This Night

I really didn't have anything that had to be done and didn't feel like digging around the news, so I dug into my movie collection and stumbled across my DVD of Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes. If you don't know this movie, it's an over looked classic.


The poster asks What would you give to a man who could make your deepest dream come true.

A 12 year old boy, Will Holloway, whose father was middle-aged when he was born, along with his best friend, whose father abandoned him, must deal with the issues of temptation and one's deepest, most profound desires. A carnival comes to town in late October and the boys discover that the owner of the carnival, Mr. Dark, is either the Devil or something indistinguishable from him. He is able to fulfill people's deepest yearnings but at a horrible price, one that makes it impossible to enjoy the fulfillment. (For example an aging spinster finds her youthful beauty restored to her and then is suddenly struck blind.). The aging father is dealing with the fact that he is too old to be the father that he needs to be and feels that he is failing to be a proper father because of his age. Because the boys know the truth about Mr Dark, he must find and silence them.

Here is the scene where Mr. Dark tempts Will Holloway's father, offering to restore his lost youth if he would only betray his son.



Be careful what you wish for. It is an interesting study of regret and unattainable wishes. When I hear Mr. Dark speak of lost dreams and regrets, I think of another demon whose name was Darkness in the movie Legend. Played by Tim Currey, this demon tells a young girl whom he is attempting to seduce into evil, Dreams are my specialty. The dreams of youth become the regrets of maturity. It kind of amazes me how so a movie can sometimes be so accurate in how evil attacks and tries to seduce good people.