The final one before
the movie is released.Spoilers obviously: now more than ever!
And here we are again. I forgot all about San Diego comic con. Of course Pennywise and Georgie were going to make an appearance there. At least – from the early stories we got from scenes shown there Bill does have a stutter. The blood and gore are upped. And there is the obvious Bev versus boys bit that’s going to be used to cement the losers club as a whole.
What else did I learn before Comic Con?
Beverly
It appears that Bev is
going to be a sex abuse victim after all. I said before that I preferred her to
be 'merely' a violence abuse victim because that worked rather well in the
original mini-series. But the movie is going to take on the original story of
Beverly - a brave choice. I wonder how it's going to pan out in character
(development).
Sexual abuse of
children in movies don't always create the desired result because the public
automatically hates a pederast. In contrast - the drunk father who 'only' beats
his children still has a chance for redemption (Hacksaw Ridge for instance).
Second, including a predator in the mix often creates an automatic 'kill this one first villain' that pushes the big villain to the background.
A quick example from the top of my mind is Gothica. The minute I learned that the murder victim was a creep I stopped caring for the question of ‘who killed him’ or ‘why’. I was glad he was dead – which in turn caused me to stop looking for clues which would lead to his accomplice.
The sequel has been confirmed
The sequel has already
been confirmed. And early reviews are extremely positive (but then again; they
usually are).
In fact, Stephen King himself okayed the movie - great! But…this is also the guy who hates Kubrick's take on The Shining (and loves the mini-series) and brought us Maximum overdrive. I like the man but I worry about his movie taste.
The promotional department is doing great; except for the posters.
The first poster was
good enough but would have been far better if it only showed Georgie's back
instead of the creepy arm and balloon.
The second poster,
then, is a bit of a Photoshop monstrosity - what are they looking at? Bill is
looking ahead, Mike is looking to the right, Bev is looking to the left (but
not looking at Mike). It's all over the place!
Usually if a poster wants to create a sense of danger lurking it has the characters looking left-centre and right-centre. But here the line of sight is all over the place –which, in turn, causes Stanley to feature more prominently because he looks directly at the viewer (breaking the fourth wall). I'm really starting to think he's going to be the third lead next to Bill and Bev (which makes me fear for Richie’s life -Remember that one of the first promotional bits released was a missing poster for Richie, he could very well not make it to the end of the movie.).
Talking of Stanley
the photo shopper had some real issues with cutting his (and Bev's) curly hair
out.
This poster would have been better with (A) corresponding lines of sight. or (B) merely Pennywise in the distance in the fog.
I´m currently waiting for
the final poster. Just a simple paper-boat in a drain-stream. With the
big bloody letters ´IT´ written above it. But I assume this isn´t going to
happen. Nor are the character posters.
One thing the
promotional department did very well though is the usage of good worth of
mouth. In all simplicity the best thing to market is an actually good movie.
Whereas last
year’s Ghostbuster trailer destroyed every single plus the (enjoyable but no
masterpiece) movie had. The IT-movie uses the positive air to feed the audience
just enough information to keep interest high.
Maybe, one could
argue, a bit too much information at times. But then again: the people are
psyched for this movie so they’ll collect and share every little tidbit of news.
Like I’m doing right now – part 4 already (and I still have to write the
review).
Interviews
I usually don’t really care
for those promotional interviews. They are basically sale-pitches. But the ones
of IT are fun because each and every interviewer happily shares his/her fear of
clowns. Which is fun – you are not alone.
Behind-the-scenes-footage
The
behind-the-scenes-footage (or B-roll) then is basically all the stuff you’ve seen
in the trailer. But, with three exception: First, Patrick Hockstetter is
looking wonderfully insane with his makeshift flamethrower. Second, Richie’s
fear is clowns. Which makes the character and ideal candidate for IT’s favorite
form. And third we see Pennywise laughing his crooked behind off while
devouring a child (that looks like somebody we know).
Behind-the-scenes-footage
Also this ‘
devouring scene’ happens before Mike’s encounter with the Hand’s door. So the
door opens, something with IT happens –which includes the devouring- the door
closes and Mike is terrified.
The rest is nothing new really. But it’s nice to see how the movie is being shot. And you start lip-reading whenever a sound is muted out.
Pictures: or deducting the structure of a movie.
Most of the new stuff
comes from the pictures released in glorious HD. That way you can zoom your way
into each and every pixel.
This is a fun way to
check out the details in set design. For instance, Beverly is shown (with long hair) writing on
a bathroom stall wall which includes messages like: ‘Hate clowns’, ‘Gretta
Keene is a b*tch’ and ‘What’s that smell’. Or, another one with the boys
sitting by a graffiti covered wall which features a very recognizable clown.
But promotional
pictures also gives a massive insight in the order of the movie.
The VR-experience and a game.
The promotional
department wanted to have some fun! Cool! So they set up a VR-experience to get
people spooked out by Pennywise. And it works. It's creepy, in your face, and
(most of all) fun!
Movie studio's do this
all the time. I remember the website of Deep
blue sea offering a flash-game that allowed you to survive a shark attack.
The graphics are terrible by nowadays standards but the idea stays the same:
use new technology to coerce people to see your movie.
In this sense it’s fun
to notice that (I think it’s the studio) released an 8-bit videogame wherein
you can ‘sail’ Georgie’s boat. In Deep
blue sea the bad graphics occurred by time. In IT it is intentional.
The new trailer.
And then finally the
new trailer. We finally heard Pennywise speak. It’s Christmas!
Alas the only words we
heard from IT’s mouth were: “Take it-t.” Which could very well be from the end
of a monologue. So It could still be creepy over charming or –Tim Curry’s take-
interchangeably both.
There is a longer
version of the Georgie/Pennywise scene released. And I certainly think
Skarsgard is doing a great job with the role. But, merely based on this scene,
it does feel a bit rushed. But I can’t judge on one scene.
Anyway, I heard some
distinct stutter from Bill. So that’s another cross on my ‘I wonder’-list. And
there is seriously something going on between Bev and Bill.The soundtrack, if the movie is keeping this, is great. Just listening to it brings the hairs on the back of my neck on end. And then the: ‘They float’-chant. I can’t get enough of it.
It is a very well made trailer that highlights the main characteristic of Pennywise: It wishes to scare. So poor ol’ Richie in a room of clown-dolls. Beverly getting a (jump-scare) visitor. And of course Bill starting to fear the same cellar steps his younger brother used to fear.
One shot in particular showed how damaged the kids are at a certain time (when they make the pact – I presume). So, again, we get confirmation that this movie is all out R-rated. Broken bones on children and all.
And according to an
interview with the director poor Georgie is going to get his arm ripped off, so
there’s that.
Is this version of Pennywise too evil?
The question I’ve
asked since I began this little segment on my blog. Is this incantation of
Pennywise the clown going to be all out monster or is he a predator luring
children with his charm, jokes and wit? And I still don’t know since I only
have one scene to go with.
There is a darkness here.
Of course there is. But then there’s the ‘charm’. It’s going to be very
interesting. By the looks of it IT comes across as a beast stalking his pray,
playing with it before he eats. Which is a good thing because that’s exactly
the way he should be.
BTW I’m expecting a
resurgence of horror-clowns next month.
The next article about IT is going to be the review after that it’s back to the sewers for another 27 years.
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