. Stellar performances all around, most notably Jason Robards as the wise father and Jonathan Pryce as the wayward Mr. Dark, but also from the young actors and B-movie queen Pam Grier as the seductive but dangerous circus wench. I'm not sure if I'll let my own kids watch it when they're still too young and easily petrified, but it forever remains an all-time favorite childhood classic.