Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes is a classic, and possibly his best work. This film should have been a great success, with a good cast, and especially with Bradbury himself writing the script from his own novel, but alas, it was not.
Several reviewers have suggested that it should be remade with modern special effects. This may be a good idea, but the effects were generally pretty good for the early '80's, and in my opinion the major problem lies elsewhere.
Ultimately, this is a suspense film with very little suspense. This is particularly obvious in the climactic scenes in the library, which should have dripped with suspense, but actually felt flat. Which presumably points to the director and perhaps the editors.
This is surprising, as Jack Clayton had a fairly high reputation and made some very good movies, but perhaps he was just no good in the suspense genre.
Whatever the reason, this was a reasonably good movie which should have been much better.
Several reviewers have suggested that it should be remade with modern special effects. This may be a good idea, but the effects were generally pretty good for the early '80's, and in my opinion the major problem lies elsewhere.
Ultimately, this is a suspense film with very little suspense. This is particularly obvious in the climactic scenes in the library, which should have dripped with suspense, but actually felt flat. Which presumably points to the director and perhaps the editors.
This is surprising, as Jack Clayton had a fairly high reputation and made some very good movies, but perhaps he was just no good in the suspense genre.
Whatever the reason, this was a reasonably good movie which should have been much better.