A Wicked Belated Father's Day

Since going to Mexico for my sister's wedding, it has been a mad scramble to catch up on various things needing doing, so it was no surprise when Father's Day came and went with no celebration. It didn't help that we are impecunious at the moment, so no Airfest this year.

Evading the heat and humidity the past few days has meant being in the living room, where we've temporarally installed an air conditioner, as my room is still out of commission. Being tired, reading was no longer working for my dad and me, so a quick look through the Netflix DVDs revealed nothing but serious and attention requiring movies. It was time to look through the family DVD library, especially the recent acquisitions.

One jumped out at me, one I'd gotten last month but hadn't had time to watch, an old movie from my youth. Lately I've been on a Ray Bradbury kick and had gotten the movie from an Amazon.com sale around the time I also purchased The Ray Bradbury Theater complete series set. The movie is Something Wicked This Way Comes, a flick that bombed in its 1983 theatrical release, but one I'd loved anyway. Known for being too intense and scary for younger children, it is no surprise it didn't find an audience, as it fell into a no-man's land between kid movies and the explicit slasher & horror movies of the era.

The film is set in a midwestern small town in the 1920s, during that magical time of the year that happens in October. Two boys, Will and Jim, are best friends and blood brothers living in the sleepy town, doing the things boys do when a mysterious carnival comes to town: Dark's Pandemonium. Harrowing encounters with Dark and his minions follow, with the lives of the townsfolk on the line, if not their very souls.

For me, it was a good movie that became even better once I saw it as an adult. The protagonists are two young boys, but the story is more about the fathers: one older then usual and filled with regrets, the other having run off is still a presence by his very absence. Both boys are deeply affected by their respective fathers and this is really the core of the film. Jason Robards shines as Will's father, the town librarian feeling his age and weighed down by a bad heart. Jonathan Pryce is hypnotically evil as Dark, every movement filled with the potential of explosive rage barely restrained.

I won't spoil the film for those who haven't seen it, but it turned out to be a wonderful belated Father's Day film to watch with my Dad. It is very much about the love that can only be held between father and son.