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Well part of that is because It is Derry. The town was literally built over it. The underlayer of boiling violence and detachment from horror has been a learned behavior for its citizens since the first houseframes were erected. In that regard, Adrian Melon's boyfriend was right; Pennywise is indeed Derry. He's part of its foundation.
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Apr 2, 2017 15:37
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Tell you what I'd like to see instead of Jason or Freddy: there's a part in the book where Ben sees It in the Derry library, but in the form of Dracula. Dude, just make It show up as Kurt Barlowe from the OG Salem's Lot miniseries. Not only would it fit the timeframe, but it would play into the meta-narratives of King's body of work. Plus, that design is fantastic anyway.
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Apr 8, 2017 01:05
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Re: creepy King chat above, I found N. to be very unnerving. It's basically King straight up writing a Lovecraft story, but he is very good at it.
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May 10, 2017 02:20
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One of the main themes in It is a lack of safe spaces for children. We're taught by society that there are supposed to be certain sanctuaries for kids, no matter what the circumstances: school, home, etc. But in the book, that's repeatedly shown to be false. Ben is ruthlessly bullied at and around the comfort zone of school (to the point of being mutilated by Henry Bowers), and Bev's father is an abusive lunatic, just as two example. The impact of the falsity of this lie is compounded greatly by the book being set in the time period it is, well before the standard concept of "stranger danger" had so thoroughly bled into the American subconscious. So much of the book is about the idea of false faces - of evil hiding behind a wall of comfort - that it's hard to read Pennywise's clown appearance as being anything other than commentary on that. The book was set in the fifties. Clowns were everywhere at that time. I mean, go and look up some of the old school packaging for cereal; it seems like goddamn near every one of the most popular brands had a clown on it at some point. Under that context, Pennywise taking on the form of a jovial clown in the fifties is like a serial killer disguising himself as, say, Mister Rogers. Now, since then public opinion certainly has turned against clowns. It itself actually had a lot to do with that, especially for people of my generation who are in their early/mid thirties. But just because the movie takes place in a different time period than the book, the concept shouldn't be abandoned. If - if Pennywise spends the majority of this adaption looking like Little Lord Faunlteroy Of The Tuberculosis Ward, that would be a huge mistake because it takes the subtext of evil in plain sight and makes the threat explicit, which is very much against what the book is trying to explore. Plus, not for nothing, it's a creative misstep. Having a Pennywise that looks goofy and silly at a distance, only to reveal itself as mottled and sickly when its too late is far creepier, and it stays true to the heart of the source material. Tart Kitty fucked around with this message at 07:10 on May 21, 2017 |
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May 21, 2017 07:04
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Timeless Appeal posted:It's not that he's not menacing. It's that up until the very end he acts condescending and bullying but most importantly there is this weird air of authority to him. He's definitively an adult. This is a fantastic point, by the way.
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May 22, 2017 05:06
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Looks like my concerns were valid, and they're treating Pennywise like a slasher villain. That last shot is something out of an A Nightmare On Elm Street movie. Still, the more I see of the movie, the more surprised I am by how pretty it is. I'll be curious if the narrative side can match the strong visuals. Here's hoping, anyway.
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Jul 27, 2017 17:35
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Let me clarify: the remake.
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Jul 27, 2017 17:46
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Nroo posted:That's cuz the cinematography is by Chung Chung-hoon, who's worked on most of if not all of Park Chan-wook's films. That makes sense. From jump street it's been obvious that there was way more muscle behind the cinematography than in what could be considered it's contemporaries. The colors in particular really pop.
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Jul 27, 2017 18:13
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If nothing else The Gathering of the Juggalos will be slightly more horrifying than usual next year.
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Jul 27, 2017 19:29
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BiggerBoat posted:Is that possible? I present to you the mental image of Violent J wearing Victorian-era bloomers.
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Jul 27, 2017 19:33
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davidspackage posted:loving kids, how do they float Hi, my name is Fart City and I would like to nominate this for new threat title.
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Jul 28, 2017 00:56
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Phi230 posted:Are they gonna do the gang bang scene It's gonna be the stinger after the credits.
