Iremember reading an article on this movie in the NME in the 80s. It told how some execs at Disney did not like the movie because it went against what the studio stood for. good family entertainment. I have heard that they didn't like Watcher In The Woods either for the same reasons.Soon after they formed Touchstone Pictures and made Splash which must have been in script development at the time and thats family entertainment?. This movie really deserves a reissue as it remains one of the best live action pieces that Disney have ever done. Jonathan Pryce was perfectly cast as Mr Dark and the two child actors are refreshingly mature for a Disney movie. it seems funny that a movie that is this scary should have been made by Disney and as the house of mouse never throws anything away there must be enough for a real good DVD release of it. i notice on the comment boards that there is demand for a remake. good idea but it would have to be Jonathan Pryce as Mr dark once again and Cauron or del Toro as directors as they are the only ones with a vision dark enough for it.

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.

The '80s saw Disney dabbling in darker-than-usual fare, with The Watcher in the Woods (1980), Return to Oz in 1985, and this '83 adaptation of Ray Bradbury's 1962 novel Something Wicked This Way Comes, all three movies guaranteed to give unwary little ones nightmares.

Set in Green Town, Illinois, in October, early to mid-20th century, the film focusses on two young friends, Will Halloway (Vidal Peterson) and Jim Nightshade (Shawn Carson), who witness strange occurrences at the mysterious travelling carnival that comes to town. The carnival's insidious proprietor is Mr. Dark (Jonathan Pryce), who seduces visitors to the attraction, promising them their heart's desire, but always with unexpected results. Jason Robards plays Will's father Charles Halloway, the town librarian, who must protect his son and his pal from the wicked showman, overcoming regrets of the past and his fear of death in the process.

The movie's autumnal small town setting and macabre carnival provides plenty of atmosphere, perfect for Halloween viewing, while the freaky sideshow folk who parade through town add a distinct level of unease, all of which is likely to unsettle younger viewers; add in several scenes of outright horror (Will seeing himself decapitated, an attack by hundreds of tarantulas, and the decaying of Mr. Dark on a magical carousel) and bad dreams are almost a certainty. Kids of a less nervous disposition, however, will surely love the magical quality of the movie, and the film is a perfect introduction to the horror genre, a gateway into the wonderful world of dark and demented cinema.

The movie is particularly likely to appeal to fans of Stephen KIng, whose work often employs motifs found in Bradbury's novel; in particular, the film reminded me a lot of IT, both being coming-of-age horrors in which the young protagonists must confront their fears to defeat a supernatural force (King is a big admirer of Bradbury and even wrote a rejected script treatment for this very film).

7.5/10, rounded up to 8 for stunning blaxploitation star Pam Grier as the sultry Dust Witch, who pets a tarantula (you couldn't pay me enough...), and for my favourite little person in movies, Angelo Rossitto.