Line #76 Literature/SomethingWickedThisWayComes


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Something_wicked_this_way_comes_first_8223.jpg]]
2
3	->"''By the prickling of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes.''"
4	-->--'''Mr. Halloway'''
5
6	Thirteen-year-olds Will Halloway and Jim Nightshade are the best of friends, despite their contrasting personalities. A week before their fourteenth birthdays around Halloween, a [[CircusOfFear carnival]] comes rolling into town. Even though carnivals aren't uncommon in their time, October is a very late month for them to be still running in. That isn't the only odd thing about this carnival, as Will and Jim soon find out that its freaks are [[DealWithTheDevil offering]] townspeople more than cotton candy and amusement rides - offers that [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor turn out to be more than their receivers bargained for]].
7
8	Things become a lot more dangerous for the boys when the circus folk, led by the tattooed [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Mr. Dark]], get wind of [[HeKnowsTooMuch them knowing too much]] and plan to make sure that their secrets remain secret by bribery or trickery. Fortunately for Will and Jim, Will's father Charles Halloway proves the exception to the AdultsAreUseless rule and becomes a valuable ally. Even so, the carnival has more up its sleeve than the regular parlor tricks, and the lure of its offers may be too great for one of the boys to resist...
9
10	A novel by Creator/RayBradbury, somewhat of an expansion of "The Black Ferris", one of his earlier short stories. The story is more fantasy/horror than science fiction but still has his SignatureStyle all over it. Disney produced a film adaptation from a script written by Bradbury himself starring Creator/JasonRobards as Charles Halloway and Creator/JonathanPryce as Mr. Dark, although some sources claim that the finished film actually uses very little of Bradbury's screenplay.
11
12	----
13	!!"Something Wicked This Way Tropes":
14	* AdultsAreUseless: Thoroughly averted; Mr. Halloway, once he's made aware of what's going on, rescues the boys and [[spoiler:singlehandedly brings down the carnival]].
15	* AndIMustScream:
16	** The Dust Witch "sews up" (it's actually invisible magic) Jim Nightshade's and Will Halloway's eyes, mouth, and ears. They're still aware of their surroundings, but they can't see, hear, speak, [[EyeScream blink]], or swallow.
17	** The victims of the carnival also share the same fate, as well as the lightning rod salesman.
18	* AnimatedTattoo: Mr. Dark has tattoos that moved and mesmerized Jim and Will, which was depicted perfectly in the film. It might be an example of AuthorAppeal considering Bradbury's more famous work, ''The Illustrated Man''.
19	* AttackOfTheTownFestival: Mr. Dark uses his town carnival both as a cover and as a means for drawing in his victims.
20	* AwesomeMcCoolName: Jim Moriarty Nightshade, as {{Lampshade\|Hanging}}d by Mr. Dark, who suggests a WeCanRuleTogether of "Dark and Nightshade, or Nightshade and Dark".
21	* BadassBookworm: Charles Halloway, who could also be called a Badass Grandfatherly-Looking Father.
22	* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Both in the book and in the film. Don't listen to the carnival's promises of youth or freedom. Just don't.
23	* BeYourself: The entire film comes down to whether Jim, Will and his father can accept who they are.
24	* BigBad: Mr. Dark.
25	* BirthdayBuddies: Will and Jim were born on two different dates two minutes apart (immediately before and after midnight, October 30th and 31st, respectively).
26	-->By their voices, the boys had told the tale all their lives, proud of their mothers, living house next to house, running for the hospital together, bringing sons into the world seconds apart; one light, one dark. There was a history of mutual celebration behind them. Each year Will lit the candles on a single cake at one minute to midnight. Jim, at one minute after, with the last day of the month begun, blew them out.
27	* CameBackWrong: Happens to [[spoiler:Cooger/Mr. Electrico; as in, his corpse is simply reanimated and controlled like some animatronic robot]].
28	* CareBearStare: The mere ''threat'' of a smile is enough to kill [[spoiler:the Dust Witch]], and ThePowerOfLove is what takes down [[spoiler:the Big Bad Mr. Dark]] in the end.