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Jul 28, 2017 21:14
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Acht posted:Can we get a good poster for this movie btw? Recreating the original book cover with an unnaturally elongated/bent Pennywise arm reaching out of the storm drain towards the paper sailboat instead of the big green monster hand is such a no brainer I'm shocked it's not already a thing.
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Aug 1, 2017 12:31
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WattsvilleBlues posted:Is there an image of that cover? Phonepostin', but here's a link: https://litreactor.com/sites/default/files/images/column/2015/10/itcover.jpg
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Aug 1, 2017 15:26
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Hodgepodge posted:Oddly enough, those are the best parts of Insomnia. Whoof. I think you mean the only good parts. I'm an unapologetic King fan, but that book is a friggin slog and a half.
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Aug 1, 2017 22:31
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CelticPredator posted:Victor Salva's IT This joke made me do an irl grimace-laugh.
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Aug 2, 2017 01:22
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Timeless Appeal posted:The last trailer was a weird experience for me because I am bummed that It is being depicted as more of a chidlike, trickster, goblin than a condescending adult, but the trailer really does a good job of making adults look like monsters. I can't remember who it was but somebody earlier in the thread spoke about how Pennywise is presented as a consummate, adult figure of authority in It, and that was dead on. So much of the book is about distrust of adults, and Pennywise was kind of a manifest of that. Skewing him younger is an odd choice. I get that it's "traditionally" creepy, but it loses a bit of what made him imposing in the source material. And that's a key word: imposing, not just threatening.
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Aug 2, 2017 04:32
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Basebf555 posted:That surprised me when I read the book, how Bowers is really a threat to the other kids as in he actually could murder them if he gets his hands on them. I mean, I knew the book was about a killer clown murdering kids, but a psychopathic teenager running around with a switchblade carving kids up is dark even for King. Bowers slowly losing his mind is one of the creepiest parts of the book. The part where he starts carving up Ben is scary for a lot of reasons, not the least of which being that his cronies are obviously freaked out by the escalation, but unwilling to stop it from happening for fear of what would happen to them.
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Aug 2, 2017 19:31
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Bowers is also scary because he violates the "rules" of childhood. I had to deal with my fair share of bullying when I was a child, but there was always a line: they'd beat you up, but leave you breathing, and they still feared adults. There was an unspoken rule that if they did too much damage it would call down the thunder and they would be held accountable in some way. Bowers violates that social contract, and that makes him terrifying. Not only does he act with lethal force, he does so with no concern for repercussion.
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Aug 2, 2017 23:24
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Basebf555 posted:Drug and alcohol problems aside, everything I've read from/about King seems to indicate that he never really lost appreciation for the fact that he was somehow supporting a family and living a very nice lifestyle just by writing horror stories. But he always felt like he had to treat it like a job, like if he started treating it as a hobby(even though at a certain point he had the money to do exactly that), that's when his career would fall apart. Yeah, I remember reading a story he told where a publisher's check for one of his early books showed up just in time to get medicine for an ear infection one of his kids had. Like, if he hadn't written, he wouldn't have had the money. King's an interesting guy in his worth ethic. He's very similar to guys like Poe or Lovecraft, not just in terms of tone, but in understanding writing as an occupation as well as a craft. In a way it kind of speaks to the importance that The Dark Tower has to him: he poked along with decades between installments until the van accident. Then he kind of saw finishing the series up as a responsibility and burned through the last three in like, four years or some poo poo.
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Aug 3, 2017 19:14
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Basebf555 posted:Eh, I have a lot more respect for King than Lovecraft. Lovecraft married a woman and then refused to ever get a regular job even after years of no writing money coming in and them being forced to live in separate cities due to the financial hardship that his immaturity caused. She eventually divorced him, mostly because he would not allow himself to be dragged into adulthood, he basically died in perpetual adolescence having never really worked a day in his life. He had been born to a family that was regarded as above working class jobs, but the family money was running out by the time Lovecraft was entering adulthood and out of embarrassment Lovecraft refused to entertain the idea that he would ever make money doing anything other than writing. He was a petulant child. Oh, no. Don't get me wrong. Lovecraft was a racist turbodick. It's just that back when he was actively writing he was one of those guys who rung ever last cent out of his "pay by word" contracts. I was just comparing that focused work ethic on King in terms of being a businessman as well as a storyteller.
