{"id":61719,"date":"2013-10-25T11:40:54","date_gmt":"2013-10-25T15:40:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=61719"},"modified":"2013-10-25T11:42:09","modified_gmt":"2013-10-25T15:42:09","slug":"horror-story-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/25\/horror-story-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Horror Story"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><center><object width=\"600\" height=\"315\" classid=\"clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000\" codebase=\"http:\/\/download.macromedia.com\/pub\/shockwave\/cabs\/flash\/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0\"><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\" \/><param name=\"src\" value=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/51HrooFHkwk?version=3&amp;hl=en_US\" \/><param name=\"allowfullscreen\" value=\"true\" \/><embed width=\"600\" height=\"315\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/51HrooFHkwk?version=3&amp;hl=en_US\" allowFullScreen=\"true\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" \/><\/object><\/center><\/p>\n<p>\u201cFirst of all, it was October, a rare month for boys.\u201d So begins <em>Something Wicked This Way Comes<\/em>, Ray Bradbury\u2019s 1962 tale of a demonic carnival that descends on a Midwestern town. I\u2019ve long loved the 1983 Disney adaptation (which is way scarier than many a grown-up horror movie, and actually nothing like the synth-heavy trailer) but until this fall, had never read the book. When I did, I was intrigued by the dedication: \u201cWith love to the memory of GENE KELLY, whose performances influenced and changed my life.\u201d In his afterward, Bradbury explains the unexpected dedication\u2014altered for the second edition\u2014and also relates the anecdote below, in a talk he gave in Pasadena a few years ago.<\/p>\n<p><center><object width=\"600\" height=\"315\" classid=\"clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000\" codebase=\"http:\/\/download.macromedia.com\/pub\/shockwave\/cabs\/flash\/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0\"><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\" \/><param name=\"src\" value=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/SiiFevtUA1M?version=3&amp;hl=en_US\" \/><param name=\"allowfullscreen\" value=\"true\" \/><embed width=\"600\" height=\"315\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/SiiFevtUA1M?version=3&amp;hl=en_US\" allowFullScreen=\"true\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" \/><\/object><\/center><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cFirst of all, it was October, a rare month for boys.\u201d So begins Something Wicked This Way Comes, Ray Bradbury\u2019s 1962 tale of a demonic carnival that descends on a Midwestern town. I\u2019ve long loved the 1983 Disney adaptation (which is way scarier than many a grown-up horror movie, and actually nothing like the synth-heavy [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[419],"tags":[1831,12088,5029,883],"class_list":["post-61719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-culture","tag-disney","tag-gene-kelly","tag-ray-bradbury","tag-staff-picks"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Horror Story by Sadie Stein<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"October 25, 2013 \u2013 \u201cFirst of all, it was October, a rare month for boys.\u201d So begins Something Wicked This Way Comes, Ray Bradbury\u2019s 1962 tale of a demonic carnival that\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/25\/horror-story-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Horror Story by Sadie Stein\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"October 25, 2013 \u2013 \u201cFirst of all, it was October, a rare month for boys.\u201d So begins Something Wicked This Way Comes, Ray Bradbury\u2019s 1962 tale of a demonic carnival that\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/25\/horror-story-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-10-25T15:40:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-10-25T15:42:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sadie Stein\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sadie Stein\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/25\/horror-story-2\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/25\/horror-story-2\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sadie Stein\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9\"},\"headline\":\"Horror Story\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-10-25T15:40:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-10-25T15:42:09+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/25\/horror-story-2\/\"},\"wordCount\":122,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Disney\",\"Gene Kelly\",\"Ray Bradbury\",\"staff picks\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Arts &amp; 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