ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Book vs Movie: Something Wicked This Way Comes

Updated on November 11, 2014

A Shadow World Apart

By the pricking of my thumbs

Something wicked this way comes.

- MacBeth: Act IV, Scene 1 Shakespeare

Ray Bradbury knew how to pick a title. And set the stage for a frightful ride. Something very wicked is coming to town.

Something Wicked This Way Comes was first published in 1962. The movie adaptation was released in 1983. How good the adaptation? Ah, there's the rub.

Image licensed from Dreamstime.com

From Pixabay.com
From Pixabay.com

The Story

It is late autumn, just shy of Halloween, in a small mid-western town in Illinois. Best friends (and neighbors) Jim Nightshade and Will Halloway learn that a carnival is coming to town. Intrigued (because carnivals are seldom seen after Labor Day in that part of the country), the boys track the mysterious doings of Cooger and Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show with its promise of beautiful women, bizarre acts, and awe-inspiring rides.

At the vanguard of a storm, the carnival arrives. Just before 3 A.M., riding high on a flat-bed car of an ancient black train, a giant calliope sings an odd assortment of notes of its own accord (for no one is at the keyboard). With its cargo of acts and exhibits, the train pauses in a field outside of town. In spine-tingling silence, workers disgorge from its bowels to erect tents from black clouds and set up the rides and exhibits of the strange carnival. In hiding, Jim and Will are there to witness the eerie assemblage.

And it is only the beginning of the nightmare.

All that is good in the book

Have you ever read a passage that sent chills down your spine? Have you found yourself glancing over your shoulder at an imagined sound or pulling the blankets to cover more of your body while immersed in the pages of a novel you cannot put down? Well, that is what the tumbling prose of Ray Bradbury can do. That is what you will find in the leaves of Something Wicked This Way Comes.

This is no ghost story, however. Some of the darkest themes plaguing mankind are touched upon with chilling accuracy: How much of your soul is for sale? Do shadow thoughts invite shadowy deeds or gloomy repercussions?

Something Wicked This Way Comes
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Most good authors can describe a scene with accuracy. What Bradbury does as well is to conjure the feeling, the ambiance, the atmosphere of the scene. The reader is chilled by the wind, made claustrophobic by the hiding places, overwhelmed by the evil that is menacing the narrator. You don't so much as read Something Wicked This Way Comes as experience it. This is one terrific (and scary) book.
 

All that is good in the movie

I admit that it has been years since I watched Something Wicked This Way Comes, the 1983 Disney adaptation of Ray Bradbury's novel. However, I can sum up all that is good in this movie in two words: Jonathan Pryce.

As Mr. Dark, Pryce is magnificent. The scene where he offers Will Halloway's father (played rather woodenly by Jason Robards) a chance to fulfill his dream of being young enough to enjoy his son, is mesmerizing and chilling. That scene alone makes the movie worth seeing (or do I mean "worth the Pryce"?)!

Something Wicked This Way Comes
Something Wicked This Way Comes
The general atmosphere for the movie is far lighter than the book. Perhaps that was a deliberate choice on Disney's part to appeal to its younger audiences. Whatever their intent, I felt the theater-goer got Wicked lite instead of the full impact of this dark tale. Instead of dealing with the gut-wrenching issue of soul, a "Monkey's Paw" twist was added whenever a character made the choice to go to the dark side: a woman is made beautiful again, as is her wish, but is shortly thereafter struck blind so that she cannot enjoy her beauty; a double-amputee gets his limbs restored, but can do so only by becoming a boy again. The torment and subsequent insanity that is so graphically conveyed in the book is Disney-fied into pity. Even Mr. Dark has lost his "illustrations:" the twisted and tortured tattoos that cover his body in the book. Charles Halloway, Will's father, is described in the book as having a voice the same color as his hair (gray/white). Except for the library scene, Robards' Charles Halloway is dirt brown instead of the rightful hero of the tale. But, despite the repetition, see it because of Pryce.
 

A Visit to the Dark Side

The first video is the movie trailer announcing Something Wicked This Way Comes. The second, however... Ah, the second video is the full library scene that so fascinated me those many years ago and introduced me to the great Jonathan Pryce as Mr. Dark.

What do YOU think?

From Pixabay.com
From Pixabay.com

What do YOU think?

See results
working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)