Something Wicked This Way Comes

A phrase from Macbeth, which is the title of a novel by Ray Bradbury. The story is of two boys in a small town. One night in October, a carnival arrives, and the secrets it holds threaten everything they love.
This story deals with themes of good and evil, growing up, tempation, love, death, living one's life to the fullest, and what Bradbury calls The Autumn People. The writing is poetic. One of my favorite novels.

I had been in a very foul mood and haven't written a node in 29 days. I had practically rid myself of my everything addiction. I ran down to the laundry room to get a shirt when I saw it. Really, I only saw a small corner of the cover. It was my 1978 copy of Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes. On the cover where those crazy eyed demonic carousel horses with whip like tongues. I pulled the paperback out form under the pile of papers, books, boxes and fanned the now yellow pages. Not that the pages were ever white, but the tan pulp pages were now rippled and yellowed, the survivor of 2 floods, both attributable to the washing machine. The book is a remnant from days long ago when I was driven to read everything Bradbury wrote. I hunted through all the used book stores for every book listed in the front or back of each of the books authored by him that I read. When I couldn't find a certain one, I would finally break down and by a new copy at the mall.

I opened the book to a random page and read a few lines. The magic of his writing style clawed at my emotions. I realized, that I didn't remember much of this story, especially how it ends. Since then, the book has been my constant companion. I steal a few pages here and there at lunch or before I fall asleep at night. Again I am drawn into the story. Everything Bradbury writes seems so possible in my mind, even the most impossible things. I am 12 again. Climbing trees and sneaking out at night become exciting again. The truths of a pre-adolescent become my own. The struggle between good and evil mirrors my own. The dark, melancholy atmosphere of the book finds me walking in the bright sunshine at lunch, feeling only emotional rain. From miles away and almost 40 years in the past, Bradbury plays with my thoughts and emotions and moods. I look forward to finishing the story, re-living the ending. I dread finishing the book, returning to reality, becoming myself again.

Album by heavy metal band Iced Earth, released in 1998.

Line-up:
Jon Schaffer: guitars, backing vocals
Matthew Barlow: lead vocals
James MacDonough: bass guitar

Guest musicians: Larry Tarnowski: guitar solos on all songs except "Watching Over Me"
Mark Prator: drums
Susan McQuinn: flute on "1776"
Howard Helm - piano intro to "The Coming Curse"
Tracy Marie LaBarbera: backing vocals on "My Own Savior", "Melancholy (Holy Martyr)" and "Watching Over Me"
Jim Morris: keyboards, guitar solo on "Watching Over Me", backing vocals
Roger Hughes: mandolin on "Blessed Are You"

The songs:

1. Burning Times. Written by Jon Schaffer and Matthew Barlow. It's about the tortures during the Spanish Inquisition.

2. Melancholy (Holy Martyr). Written by Jon Schaffer. Seen from Jesus Christ's perspective, he questions why he should die for a race that did nothing for him.

3. Disciples Of The Lie. Written by Jon Schaffer. It's about the lies and abuse (mental and physical) of the Church.

4. Watching Over Me. Written by Jon Schaffer. This song is about a friend of Jon who died in a motorcycle accident, years ago.

5. Stand Alone. Written by Jon Schaffer and Matthew Barlow. It's about that you should think for yourself, and not think what others want you to think.

6. Consequences. Written by Jon Schaffer. Everything you do has consequences, so try to look ahead, so you can prevent horrible things from happening.

7. My Own Saviour. Written by Jon Schaffer, Matthew Barlow and Jim Morris. About someone who wants to die because life brings him nothing but pain.

8. Reaping Stone. Written by Jon Schaffer, Matthew Barlow and James MacDonough. A fantasy story.

9. 1776. Written by Jon Schaffer. An instrumental song.

10. Blessed Are You. Written by Jon Schaffer. A song which thanks the fans for their loyal support.

Something Wicked (trilogy):
11. Prophecy. Written by Jon Schaffer. It's the prophecy of the birth of Set Abominae, who will bring the end of mankind.