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Aug 3, 2017 19:29
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Tom Guycot posted:Dang, thats way better than I was assuming it would be based on the trailers. I still think he's a little too overtly fuckin' creepy, but its not nearly as much as it seemed like it would be. The popcorn part was some good banter that seemed appropriately disarming in particular. This is pretty much my opinion as well. I think I still prefer the tone of the tv show version of the scene because the weirdly pedestrian nature of its lighting actually makes it feel so much more odd and off-putting. Here the deep shadows and constant drooling kind of push it a little too much into a place where I think any kid in their right mind would immediately run for the hills. Still, I loved the popcorn bit. I was worried they would forgo the disarming, wolf-in-sheep's clothing aspect of Pennywise in favor of making him a more traditional movie monster. I'm happy that's still at play here, and it gives me way more faith in the movie at large.
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Aug 11, 2017 15:28
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HUNDU THE BEAST GOD posted:I am absolutely blown away how good this looks cinematography-wise. Yeah, I might have some criticisms about the tone but even on that shaky cam footage I was struck by how good it looked
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Aug 11, 2017 15:34
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I think what's missing is that in the book the scene doesn't immediately start off as threatening, but just loving weird. And it's that weirdness that disarms Georgie; he's more curious about how this silly, funny clown got stuck in a storm drain than outright terrified. It's not until it's too late that Georgie realizes what kind of danger he's in. Curry pulls off that weirdness well, but again, I think a major part of that is that the tv show version isn't outright framed like a horror scene. Pennywise is fairly brightly lit, and far less outwardly predatory.
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Aug 11, 2017 15:47
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Tom Guycot posted:What I loved so much about the scene in the TV movie, was how jovial and kid friendly he was, how brightly lit, and his fluffy clean clown makeup and costume, yet, his eyes were bloodshot. That one little defect in this otherwise happy little clown talking to him. That and Tim Curry, god bless that man, just the way his lips moved and the look of ecstasy on his face when he starts describing the balloons floating was magical. I'm glad they're not trying to do an imitation of his performance because that would just be awful, but oh maaaaaan how much I would have given to see see Curry play the part in a production this well shot and budgeted. His orgasmic delivery on "Oh yes, they float. They all float" is like, the consummate interpretation of Pennywise to me. Like even rereading the book I can't break what Curry did with the role.
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Aug 11, 2017 16:27
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Tenzarin posted:I wonder what he was thinking about when he wrote the Secret Window. I like to imagine that after the Carrie story, King removed all trash cans from his office. So by hell or high water, everything gets published. Period. I mean that would at least explain Insomnia.
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Aug 11, 2017 20:02
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BiggerBoat posted:The amount of time this dude has worked in his life must be positively insane if you added it all up. King's an interesting guy because he's a true-blue storyteller, but he's also got that Yankee work ethic. I imagine he doesn't view writing as an occupation much differently than he would view working at a paper mill. I think that combination is what makes him uniquely prolific: he's immensely creative, but he also produces a poo poo-ton of content. I'm a pretty fervent King reader, but even I was surprised to see that he had like, two new titles on the shelf that I had never heard of the last time I dropped into my local mom and pop book store.
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Aug 11, 2017 20:08
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BiggerBoat posted:Which ones? Finders Keepers and End Of Watch. Apparently they're part of a trilogy (?), but they flew completely under my radar. Tart Kitty fucked around with this message at 20:19 on Aug 11, 2017 |
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Aug 11, 2017 20:15
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net cafe scandal posted:Rewatch #1: Rat teeth Spoiler three really isn't an effects thing. That's what in the industry is known as the "Bill Skarsgård Special." But it does indeed add to the "offness" of Pennywise.
