Stephen King's IT (2017) A Lesson in Writing Fear

I think when you’re a writer, especially if you want to be a published writer, you
should write and read as much as you can.Specifically, you should write what you love and read a variety of stories as a method of teaching. This is how you use a story as a lesson.

I’m a writer myself, and as you all know, I’m also a big fan of movies, specifically those in the fantasy, horror and superhero genre. I love stories that can take you to another world with characters you instantly fall in love with, so much that it feels like you’re on the journey with them.

Horror is my favourite genre for this reason, as I believe with this style of storytelling, there are so many unique and innovative ways to take the audience through your narrative. Whether that be through the dream-like world of A Nightmare on Elm Street, exploring human horror like in The Shining or a simple minimalistic thriller like Halloween, there are many ways to use this style to effect the reader.

The genre itself is particularly effective as the intent for a horror story is to incite fear into the audience, so you may be surprised to hear that my favourite movie of 2017 was IT.

Stephen King’s IT is one of his most highly regarding works, telling the story of The Loser’s Club as they battle the mysterious demon entity known only as IT, who enjoys taking on the form of Pennywise the Dancing Clown.

Bill Skarsgard stars as the demonic monster, IT.

Whereas the book tells the story from the perspective of the Loser’s Club as adults and children, this particular movie chose to focus on the children, with a follow up film based on the adult’s life to release later next year.

Having been a massive fan of Stephen King’s work my entire life, I could not wait to see IT, and after the teaser trailer, I couldn’t have been more excited. I was even more so when my screening was packed and everyone was there to celebrate this movie.

A horror movie being treated like an event. This was awesome.

However, when any horror movie comes out, especially new ones, you’re always going to get the people who tell you that it’s not scary and therefore doesn’t qualify as a horror.

Did this new version of IT scare me?

Yes. But not in the way you would think.

Common criticisms of the genre normally revolve around jump scare tactics, the use of a loud score or anything inbetween, but here’s what I think IT did to make it stand out as being scary.

It simply used the theme of fear for the storytelling, and focused on the characters.

To start with this, you just need to look at IT’s opening scene, which we’re all aware of when little Georgie Denborough loses his paper boat down a sewer drain and comes face to face with IT, only to then become the monster’s first victim in the movie. I would honestly put this scene up there with other great horror openings like Jaws or Halloween, because I think it’s quite effective in what it sets out to do.

Georgie about to meet his fate with IT.

Director Andres Muschietti accepted that there was no way to adapt all of Stephen King’s novel into a feature film, and chose instead to tell the story based on the emotional journey it took him on when he read the novel.

Let’s examine a moment in the opening scene which looks at this. When Georgie runs down the street in the rain playing with his boat, the music is very whimsical and has that childlike wonder to it, however, look what happens as soon as Georgie gets hit and the boat leers off from his control.

The score gets darker, more haunting, and builds to a climax where the boat ends up in the sewer, and we know how this ends up as Georgie comes face to face with Pennywise the Dancing Clown.

The following interaction with the two says a lot about the character dynamics. Georgie showing off his fearful yet curious side of a child as he talks with the clown, whereas Pennywise is using this curiousity to lure him in.

The scene made a point to know that Georgie’s fear is losing his relationship with his brother, something most siblings can relate to. Pennywise uses this fear by reminding him that Bill will indeed kill him if he doesn’t come back with the boat, and it’s Georgie giving into this irrational childlike fear that ultimately results in him becoming clown food.

Whilst this scene might not come off as scary depending on the kind of horror fan you are, I can’t deny it’s effectiveness in using the theme of fear as a way to set up its characters.

In an essay published by Marshall Pease, he states:

One of the major driving forces of humanity is the duality of fear and curiosity. What are we
afraid of, and what are we curious about? We fear chaos but we are also curious about it. We fear the unknown, but we also want to make its mysteries known. This polarization is, I think, of profound importance to us as individuals and to humanity in general.

It’s this exact quote that makes me roll my eyes at the people who say that Pennywise is too scary looking and thus would draw kids away. You would think that as an adult, but it’s not uncommon to believe that a child may be more accepting of fantastical stuff they can’t explain, and whilst Georgie in this scene shows how scared he is, ultimately it comes from curiosity.

Simply put, we fear what we don’t understand. Georgie asking questions shows him attempting to make sense of the whole situation trying to beat his fear…but we know it doesn’t end well for him.
The movie’s theme of fear doesn’t stop there. Throughout all of IT, Pennywise uses fear to intimidate The Losers Club and emotionally torture them. Simple things like preying on Eddie’s fear of germs, Richie’s immense fear of clowns and Mike’s trauma of the tragedy that plagued his life.

There’s bigger arcs with fear regarding the Loser’s Club.

For example, Bill’s arc is about him accepting the fate of his brother. It mocks him with both what he wants and what he fears. Bill wishes to be reuinited with Georgie for the whole movie, not wanting to face the fear of him being dead. It shows his brother decaying about midway through the film with the repeated taunting of “You’ll float too,” in this case referring to how It is giving him the chance to come join Georgie and float with him. I take this as Bill enjoying the torment of Bill and pushing on his desire to kill him. Once Bill discovers Georgie’s raincoat after they’ve defeated It, he accepts his fear and moves on, with his friends supporting him, but more on that later.

The other character who gets to have a major arc is Beverly Marsh, with her fear being the lack of control around her own life. Outside the house, she smiles and happily becomes friends wih The Losers Club, but at her own home, her father is the one in control. One of the most notable scenes is IT blasting Beverly with blood, and since blood in storie can be representative of life could be interpreted as It mocking Beverly with the lack of control she faces in her day to day life.

The fact that the other Losers also see the bloody room and help her clean it, whilst her dad can’t, to me was a symbol of her life being better around her friends. However, she does overcome this fear by taking charge later and that’s shown by her home life being so traumatising, that Pennywise doesn’t actually frighten her.

What Beverly is really afraid of is being alone.

One of the reasons It takes the form of Pennywise the Clown is it enjoys the hunt and the fun of being the clown. There’s something about how alluring yet unsettling the form of a clown can be, and it’s pretty effective.

However, you may be surprised when I tell you what my favourite scene in the movie is. It’s not the opening, it’s not any of the graphic kills or moments where Pennywise is dancing or taunting the kids.

It’s this.

The Losers bond over swimming in the lake. 

This scene is just The Losers hanging out, having fun and embracing their youth together. There’s no darkness that looms over this, and the music gives off a nostalgic feeling of togetherness that we often reminisce on when we enter adulthood. The moments we miss when we had fun with our friends during vacation. The way we would take advantage of having no rules when the adults aren’t around.

That simple pleasure of being young and not having a care in the world. This is easily the happiest scene in the movie, and it works because The Losers are together, and with the addition of Mike later on standing up to the bully Henry Bowers, this is what becomes their tactic in defeating It in the big showdown.

When they are together and fighting, It is powerless against them. It reminds us that darkness can exist in the foulest of places and possibly lure us in when we’re alone, but when you’re together, when you’re united, you can be the hero, and overcome your fear.

By focusing on the character journey, Andy Muschietti managed to create a horror film that we don’t get to see often. One where we grow to care and love the characters we’re following, and wanting to see them defeat Pennywise rather than just wait for the next big kill.

He succeeds at that not by taking every chance to scare us, but through using the theme of fear as a storytelling point, insists us to overcome what frightens us, and above all else, stand united in your experiences, no matter how dark, no matter how terrifying, and there’s comfort in knowing that no matter what kind of darkness plagues your life as you get older, it’s the people around you who
will make sure you never have to face it alone.

You'll never be alone, at least until the sequel next year.