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"Return To Oz" dir. by Walter Murch

"Return to Oz"

Where I watched it: Disney+

Bonkers. Absolutely bonkers. And ballsy.
 
Imagine the person that approached the Disney execs and was like, "Hey I got an idea for a Wizard of Oz sequel... it starts with Dorothy getting electroshock therapy!" Then the execs are like, "Ok... hardcore... but... let's go with it... tell us, at what point do we meet the Lion, Tin Man and Scarecrow?" To which the lunatic that conceived this movie says, "Well, they've all been turned to stone and won't be in the movie until the last 2 minutes... instead we will have a post-apocalyptic Emerald City where its only inhabitants are a gang of creepy punks with wheels for hands and feet... oh and they take orders from a woman who has beheaded the local women and keeps their severed heads in glass cabinets which she takes out and wears on her own headless body from time to time." The Disney execs proceed to wipe the sweat from their brows with hundred dollar bills... "But... they will appear, right? The Scarecrow...??" The maniac then pulls out a potato sack with a crudely sketched face that could only have come from Satan's darkest nightmares, puts it on his head and lands the movie deal.

He lands the movie deal.

I saw this movie numerous times as a child and somehow didn't pick up on how weird and terrifying it was.

As an adult seeing it after many years, it's clear that any deficiencies in my character came from this movie. I mean the hall of heads and the horrifying rendition of The Scarecrow and Jack Pumpkinhead are some of the more surface level terrors of this movie but the most frightening aspect of it all is the idea that Dorothy's trip to Oz and her return are just scenes playing in the head of a child plagued by mental illness.

This film is bonkers... and I like that.

6/10
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