29	* CassandraTruth: The carnival people deliberately set out to ensure that no one will believe Will and Jim if they try to warn other people about them.
30	* CharacterFilibuster: Charles goes on for at least two chapters on his theories about the carnival's nature and intents. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] when he realizes how long he's talked and that the boys don't understand most of what he's just said.
31	* CircusOfFear: A very influential version of this trope; most modern versions owe something to this story.
32	* CircusOfMagic: The book is about 13-year-old best friends, Jim Nightshade and William Halloway, and their nightmarish experience with a traveling carnival that comes to their Midwestern town one October, and how the boys learn about combatting fear. The carnival's leader is the mysterious "Mr. Dark," who seemingly wields the power to grant the citizenry's secret desires. In reality, Dark is [[spoiler: a malevolent being who, like the carnival, lives off the life force of those they enslave]].
33	* CoolOldGuy: [[spoiler:The minute Charles realizes that his son loves him and accepts him, warts and all, he decides to TakeALevelInBadass and becomes this trope.]]
34	* TheCorruptible: Jim's [[FearlessFool recklessness]], [[RebelliousSpirit rebelliousness]], [[TheUnfettered disregard for the rules]] and desperation to grow up make him far more vulnerable than [[NiceGuy Will]].
35	* CorruptTheCutie: Mr. Dark takes an interest in Jim, thinking he'd be the perfect partner.
36	* DarkIsEvil: Literally with Mr. Dark, owner of the Carnival.
37	* DarkIsNotEvil: In a contrasting example, though, Jim is described as the "dark" child to Will's "light" from the beginning, but he's consistently portrayed as "good" -- he's just more proactive in his fascination with the strange and unknown than Will is.
38	* DarkReprise: Miss Foley calls Jim and Will her "two whisperers". When Mr. Dark catches them:
39	-->'''Mr. Dark:''' Time to quiet these two chatterers. Time to still these two whisperers.
40	* DepravedDwarf: Mr. Dark's entourage includes several dwarves who function both as sideshow freaks and as his evil minions.
41	* {{Dedication}}: The book is dedicated to Bradbury's friend Creator/GeneKelly. Bradbury wrote the story as a screenplay for Kelly to pitch in 1952, but they couldn't get funding, so Bradbury eventually novelized the script.
42	* DisappearedDad: The reason Jim's mother is so protective of him, which only makes Jim want to get away even more.
43	** Plus, she had three children. ''Had.''
44	* TheDragon: The Dust Witch seems to fill this role. It seems Cooger ''may'' have either been this or Co BigBad with Mr. Dark.
45	* EmotionEater: Mr. Halloway identifies Dark's carnival as "the Autumn people".
46	-->'''Mr. Dark:''' Yes. We are the hungry ones. Your torments call us like dogs in the night. And we do feed, and feed well.\
47	'''Mr. Halloway:''' To stuff yourselves on other people's nightmares.\
48	'''Mr. Dark:''' And butter our plain bread with delicious pain. So, you do understand a little.
49	* {{Epigraph}}: Includes a quote from Literature/TheBible and another one from ''Literature/MobyDick''.
50	* EvilCannotComprehendGood: [[spoiler:How Mr. Dark is destroyed in the book.]]
51	** It also applies in the film. While Mr. Dark is certainly enjoying torturing Mr. Halloway with the idea of giving him back his youth, he also is angry and cannot understand why Halloway won't ''sacrifice his own son'' for the chance to be twenty years younger.
52	* EvilIsCool: Invoked - Jim certainly thinks so, and Mr. Dark plays it up as much as possible. The cool factor is just another lure.
53	* TheFairFolk: The exact nature of the 'autumn people' is never confirmed. There are some demonic implications at times but Mr. Halloway speculates that long ago they were humans who learned to survive by feeding off the despair and misery of others instead of food. This seems born out in the way they trick and kidnap the humans of Green Town and add them to their ranks. Their connection to the seasons, abducting humans, unearthly nature, and fondness of illusion and deception all strongly imply the Fair Folk at work.
