Return to Oz
Director: Walter Murch Run Time: 113 min. Format: 35mm Rating: PG Release Year: 1985
Starring: Fairuza Balk, Nicol Williamson, Jean Marsh, Piper Laurie
Made over 40 years after the beloved The Wizard of Oz, the sole directing credit of picture & sound editor Walter Murch (The Godfather Trilogy) was nightmare fuel for a generation that grew up watching it on cable and/or VHS. The story of Dorothy picks up six months after the tornado that whisked her away, finding her sleepless and useless on the farm. Auntie Em sees electrotherapy as the only solution for what she thinks are hallucinations, but the sanitarium proves to be the gateway back to Oz for Dorothy, where she collects a new assemblage of Island of Misfit Toy friends and finds new foes in the Nome King and the head-swapping Princess Mombi.
Whether or not the asylum screams and the frenzied laughter of the Wheelers have haunted you for decades, we invite you to quiver like a child for this most dark fairy tale full of imaginative practical effects and puppetry.