"Popular 'amusements' have a flip side that is often less than sunny, and the very world 'recreation' has some usually overlooked connotations. Any process of re-creation or rebirth necessarily entails a death of one sort or another. This may explain the prevalence of sugar-coated intimations of mortality in carnivals and fun parks - spook shows, wild rides involving heart-stopping plunges and near-collisions, and the omnipresent, endlessly cycling wheels and whirligigs of chance, fate, and destiny. Freak shows similarly offer a glimpse of ourselves, re-created along strange physical and behavioral lines. Nothing is fixed, and everything is possible." (David J. Skal,
The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror, p. 30)
Something Wicked This Way Comes (two stars total) I once ran into Ray Bradbury at San Diego's Comic Con and no one else around us seemed to recognize him. That's probably my only random celebrity encounter (I say "probably" because - again - no one else recognized him as a celebrity). I've sat close to many movie and TV stars on panels and such, but never on a plane or at the store. Back when Comic Con used to put artists doing autographs in the far corner of the exhibit hall, I was standing in line for David Finch to sign some
Moon Knight comics (there are some more "big" names you'd have to be a nerd to know) when I noticed Bradbury was parked against the wall right next to me. I asked him if he was also waiting and he replied: "No, I was just looking for a quiet place to sit." If I'd seen
Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983) at that time, I would've asked him how he felt about the casting of the bad guy, Mr. Dark. I've read that Bradbury wanted Peter O'Toole or Christopher Lee for the role, but I feel that
Jonathan Pryce is scarier than either of those bigger-name actors. I can't be the only one who feels that way because he's been cast as other bad guys since then (
Stigmata; Pirates of the Caribbean), even as the Bond villain on
Tomorrow Never Dies (1997). Pryce wasn't the bad guy on
Brazil (1985; the first movie I ever saw him in), but that movie disturbed me so much that anything remniscient of it scares me.
Something Wicked This Way Comes is pretty scary for a Disney movie. It wouldn't fit on my "Unintentional Horror Movies" list (see my 10/30/09
post) because it's definitely trying to be scary. It shows a severed head and nightmare spiders, plus the usual thunder and lightning. I like movies where kids are quicker at figuring something out than their parents. It adds a layer of horrific betrayal to what's usually an impossible predicament from the start. There's extra pathos to the predicament in this movie because the narrator/protagonist's father (the old guy from
Dream a Little Dream) has a weak heart and already feels guilty over not being able to protect his son (the kid from
The Monster Squad) years earlier.
I'm a sucker for father-son movies, and I just realized that the ones I've most enjoyed recently have all been thrillers of one kind or another:
How to Train Your Dragon (2010),
The Road (2009),
Gran Torino (2008; "surrogate" father in this case),
3:10 to Yuma (2007; better than the 1957 original BECAUSE of the added emphasis on the father-son relationship), and last but not least,
Rocky Balboa (2006). What do thrillers have to do with fathers and sons? I don't know, maybe nothing. Or maybe guys just like a little danger in movies that are supposed to be about them.
Something Wicked This Way Comes (two stars total) I once ran into Ray Bradbury at San Diego's Comic Con and no one else around us seemed to recognize him. That's probably my only random celebrity encounter (I say "probably" because - again - no one else recognized him as a celebrity). I've sat close to many movie and TV stars on panels and such, but never on a plane or at the store. Back when Comic Con used to put artists doing autographs in the far corner of the exhibit hall, I was standing in line for David Finch to sign some Moon Knight comics (there are some more "big" names you'd have to be a nerd to know) when I noticed Bradbury was parked against the wall right next to me. I asked him if he was also waiting and he replied: "No, I was just looking for a quiet place to sit." If I'd seen Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983) at that time, I would've asked him how he felt about the casting of the bad guy, Mr. Dark. I've read that Bradbury wanted Peter O'Toole or Christopher Lee for the role, but I feel that Jonathan Pryce is scarier than either of those bigger-name actors. I can't be the only one who feels that way because he's been cast as other bad guys since then (Stigmata; Pirates of the Caribbean), even as the Bond villain on Tomorrow Never Dies (1997). Pryce wasn't the bad guy on Brazil (1985; the first movie I ever saw him in), but that movie disturbed me so much that anything remniscient of it scares me.
Something Wicked This Way Comes is pretty scary for a Disney movie. It wouldn't fit on my "Unintentional Horror Movies" list (see my 10/30/09 post) because it's definitely trying to be scary. It shows a severed head and nightmare spiders, plus the usual thunder and lightning. I like movies where kids are quicker at figuring something out than their parents. It adds a layer of horrific betrayal to what's usually an impossible predicament from the start. There's extra pathos to the predicament in this movie because the narrator/protagonist's father (the old guy from Dream a Little Dream) has a weak heart and already feels guilty over not being able to protect his son (the kid from The Monster Squad) years earlier. I'm a sucker for father-son movies, and I just realized that the ones I've most enjoyed recently have all been thrillers of one kind or another: How to Train Your Dragon (2010), The Road (2009), Gran Torino (2008; "surrogate" father in this case), 3:10 to Yuma (2007; better than the 1957 original BECAUSE of the added emphasis on the father-son relationship), and last but not least, Rocky Balboa (2006). What do thrillers have to do with fathers and sons? I don't know, maybe nothing. Or maybe guys just like a little danger in movies that are supposed to be about them.
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