Wicked Good Stories in ‘Bradbury Theater’

Something wicked this way comes when science fiction writer Ray Bradbury spins his dark tales about hate, fear and the dangers of being too curious.

In a video anthology reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock’s suspenseful television series, “Ray Bradury Theater” offers three stories, beginning with “The Town Where Nobody Got Off,” starring Jeff Goldblum.

The tale, directed by Don McBrearty, begins on a train when a writer (Goldblum) tells another passenger that life in a small friendly town would be a welcome change from the gritty, dangerous life of the big city. His cynical companion ridicules the idea and challenges him to get off the train at the next stop and see for himself. The writer accepts, only to find a sparsely populated town with cold, brooding residents and one eccentric old man with an eerie obsession with strangers.

The second story stars Drew Barrymore in “The Screaming Woman.” She plays Heather, a young girl with a penchant for scary comic books who begins hearing the cries of a woman buried alive, sounds no one else can hear. The dark and suspenseful segment, directed by Bruce Pittman, follows Heather as she crosses paths with a menacing neighbor whose wife appears to be missing.

“Banshee,” directed by Doug Jackson, stars Peter O’Toole as a film director predisposed toward cruel jokes whose latest trick involves spooking a talented screenplay writer with a story of a vengeful spirit. While the two spend a cold and windy night in an Irish castle, the mournful cries of a spurned woman’s ghost pierce the silence, but the wary writer soon begins to wonder if that’s part of the trick.

Bradbury’s tales are engaging and suspenseful and the dark emotions that pervade them are captured on film wonderfully, especially in “The Town,” with its empty, wind-swept streets and stone-faced characters.

The video is inexplicably listed as rated R, although it contains no violence, bad language or nudity.

“Ray Bradbury Theater” (1985)--an anthology of three stories with various directors. 90 minutes. Rated R.