54	---> ''‘For some, autumn comes early, stays late through life where October follows September and November touches October and then instead of December and Christ's birth, there is no Bethlehem Star, no rejoicing, but September comes again and old October and so on down the years, with no winter, spring, or revivifying summer. For these beings, fall is the ever normal season, the only weather, there be no choice beyond. Where do they come from? The dust. Where do they go? The grave. Does blood stir their veins? No: the night wind. What ticks in their head? The worm. What speaks from their mouth? The toad. What sees from their eye? The snake. What hears with their ear? The abyss between the stars.''
55	* FateWorseThanDeath: Those who fall victim to Mr. Dark aren't killed outright. Instead, they're transformed into side-show freaks permanently enslaved tohis carnival.
56	* FauxAffablyEvil: Mr. Dark. It makes him absolutely ''terrifying''.
57	* FlawExploitation: Mr. Dark knows everything about you and will make laser-precise cutting remarks -- gleefully.
58	* FountainOfYouth / OvernightAgeUp: One revolution forward on the carnival's merry-go-round will age the rider one year; one revolution backward will de-age him/her a year. Naturally, the merry-go-round is the main source of attraction for the dissatisfied townspeople.
59	* GoodHurtsEvil: Subverted in that holy objects ''can't'' hurt the freaks and Mr. Dark openly mocks the possibility. [[spoiler:Played straight in that good ''emotions'' can. A smile actively hurts and finally kills the Dust Witch and ThePowerOfLove kills Mr. Dark in the end.]]
60	* HallOfMirrors: A school teacher gets lost in a Hall of Mirrors at the carnival while chasing a girl who looks like her at a young age.
61	* HeKnowsTooMuch: Who'd have thought that two boys would be such a threat to a carnival full of magical folks?
62	* HeterosexualLifePartners: Will and Jim. [[spoiler:Although it's [[AvertedTrope averted]] by the bittersweet hint that [[GrowingUpSucks it won't be this way when they grow up.]]]]
63	* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler:Mr. Dark in his adult form is physically powerful enough to crush Charles' hand with one hand. It's only because he ages himself down for his final attempt to kill the heroes that Charles can overpower and kill him with ThePowerOfLove.]]
64	** It applies in the film as well: [[spoiler:Mr. Dark is taking Jim onto the carousel to age Jim to adulthood. Halloway comes and pulls Jim off, and before Mr. Dark can do anything, lightning strikes the carousel, and Mr. Dark is both electrocuted and aged beyond comprehension by his own device.]]
65	* IJustWantToBeSpecial: Downplayed with the three protagonists. Jim can't wait to grow up and enjoy the sense of freedom he's convinced it will bring. Will wants Jim's single-minded and [[TheStoic Stoic]] drive. Charles had wasted a large portion of his life ''trying'' to be what he considered "special"; now, he just wants to be young again like Will and Jim. [[spoiler: Will and Charles get over this and accept themselves well before the climax. Jim... [[TheCorruptible doesn't]].]]
66	* IKnowYourTrueName: Mr. Halloway's [[https://youtu.be/A6DHtYc3BWg confrontation with Mr. Dark]] has him identifying him as one of the "Autumn People" who prey on human emotions. Mr. Dark gleefully confirms this.
67	* IndyPloy: Charles thinks to himself on at least one occasion that he's just taking whatever opportunities come along and he really has no idea what kind of plan he's carrying out. [[spoiler:Turns out to be fortunate, as it means that Mr. Dark can't read what he's up to either.]]
68	* IWasQuiteALooker: Jim and Will's schoolteacher pines for being young again. Mr. Dark grants her her wish -- but makes her blind so she can't enjoy it.
69	* LiteraryAllusionTitle: From ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'':
70	-->"By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes!"
71	* LoadBearingBoss: [[spoiler: After Mr. Dark is defeated, and the freaks freed from his control, the tents fold up, fall, or collapse in on themeselves.]]
72	* MarkedBullet: Part of a magic trick held by the circus, but Charles uses it to his advantage by [[spoiler:carving a smile instead of his initials on the bullet and using it to shock the Witch into death.]]
