IT analysis and inspiration

Warning: Due to the film only being released recently at the time of this blog posts release I should warn you that this post does contain spoilers for the film

On the coming Sunday I'm going to be seeing the horror film IT (2017) a remake of the classic horror TV miniseries of the same name released back in 1990, interestingly the film was released 27 years after the miniseries finished referencing the antagonist It who appears every 27 years to kill its victims, this is also an adaptation of the novel written by Steven King published in 1986. The reason I'm going to see this film is because it is one of the most successful horror films of in recent years grossing an estimate of $100 million in its opening week this tells me that it has been successful scaring its audiences so I will watch the film and see what I can take as inspiration for my groups film trailer so that it will be able to scare 2017 audiences. I will update this blog post after I have watched the film.

IT 2017 poster

I have just got home from watching the film an overall I thought the film was fantastic as someone who never saw the original series nor read the novel I went in completely blind only knowing basic information about the films plot. The main ways that the film scares its audience is through the use of sound and cinematography. Sound is used in multiple ways for example when the loser club (the group of protagonists) enter the well hole (It's lair) they immediately get separated when Bill Denbrough one of the films protagonists chases after what appears to be his dead brother Georgie Denbrough who was killed by It a year prior to the events of the film but bill still forces himself to believe that his brother is alive and goes after him. During this scene you hear loud high pitched string instruments playing as the camera goes to a P.O.V shot as Bill goes around all of the turns in the sewage pipe the sound has been used like this to create suspense and tension as we are put in the place of bill and we can only see what he can see so we are unaware of where It will jump out from.

Furthermore, in many other the scenes the music is replaced by ambient silence which makes the audience uncomfortable as we a unsure about what is going to happen yet we know that something is going to happen this is used throughout the however one scene where this stands out the most for me is the scene where Beverly Marsh another loser club member hides from her father in the bathroom who is shown to have some bizarre sexual interest in her making her always call him daddy and saying that 'your still my little girl... right?' while stroking her hair this ultimately leads to Beverly hitting her father in the face with a toilet seat presumably killing him then the music goes silent as a high angle shot is used looking down on her fathers body and then suddenly the camera cuts to a low angle shot of Beverly stepping away from her father only to show It in the form of Pennywise the clown (It's most iconic form) towering behind her as it abducts her leaving the message 'YOU DIE IF YOU TRY' written in blood on the wall for the rest of the loser gang to see showing us It is taunting the protagonists challenging them to come after it.

Both versions of Pennywise the Clown the left is Tim Curry
and the right is Bill Skarsgård while they are both different
they still accurately portray the murderous clown

Many of the themes in film revolves the psychological horror films as It uses the main characters personal fears against them as he feeds of their fear. In addition the reason why It only kills children is because their fears are more easily to take advantage of compared to an adults. This can be seen through It's appearance as he takes the form of an traditional circus clown as it the fear of clowns is common among many young children usually because of the bizarre costumes and make-up that they wear makes them look inhuman. This can be seen by looking at Pennywise in both the film and miniseries wearing white face make-up making It look pale and lifeless showing the audience that It is a soulless creature. Both versions also have unique teeth with the Curry's version having sharp monstrous teeth whereas Skarsgård version is more human like but abnormally large Skarsgård's costume is also consists of shades of white and black with small parts of red on it making his costume look much more like a traditional clown costume whereas Curry's costume was much more colourful consisting of vibrant blues and yellows giving him a more cartoonish design even including a traditional red clown nose whereas Skarsgård nose is just has red make-up. Personally I find Skarsgård's Pennywise is more terrifying mainly through his acting skills as he truly sounds like a psychotic killer such as when he tricks Georgie into giving him his hand by offering to give him a balloon which when combined with his sinister costume and make-up conveys him as being a much larger threat. However I still believe that Tim Curry's Pennywise was terrific but much less scarier I believe this may be due to Tim Curry's acting as he plays the role of Pennywise in a more comedic way through the dialogue he says but he can still put on a creepy role when he needs to especially when he stalks all the members of the loser gang one at a time. This conforms with Levi-Strauss's 1975 Binary opposite theory as we are seeing to completely different versions of the same character with one being fun and comedic with the other being violent and murderous.

Bill Skarsgård's Pennywise smiling

Looking at Bill's Pennywise I can see that he conforms with Richard Dyer's 1979 star theory as many people now associate him as the true Pennywise because of the lengths he went to portray the character in his own unique way while still being faithful to the original which can be seen as Bill created Pennywise's smile by doing the same smile that he used to do when he chased his brother around the house when they were children. This constructs Pennywise in a way that stands out compared to other horror movie villains as it shows the audience a slight glimmer of the real actor behind the clown which intern makes Pennywise seem more real to us, this also makes the audience associate Bill with Pennywise as being the best Pennywise in a way similar to how people discuss who they believe is the best James Bond (he's been played by 7 different actors). Also, we know that Bill Skarsgård is reprising the role of Pennywise in the sequel to IT (2017) which will make more people associate him the with role of Pennywise as he would of played him in a total of two movie whereas Tim Curry has only played the role in the miniseries. Also looking at Richard Dyer's theory he states that stars are conveyed in 3 possible ways the stars as a construction which means the star is not real and is a construction created by the real person, the star as a commodity which means stars are created to sell merchandise such as t-shirts and the star as an ideology which means that the star will represent a certain social group and fans of that star will then mimic the way they act and share similar beliefs to them. Looking at Pennywise I can see that he is a star construction as he is not Bill Skarsgård he is Pennywise a psychopathic clown who was constructed to be like that by Bill who is the real person behind the star which can be seen as unlike the star Bill portrays he is not a sinister killer.  

Bill Skarsgård's (Left) and Tim Curry's (Right) versions of the Take it scene

After analysing the film I'm believe that the films use of sound will be very useful to my groups trailer especially using music to build up to an ambient silence to put the audience into a false sense of security only to then have a jump scare which will catch them off guard.