One of Disney‘s cult classics has finally made its streaming debut, but I was quite disappointed after finally seeing the long-lost movie. It’s hard to imagine one of the biggest movie studios on the planet ever having cult classics, but Disney struggled throughout the ’80s to capture the old magic of decades prior.
Even their once-vaunted animated films had fallen out of favor, and they were being usurped by other studios that better captured the mood of the ’80s. However, the decade was also a time of great experimentation at Disney, and they produced a ton of oddball films that stuck out from their earlier projects.
One such coming-of-age horror film was a complete bomb, but it captured the minds of the few who actually saw it. Something Wicked This Way Comes adapted the legendary novel by Ray Bradbury, and featured much darker themes than Disney had ever explored before in their live-action movies. Unfortunately, its abject failure caused the movie to be buried for decades.
After limited home video releases, Something Wicked This Way Comes has finally been made available on Disney+. I was excited to see the film after years of hype, but my experience was mixed at best. The cult classic was high on my wish list, but Something Wicked This Way Comes didn’t live up to the hype.
I Always Thought Disney’s Something Wicked This Way Comes Would Be Better
After years of hype, Something Wicked This Way Comes was just okay, which was quite a letdown. Knowing the original novel, I always had an image of the film as a dark fantasy adventure, with plenty of Disney charm as well. However, it ended up being a somewhat muddled mess that struggled with pacing and point of view.
There’s no denying that Something Wicked This Way Comes is an effective coming-of-age story, and that’s honestly the movie’s greatest strength. It captures the wonder of childhood, but also deals with complex ideas like guilt and the fear of growing old and dying. There are lessons in the story for youngsters and adults alike.
On the other hand, that very same strength also causes problems for the film because it can’t decide who the focus of the story truly is. Something Wicked This Way Comes follows Will for a significant chunk, but also gives way too much time to characters like Jim and Will’s father, to the point that the narrative becomes strained.
The effects and tone are perfect, but without a strong foundation, the story isn’t able to stand. It lags in the middle as the characters lose motivation, and they jump from scene to scene with very little clear escalation of the conflict. For a film that overtly states what the supporting characters want, the main characters are shockingly rudderless.
The climax is exciting and fantastical, but without much build up, it feels hollow. It’s never really clear why Mr. Dark wants to possess the boys so much, and the symbolism of the character is forced to the front instead of his more overt motivations. Overall, the film suffers from a lack of subtext as every subtle detail is overexposed.
Something Wicked This Way Comes Feels Incomplete
The ’80s was a darker period for Disney, and their movies were a bit too different for audiences to stomach. There were plenty of unusual children’s films in the decade, but nobody wanted that from Disney. The studio sensed that Something Wicked This Way Comes would bomb, so they tinkered with the film.
Something Wicked This Way Comes only grossed $8 million against a $20 million budget (via Box Office Mojo).
I think that this tinkering is what ultimately sank the movie, and Something Wicked This Way Comes feels like an incomplete project. The copious reshoots cause glaring continuity issues, such as Will and Jim being visibly older in a few scenes, and there are sequences that clearly look out of place.
By trying to “salvage” the film, the studio ended up making it worse, cutting away the meat of the story in favor of what they saw as narrative clarity. This piecemeal approach is why the film doesn’t feel narratively coherent, and why the natural rising action of the film’s story is totally lacking.
Also, it was clear that the editor tried to cut around certain scary moments, which wasn’t done with much finesse. Something Wicked This Way Comes was not allowed to be its fully confident self, so it tumbled into bland territory. All the work that went into the movie was tossed aside in a way that didn’t serve the final product.
The Disney Cult Classic Is Still Worth Watching
Though I find Something Wicked This Way Comes to be disappointing, it’s only because it should have been much better. The Disney cult classic is worth watching, and it’s not bad for a charming ’80s gem with a nice mixture of spookiness and coming-of-age drama. Now that it’s streaming, audiences can discover the film and form their own opinions.
Underneath all the mistakes is a strong story, and the filmmakers deserve credit for even attempting such an ambitious project. Disney will probably never again be as daring and forward-thinking as they were in the 1980s, so Something Wicked This Way Comes is an important moment in time. It isn’t perfect, but it was clearly a labor of love.