73	** CallingYourAttacks: He mentally ''tells'' the Witch [[spoiler: "This is ''my smile'' on this bullet"]], which makes sense, so that the Witch can't confuse it for anything but a positive emotion.
74	* MeaningfulName:
75	** The boys find it cool that their names fit their selves so perfectly.
76	** Mr. Dark also thinks Nightshade's name goes well with his, as seen in WeCanRuleTogether below.
77	** There's also the name of [[GeniusBonus the carnival itself]]: the ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise_Lost Pandemonium]]'' Carnival.
78	* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: J. C. Cooger and G. M. Dark.
79	* TheNothingAfterDeath: Theorized by Charles.
80	* OddCouple: Will and Jim couldn't be more different, yet their friendship is unshakeable. Borders on HoYay at times.
81	** In fact, the only major difference in opinion they seem to have had before the dark forces invaded the town was whether they should continue [[DirtyKid to peep in on the more...intimate moments of their neighbors' lives.]]
82	* ParodyDisplacement: Many people think the phrase "Something Wicked This Way Comes" originated with Bradbury, not realising that the line is acknowledged in-universe in both the book and the movie as a line from one of the Weird Sisters' songs in Creator/WilliamShakespeare's ''Macbeth''. Even more odd, some experts now believe the Witches' songs were not written by Shakespeare but by his pupil Creator/ThomasMiddleton.
83	%%* PoliceAreUseless
84	* ThePowerOfLove: [[spoiler:The only effective weapon against Mr. Dark and his followers, who run on negative emotions.]]
85	* PowerTattoo: Mr. Dark has tattoos of the other circus folk all over his body, signifying his control over them. He can hurt anyone tattooed on his body just by harming their tattoo. [[spoiler:After he's killed, the tattoos all vanish and return the freaks' free will.]]
86	* PurpleProse: Mr. Dark indulges in this.
87	-->'''Mr. Dark:''' Funerals, bad marriages, lost loves, lonely beds. That is our diet. We suck that misery and find it sweet. We search for more always. We can smell young boys ulcerating to be men a thousand miles off. And hear a middle-aged fool like yourself groaning with midnight despairs from halfway around the world.
88	* RapidAging: Happens to [[spoiler: Mr. Cooger when he tries to use the merry-go-round to quickly turn himself back into an adult so he can take on Jim and Will, and the boys accidentally cause the merry-go-round to go haywire when fighting over the controls.]]
89	* RepulsiveRingmaster: Mr. Dark is the creepy, DealWithTheDevil-making ringmaster of the CircusOfFear.
90	* RightUnderTheirNoses: At one point, Will and Jim hide under a grate in full view of the carnival because no one will think of looking for them in such an obvious place.
91	* SatanicArchetype: Mr. Dark, who preys on people's insecurities and [[DealWithTheDevil offers them their greatest desire, only to take control of them]].
92	* ShoutOut: In-universe, Jim's parents named him [[Literature/SherlockHolmes James Moriarty]] Nightshade.
93	** ShoutOutToShakespeare: The title comes from a line spoken by the Witches in ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}''.
94	* SiblingSenioritySquabble: Despite not being related at all, Jim is still jealous Will was born one minute before he was.
95	* SneakingOutAtNight: Jim Nightshade and Will Halloway often sneak out on summer nights to ramble around Green Town, Illinois. Surprisingly, they not only have hidden improvised ladders from their bedroom windows, but Will does it with the tacit approval of his own father, who thinks boys need to have a walk on the dangerous side to grow into good men.
96	* SouthernGothicSatan: Mr. Dark, the tattooed ringmaster, is one of the modern-day {{Trope Codifier}}s, and an acknowledged inspiration for Creator/StephenKing's Leland Gaunt. Mr. Dark rolls into town with his circus to offer people their heart's desire, but just ask the other circus folk how that turned out.
97	-->'''Mr. Dark:''' Yes. We are the hungry ones. Your torments call us like dogs in the night. And we do feed, and feed well.
98	-->'''Mr. Halloway:''' To stuff yourselves on other people's nightmares.
99	-->'''Mr. Dark:''' And butter our plain bread with delicious pain. So, you do understand a little.
