Something Wicked This Way Comes ***½ (1983, Jason Robards, Jonathan Pryce, Diane Ladd, Pam Grier, Royal Dano, Richard Davalos) – Classic Movie Review 4588

Vidal Peterson and Shawn Carson play 12-year-old boys Will Halloway and Jim Nightshade who search for the secret of a creepy carnival that visits their Illinois small town, in director Jack Clayton’s smoothly scary 1983 fairy tale fantasy mystery thriller, based on the novel by Ray Bradbury, who writes his own screenplay.

Bradbury’s ‘classic tale of shadowy dreams’ becomes an extremely well made film in the hands of the meticulous Clayton. And it gets top-class performances from Jonathan Pryce as the creepy carnival owner Mr Dark, Jason Robards Jr as Charles Halloway, Diane Ladd as Mrs Nightshade, Pam Grier as Dust Witch, Richard Davalos as lonely barber Mr. Crosetti and Royal Dano as salesman Tom Fury. The costly production provides fine sets in the production designs by Richard MacDonald and strong special effects in a lovingly crafted production, beautifully shot by cinematographer Stephen H Burum.

The special photographic effects are by Peter Anderson and the mechanical special effects are by Allen Hall.

It is produced by Peter Vincent Douglas (son of Kirk Douglas and Anne Douglas) for executive producer Kirk Douglas’s company Bryna and distributed by Walt Disney, and scored by James Horner.

Also in the cast are James Stacy as Ed the Bartender, Angelo Rossitto, Peter D Risch, Tim T Clark, Jill Carroll, Tony Christopher, Mary Grace Canfield, Richard [Dick] Davalos, Jake Dengel, Jack Dodson, Bruce M Fischer, Ellen Geer, Brendan Klinger, Sharan Lea, Scott De Roy and Sharon Asche.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4588

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com