Tyler H Posted September 9, 2017 Posted September 9, 2017 I don't normally enjoy horror flicks, but for some reason this one intrigues me. Perhaps it has something to do with the cultural significance, but I rewatched a trailer today and it seems as though there is an underlying message regarding the adult cover up of child abuse. I'd be interested in hearing Stef's break down of the symbolic messaging in the film. Anyone else? I thought his analysis of American Psycho was fantastic. If anyone hasn't listened to that I recommend it.
Wuzzums Posted September 9, 2017 Posted September 9, 2017 I don't find Stephen King to be that much of a cerebral writer. He's a quantity over quality kinda guy and with the amount he's written it's almost inevitable to come upon a great number of gems. As far as I know he's the one that created the whole genre of "innocent childish thing is actually evil". It was literally a million dollar idea. Serial killers mumbling nursery rhymes, killer dolls, child ghosts, devil kids, haunted schools, cursed toys, masked Halloween killers, evil crazy parents, dream monsters, evil siblings, and so on are horror-movie themes that are being constantly recycled even now. A killer clown is just another subset of that same idea. The underlying message of "adult cover-up of child abuse" does seem to me to fit however take in account that the clown is actually not a clown, or a human, or a demon, but a giant spider. Why? Because some people have a phobia of spiders so wooooo, scaaaawry. A better movie that does have an underlying message is The Babadook. The movie takes on a whole new meaning (removing the supernatural element altogether) when you realize the first half is from the mother's perspective and the second half is from the child's perspective. That said I would love to hear more movie reviews from Stefan and Mike. The District 9 review was also fantastic. 1
Skorge91 Posted September 11, 2017 Posted September 11, 2017 Stef pretty much nailed the main themes within the book. The book itself obviously goes deeper in to this. This movie was a good representative of the book but they added many scenes that didn't happen and changed some things that would have made it better. The main Themes I got out of the book where the uselessness and uncaring/abusive nature of most families and society as a whole towards children in the modern day. The book really goes into depth on how childhood effects the kids later life, example, Beverley marries a man identical to her father, he beats her and rapes her, however Ben makes a choice to change his life and loses weight becoming a fitness coach if i remember right, he becomes very assertive and proud of what he has become. This example of trauma effecting the kids but the kids making choices which determines their outcomes in 27 years when It returns and they go back to Derry is repeated with all characters. Scenes they added, the kids never fight the clown as kids. It simply stops feeding on kids outside of the casts immediate circle and goes awaybecause it's full, the movie portrays that the kids get over a lot of their trauma during that last fight scene, in the book, many of them never get over their trauma even as adults. Things they changed, Ben was not the historian and lead figure for learning about what It was. That was Mike(black kid), you'd think they would've actually stuck to the book and portrayed a strong black character but they didn't FFS Hollywood drives me nuts. They changed his backstory as well and how It manifested itself to him, believe it was a giant vulture in the book. Also when Henry kills his father he doesn't fall down a well, he gets caught by the cops and goes to an insane asylum saying the clown made him do it. This has big impacts for the book later but I won't spoil that in case anyone is reading it. These are just some of many problems with the new movie as it relates to the book. This was one of the books I was reading during my initial jump into self knowledge in 2011 and it remains my favorite for these reasons. I'd highly recommend anyone interested to go get the unabridged audio book on audible, you won't regret it. Also the info Stef gave about his destructive drug abuse really sheds light on the LSD trip of an ending which in my opinion can go in the trash its so loopy.
Wuzzums Posted September 11, 2017 Posted September 11, 2017 41 minutes ago, Skorge91 said: (...) I saw the redlettermedia review. Was there really an in depth description of an underage gangbang in the book?
Skorge91 Posted September 13, 2017 Posted September 13, 2017 Re listening to the audio book now myself with my wife. I had forgotten about that but yes there is, it's part of the ending of the book, the part I scrubbed from my memory because it's such a stupid ending for a solid book in general, even disregarding that scene. I swear he just got high as hell and started scribbling none sense at the end. The whole delusional ending is way beyond my suspension of disbelief, mostly because it's written like he's stoned.
Posely82 Posted September 18, 2017 Posted September 18, 2017 i understand what you are talking about OP. i have health issues which keeps me away from watching horror movies... but you know, there's so much fuss around this movie that i seriously think about wathing it. do you people think that it is such a great movie? is it worth it?
Garrett Posted September 18, 2017 Posted September 18, 2017 My main criteria for choosing to watch a movie is: Will I be a better/happier person after watching it? Unfortunately for most movies the answer is no. I suspect "It" is no exception.
Wuzzums Posted September 19, 2017 Posted September 19, 2017 12 hours ago, Posely82 said: i understand what you are talking about OP. i have health issues which keeps me away from watching horror movies... but you know, there's so much fuss around this movie that i seriously think about wathing it. do you people think that it is such a great movie? is it worth it? 10 hours ago, Garrett said: My main criteria for choosing to watch a movie is: Will I be a better/happier person after watching it? Unfortunately for most movies the answer is no. I suspect "It" is no exception. I watched it. It's apparently one of the most successful horror movies of all time but not because of the movie. The marketing was a stroke of genius. They started promoting the movie ever since it went into production with easter eggs that only fans of the book would recognize which in turn started hyping the movie before the first trailer even came out. Plus it was released doing a period of box office dribble. I suspect a lot of people went to see it because they literally had nothing better to choose from such as myself. As for the movie: great production, good acting, doesn't seem to long. I wouldn't even classify it as a horror. It has a bunch of genuinely funny moments, as in looney toons funny. The audience laughed out loud way too often. It reaches an Evil Dead level of humor at times. Frankly all I can remember from it now are the funny moments, which were great. If you're an Evil Dead fan go watch it and picture the Stranger Things kid as tween Ash. You'll enjoy it.
Tyler H Posted September 19, 2017 Author Posted September 19, 2017 11 hours ago, Wuzzums said: I watched it. It's apparently one of the most successful horror movies of all time but not because of the movie. The marketing was a stroke of genius. They started promoting the movie ever since it went into production with easter eggs that only fans of the book would recognize which in turn started hyping the movie before the first trailer even came out. Plus it was released doing a period of box office dribble. I suspect a lot of people went to see it because they literally had nothing better to choose from such as myself. As for the movie: great production, good acting, doesn't seem to long. I wouldn't even classify it as a horror. It has a bunch of genuinely funny moments, as in looney toons funny. The audience laughed out loud way too often. It reaches an Evil Dead level of humor at times. Frankly all I can remember from it now are the funny moments, which were great. If you're an Evil Dead fan go watch it and picture the Stranger Things kid as tween Ash. You'll enjoy it. Yeah I ended up seeing it this past weekend and would entirely agree with that synopsis.
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