100	* SpookySilentLibrary: Charles Halloway is the custodian of the town library. The boys seek out his knowledge and help, and wind up hiding from the carnival there.
101	* AStormIsComing: The novel opens with a lightning rod salesman warning of the coming storm.
102	* TakenForGranite: One of the Dust Witch's powers.
103	* TitleDrop: "[[Theatre/{{Macbeth}} By the pricking of my thumbs / Something wicked this way comes]]"
104	* VillainousBreakdown: Mr. Dark has several, but the big one comes when [[spoiler:Charles Halloway sees straight through his final attempt to win, being rendered near speechless with rage.]]
105	* WeCanRuleTogether: Mr. Dark offers this to Jim, though it's never revealed whether he was serious about his offer.
106	-->'''Mr. Dark:''' You’ll travel with us, Jim, and if Mr. Cooger doesn’t survive (it’s a near thing for him, we haven’t saved him yet, we’ll try again now) but if he doesn’t make it, Jim, how would you like to be partners? I’ll grow you to a fine strong age, eh? Twenty-two? twenty-five?. Dark and Nightshade, Nightshade and Dark, sweet lovely names for such as we with such as the side shows to run around the world! What say, Jim?
107	* WouldYouLikeToHearHowTheyDied: A variation, as Dark mocks the boys that Jim's mother rode the merry-go-round forwards and backwards until she went crazy.
108
109	!!Tropes that are specific to the Movie Adaptation include the following:
110	* AdaptationalAttractiveness: Pam Grier was cast as the Dust Witch, so they made the character into a beautiful and glamorous HotWitch instead of the stranger, creepier looking character of the novel.
111	* AdaptationDeviation: A few plot points have been changed, but since the screenplay was written by Bradbury himself, the changes were pragmatic (For example, the idea of putting a smile on a bullet would have been too goofy for a film, and a very different but appropriate death for [[spoiler:Mr. Dark]])
112	** At one point, the mask slips, and the Dust Witch shows [[BeneathTheMask she's close to the novel's description.]]
113	* AdaptationalHeroism: In the film, Tom Fury, the lightning rod salesman, escapes from Mr. Dark and kills the Dust Witch with a lightning rod. In the novel, he's turned into a dwarf enslaved to Mr. Dark and the Carnival and remains a passive victim for the rest of the story.
114	* AscendedExtra: Tom Fury, the Lightning Rod Salesman, gets a longer subplot than in the book.
115	* ChekhovsGun: Tom Fury's lightning rods come in handy late in the film.
116	* TheEndOrIsIt: [[spoiler:Mr. Dark's corpse is removed from the carousel in such a way as it might be resurrected.]]
117	* FamilialFoe: Reading old diaries, Jim and his father learn that Jim's grandfather also battled their EmotionEater nemesis the last time he came through town, decades earlier.
118	* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler:The Carousel]] ends up being Mr. Dark's undoing.
119	* MookFaceTurn[=/=]ShockAndAwe: In the film, [[spoiler: Mr. Electro kills the Witch]] with an electrified lightning rod.
120	* NothingIsScarier: Mr. Dark taunts Will by claiming Will's mother rode back and forth on the carousel "until she was quite, quite mad". It's a lie, but he certainly sells it with the line, "You should have heard the one single sound she made".
121	%%* PragmaticAdaptation
122	* SparedByTheAdaptation:
123	** [[spoiler:Mr. Cooger]]. In the novel he's aged 100 years on the carousel and eventually crumbles to dust, which is the fate met by [[spoiler: Mr. Dark]] in the film.
124	** Tom Fury is spared his FateWorseThanDeath in the novel, where he's turned into a freakish circus dwarf. In the film, he's tortured by Mr. Dark but eventually escapes and [[spoiler: kills the Dust Witch that helped enslave him]].
125	* TerrifyingPetStoreRat: The tarantulas handled by the Dust Witch and set loose on Jim and Will are red-legged tarantulas: a docile and quite harmless species often sold in pet stores because they can be safely handled.

Context Literature / SomethingWickedThisWayComes