We All Float Down Here - IT (September 2017)

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Cinema Discusso > We All Float Down Here - IT (September 2017)

porfiria: Dec 10, 2008; by Modern Video Games

Timeless Appeal posted:

Just going to quote my thoughts from the horror thread.

The It trailer is pretty good and I'm looking forward to the movie.

I think as much as they have confidence in just how great their look for Pennywise is--and it is an interesting look--I think it misses the mark on Pennywise's whole deal. In reality I think their character has a lot in common with Freddy Krueger in terms of just their disdain for their young victims. Despite their otherworldliness, they are very much coded as adults. Adults who resent, hate, and want to devour children. They are fundamentally abusers as seen through the lenses of grungy late 80s fairytales.

I think what worked so well about Curry's Pennywise is that he really was just a lovely Bozo the Clown. Even a picture of Curry just looking friendly in the clown make-up is terrifying because Bozo and Ronald McDonald look creepy. But there is at work this other level that the children are made to feel unreasonable. Bozo and Ronald McDonald are scary looking dudes created by adults and pushed onto children. And it is the children who are treated unreasonable when they find the creatures scary.

This ties into an element of the book that the adults are literally blind to the horrors the kids face. Pennywise is such a scary force because he exists with a level of authority. The parents, teachers, and cops are all on some level complicit in his actions. A lot of the scariest parts of the book and original movie are not when he violently goes on the attack, but when he tries to lure kids to him. When he lets them feel uneasy but also helpless to not listen to him. The book and the original film really push the notion that the biggest fear the kids often face is the adults in their lives.

The Losers know Pennywise is a real threat, but like those who abuse children in the real world, Pennywise works to force them to feel unreasonable for challenging him or even being afraid of him.

The new Pennywise design is simultaneously much more Victorian looking and also much more childlike in appearance. And I think it just loses all the stuff I'm talking about. He's something that you fundamentally know you should find scary. Making him more antique in appearance works to sort of divorce him from the realm of adulthood and everyday lives of the kids. And the more childlike appearance takes away from that gross adult disdain of youth that defined Curry's performance.

I will say though, there is one part in the original book where It turns into Frankenstein's monster. Since this is the 80s, I would lose my poo poo if he showed up as Jason or something for a scene.

This is a real good post. I thought the trailer looked solid, but yeah Pennywise kinda looks like, well, a monster contra Curry's version which was a dude in makeup with a New York (!) accent.

# ¿ Apr 6, 2017 21:34

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# ¿ May 3, 2024 00:57

porfiria: Dec 10, 2008; by Modern Video Games

HUNDU THE BEAST GOD posted:

Without spoiling anything, Mama is a great design and great character, it's rare and a little weird to see a horror movie that's so earnest and sentimental. I can't think of another horror movie that made a crowd audibly go 'aww'.

It's cool that every piece of the terrifying design has a justification rooted in what turns out to be the pathos of the character.

Edit: I'm a total horror movie noob so maybe this is really common practice but I don't care it was cool.

# ¿ May 10, 2017 03:55

porfiria: Dec 10, 2008; by Modern Video Games

To me the open question is just whether lil Skarsgard can act. Or pantomime or move weird or whatever it is he's called upon to do in the movie. Has anyone seen him in anything?

# ¿ May 21, 2017 02:52

porfiria: Dec 10, 2008; by Modern Video Games

What I'm hearing is that IT should take form of Iron Man. Or, since it's the early 90s/late 80s--the Ninja Turtles.

# ¿ May 21, 2017 10:47

porfiria: Dec 10, 2008; by Modern Video Games

HUNDU THE BEAST GOD posted:

Ironically, the original 'clown sightings' in the early 90's were of stuff like the Ninja Turtles and guys in Bart Simpson costumes kidnapping kids in a van.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hD3aNn1A0Ek

# ¿ May 22, 2017 04:48

porfiria: Dec 10, 2008; by Modern Video Games

Phi230 posted:

Are they gonna do the gang bang scene

I hope when the movie comes out all of the discussion focuses on whether they should have included the gang bang after all.

# ¿ Jul 28, 2017 20:42

porfiria: Dec 10, 2008; by Modern Video Games

IT is going to make a fuckload of money. There's always a market for horror, the 80s are big, the footage look great, clowns are in, the first trailer was memetic.

# ¿ Aug 25, 2017 18:10