IT: The Art of Fantasy Horror

This post contains spoilers for It.

Horror might be the most bland and oversaturated genre of film. Every year, we get dozens of cheap and poorly made “horror” films slapped together by studios like Blumhouse Productions, that are only made because they’re so cheap and end up turning a profit no matter what.

For example, remember that movie Truth or Dare? Yeah, me neither. The film was panned by critics and audiences alike, receiving a 14% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 5.1/10 on IMDB. The movie ended up making only $94 million world wide, and while for most blockbusters this would appear to be a flop, Truth or Dare was made on a measly budget of just $3.5 million.

Horror movies are typically a low cost, high reward investment, and this is why we get so many each year. Blumhouse alone has released 13 films in 2018, with their last one, Halloween, coming out this week. Their business model (and seemingly every horror film production company’s business model) is to find films that need just a couple million dollars to be made, no matter the quality of the film itself, and then automatically turn a profit because it was so cheap to make.

While this model occasionally turns out some really great films like 2017’s Get Out or the Insidious series, more often than not, their releases are more along the lines of Unfriended or Happy Death Day.

Most movies that come out of Blumhouse don’t really feel like their own movie, as in they don’t have their own style or identity; they just feel like basic horror films. None of these movies really have any distinct creativity, they’re all either about a ghost, a demon, or a crazy guy with some sharp object.

In 2017, I went to see the new Stephen King film It. Having read the book, I knew that the story had “fantastical” elements to it, given that it’s about an inter-dimensional monster that can take the form of children’s fears and eat them, but I expected the film to be a little bit dialed back in that regard. During the first act of the movie, my expectations were pretty much correct. For the most part, the scares in the film were pretty basic. Most of the “scary” moments in the first act are just jumpscares, a typical strategy horror movies use to shock the audience when there isn’t really anything scary going on.

For example, in the opening scene where Pennywise is first introduced, the tension is actually built up pretty well. The foreboding and ominous music slowly crescendos as Georgie, the main character’s little brother, chases his paper boat down the road to his eventual demise. When Georgie actually gets to the infamous storm drain and Pennywise reveals himself for the first time, however, the tension is instantly cheapened with a stock jumpscare sound effect.

Moments like this are littered throughout cliche horror movies all the time, and it really annoys me. This scene would be so much more effective if Pennywise’s eyes had just appeared silently, with no loud sound effect to tell the audience that they’re supposed to be scared here. Jumpscares like these feel like a substitute for real horror and real creativity, when they should be an addition to these elements.

At first glance, I thought It would be just like most of Blumhouse’s horror films; cheap, cliche, and bland. I was so ready to leave the theatre disappointed at how uncreative they made this inherently creative and fantastical story,  but then this scene happened:

When I first saw this scene, I was genuinely surprised at how exciting and crazy it feels. The scene feels genuinely chaotic in the best way possible; the music is pounding, the camera shaking as Eddie runs away, and It has grotesquely impressive makeup and prosthetics. Then, when Pennywise shows up, his classic red balloons are aligned in an unnatural way, creatively and creepily showing how inhuman this creature is.

From this point on, the movie was incredible for me. The film goes from being a standard horror film to a crazy fantasy horror movie along the lines of Poltergeist or A Nightmare on Elm Street. By doing this, the movie’s scares are far more original and exciting, making the film feel more like a dark adventure movie then your standard horror film. The insanity of this films horror is portrayed best in this scene, in my opinion:

Part of the reason this scene is so great is due to Bill Skarsgård’s terrifying performance as Pennywise, but it’s also due to the sheer creativity of how Pennywise emerges from the fridge and how he interacts with Eddie and toys with him. This interaction is so different when compared to most horror movie villains, and feels truly unique to this movie.

Fantasy horror is a really underused subgenre in my opinion, and the incredible box office performance of this film shows that people love these types of scares. With the horror genre today being more bland then it feels like it ever has been, I think the industry would truly benefit from more films like It.