Something wicked has come to streaming after years spent lost in the content wilderness.
Disney has finally made available the 1983 fantasy-horror film Something Wicked This Way Comes, adding the long-forgotten movie to their Disney+ lineup on October 3, 2025. The 42-year-old horror film based on a Ray Bradbury novel arrives on the streaming service just in time for Halloween.
Disney does not have a very deep bench when it comes to horror offerings, which is not surprising given their family-friendly focus. Something Wicked This Way Comes represented a rare foray into darker territory for the studio, but they changed their minds about this new direction after the film flopped.
Reportedly costing $20 million to produce, Something Wicked only grossed $8.4 million. This was doubly disappointing for Disney after the trouble they went through just to get the movie made.
The horror-fantasy flop was penned by Bradbury himself, with veteran director Jack Clayton at the helm, but trouble started when Clayton was ordered by Disney to do rewrites. Clayton tasked John Mortimer with executing the rewrite of Bradbury’s script, which did not set well with the celebrated author, who had been trying to develop the movie since the 1950s.
Bradbury’s planned adaptation was at one point set to star Gene Kelly, and later hit Steven Spielberg’s radar screen, before landing at Disney.
The film ran into more trouble when test screenings went over poorly, prompting the studio to undertake reshoots, with Clayton no longer at the helm. This effort only resulted in more failed test screenings, causing Disney to bring back Bradbury to rewrite the ending.
The release version of Something Wicked This Way Comes was not altogether a critical flop, with Roger Ebert giving it 3-and-a-half stars, calling it “a horror movie with elegance.” Rotten Tomatoes tallies a 61% fresh rating in its aggregation of the film’s 33 reviews.
Negative reviews point out the movie’s inconsistent tone, a result of Disney trying to tamp down its darkness for the sake of family audiences. It’s also slammed for some very obvious signs of being resH๏τ, including child actors who are mysteriously older in certain scenes.
Something Wicked This Way Comes did go to cable television after its failed theatrical run, and was later given a pair of DVD releases, before coming out on Blu-ray in 2021 via the now-defunct Disney Movie Club.
That Blu-ray is now out-of-print, but Disney has remedied the film’s unavailability in HD by finally putting it up on Disney+, giving their failed 1983 experiment in horror-fantasy a chance to find some new admirers. Those who enjoy old-school special effects, and/or the works of Bradbury, could find plenty to enjoy in Something Wicked This Way Comes.
At least until Disney disappears it again.