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Aug 13, 2017 00:03
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BiggerBoat posted:I'm just talking poo poo but King does have a bad track record with his opinions of movie adaptations of his work. Didn't he love Maximum Overdrive and hate The Shining? And I still think it's weird how few really good horror films we've gotten from all the great books he's written. My dude didn't just like Maximum Overdrive, he directed it. And was heavily featured in the trailer, aka the single best thing Stephen King has ever done in the history of his career: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggWS4tTzs60 Also, I won't say his enthusiasm for this bodes dark tidings, but he did also really love The Dark Tower. Which... like... dude?
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Aug 14, 2017 03:21
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Rev. Bleech_ posted:I beg to differ. EDIT: boo, missing half of it. Well, technically, we're both wrong here. The real apex of King's entire career is clearly "The Lonesome Death of Jody Verrill" from Creepshow. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rC_bgNxnW-Q
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Aug 14, 2017 03:48
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joylessdivision posted:Thank you, that's exactly what I was thinking last night as I watched the trailer. Of course it's a movie about everyday machines murdering people. And there's even a fat guy in the trailer. Oh, that doesn't even take into account that the score is done by AC/DC.
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Aug 14, 2017 17:45
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Rev. Bleech_ posted:I almost forgot, Maximum Overdrive also features Giancarlo Esposito shouting "YO MAMA" at inanimate objects before being murdered by an arcade machine My favorite thing about Maximum Overdrive is that there's a scene where a softball little league player gets run over by a steamroller, and the effects guys accidentally overfilled the blood bag on the dummy. The intent was just to get a nice smear of blood on the roller; the result was the dummy of the kid more or less exploding. And King just kind of shrugged his shoulders because gently caress it, don't question a happy accident.
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Aug 14, 2017 19:06
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The movie will always inherently be inferior to the miniseries as it lacks Harry Anderson's killer shop teacher 'stache.
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Aug 14, 2017 22:08
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The Stand has a loving crazy stacked cast, especially for it's time. Plus it gave a lot of love to too-often underutilized character actors like Matt Frewer and Miguel Ferrer. But the book is so expansive in scope, a miniseries still almost feels too small. A full series on premium cable would be amazing.
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Aug 15, 2017 18:23
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Iron Crowned posted:The Stand had a ton of people who weren't quite famous yet. Rob Lowe and Molly Ringwald were definitely famous. Gary Sinese was right on the cusp (pretty sure this was right as he was moving off stage and onto screen). Wasn't Jamie Sheridan a regular on Law & Order? Or was that afterwards?
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Aug 15, 2017 18:40
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Origami Dali posted:A hysterical Bronson Pinchot. *Italian finger kiss*
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Aug 30, 2017 03:50
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In terms of how It feeds, there's a character named Dandelo that shows up in the last volume of The Dark Tower that seems to be from the same race as Pennywise, but feeds on laughter instead of fear, literally sucking the life force out of a character as they choke to death while cackling. If I remember King played it cagey when asked if the two creatures were related, but it's very heavily implied, with Dandelo even taking on a clown-like visage near the end of its attack.
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Aug 30, 2017 15:16
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I said it way early in the thread, but I'm super expecting the suicide to be a stinger after the credits. And I'm kind of expecting adult Stan to be played by someone of unexpected note, to sort of set the stage for more prestige actors to sign on for the sequel.
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Sep 1, 2017 23:18
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Kevyn posted:I'm rereading the book right now, and I'm starting to wish this was a 10 part Netflix series or something. There's just so much awesome stuff in the book that they'll never be able to properly tell even with two movies. Like I know apparently the Black Spot is included this time around, but I feel like that chapter deserves 10-15 minutes of screen time to tell properly. Same with the Bradley Gang. Those stories are great because you get the whole backstory and the gradual buildup before the big awful thing happens. The movie will probably just have Mike be like "The Black Spot used to be in this spot. It was a club for black people that got burned down and a lot of people died, my dad told me about it once." Interestingly, despite the shot from the trailer of Mike seeing the Black Spot burning, the full scene apparently didn't make it into the final film.
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Sep 2, 2017 04:43
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