12. Birth Of The Wicked. Written by Jon Schaffer. This song tells about the birth of Set.

13. The Coming Curse. Written by Jon Schaffer. Set's ability to manipulate time and history make him very threatening to mankind.

Charles Halloway: "By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes."

American horror film, released by the Walt Disney Company in 1983. The film was directed by Jack Clayton, and the screenplay was written by Ray Bradbury, after his own classic dark fantasy novel. Peter Douglas and Dan Kolsrud were the producers, Stephen H. Burum was the cinematographer, and James Horner was the composer. The movie's stars included Jason Robards as Charles Halloway, Jonathan Pryce as Mr. Dark, Diane Ladd as Mrs. Nightshade, Royal Dano as Tom Fury, Vidal Peterson as Will Halloway, Shawn Carson as Jim Nightshade, Bruce M. Fischer as Mr. Cooger, Ellen Geer as Mrs. Halloway, and Pam Grier as the terrifying Dust Witch.

If you've read the novel, you know the plot already. (And by the way, if you haven't read the novel, do so right away. It is the best work of dark fantasy ever and one of the best and most readable novels of the 20th century) Will Halloway and Jim Nightshade are two boys in a small town in the Midwest. Jim's father is dead; Will's father is Charles Halloway, an older librarian who masks his love for his son behind bookishness and fear of the future. One night, Cooger and Dark's Pandemonium Carnival rides into town aboard a train with no passengers and no engineer. Outwardly, it's a traveling carnival, but in truth, it is really an outpost of Hell, offering visitors their hearts' desires, twisted to destroy or enslave. When Will and Jim discover the truth, they are stalked by the evil Mr. Dark, and only Charles Halloway can save them from doom.

While Disney films have never been strangers to dark themes (Bambi's mother, Snow White's evil queen, Dumbo's nightmares, and the Sorcerer's Apprentice's marching brooms have reliably terrified children for decades), this is one of the only true horror movies that has come directly from the Disney studios, rather than from one of its subsidiaries. And in some ways, it's a failure. Some of the more amazing scenes from the book don't appear, or are unfortunately altered. The ending of the film is a special effects extravaganza that doesn't fit at all with the rest of the movie. There is never any real doubt that good will triumph over evil. And the film will leave most hardcore gorehounds snoring on their couches.

Charles Halloway: "I, uh, have the honor, sir."
Mr. Dark: "And have had for many years, I do believe. All those years living only other men's lives. Dreaming only other men's dreams. What a waste."
Charles Halloway: "Sometimes a man can learn more from other men's dreams than he can from his own. Come visit me, sir, if you wish to improve your education."
Mr. Dark: "I will, and I may improve yours."

But it is, nevertheless, a wonderful movie. Particularly impressive are Jason Robards' tired but heroic librarian, Jonathan Pryce's charismatic master of horrors, and former blaxploitation queen Pam Grier's mysterious but fearsome Dust Witch. The many moods of the novel are very well-adapted to the screen -- the delicious thrills and terrors of the carnival and circus, the joys of autumn, the secret sins and shames of small towns, the resentments of childhood, the regrets of adulthood. It does what all the best Disney films have done -- recreated the peculiar fears of childhood in a way that will frighten children and make forgetful grownups remember what it was really like. It's a nostalgic and romantic and (for the most part) quiet movie, but that doesn't make it any less unsettling.

Bradbury was unhappy with the final film -- he felt that many of Disney's changes to his script, including additional and unnecessary special effects sequences, wrecked the themes and story he was building on. But I don't think it can be questioned that what we have left, however flawed it may be, is an outstanding horror film that successfully translates childhood's terrors to the silver screen.

Fun trivia: Stephen King wrote a rejected adaptation for the movie, and Stephen Spielberg and David Lean were both considered to helm the film.

Charles Halloway: "Where do you come from? The dust. Where do you go to? The grave."

Some research from the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com)