OK I am all fired up. This should be fun right, right… Well it should be I know it will though. Meanwhile something strange is happening to me. For the first time in a very long time I don’t have access to the internet and although I really feel uneasy I also feel very energised and focused. I am literally writing this article while listening to the radio which is something I have been unable to do for the longest time. I guess when the circumstances are right you can get the best outcome.
Introduction
Alright so on to the discussion for today. Rewind to the year 2017, the disaster artist is one of the biggest films of the year, steem and steemit is the popular cryptoblog in the market, I’m currently in my third year in university [I’m sorry I just can’t see myself calling it college for you American folks], I’m in my uni hostel called Hall 4 [ahh the memories] and I’ve just started writing for steem, a series I call ‘The best of..’. It’s the year films like the disaster artist is released coupled with some other really interesting films but in the midst of it all, one particular film stands out and that’s the film that predominately going to take up the bulk of this article. Initially when I saw the trailer for this film, I wasn’t sure what to feel about it. I mean one could tell it was a horror film but then again I couldn’t tell what kind of horror it was. You see there are various types of horror movies and we call them horror movie tropes. There are horror films that focus on maniacs [human beings] going around killing people and often times these are very gory we call this slasher flicks, then you have horror films that focus on evil entities tormenting people for some crazy diabolical reason, then there’s horror that focuses on cult groups hunting down and a person or persons for some diabolical means which most of the time has to do with summoning some demon or spirit. There’s also this new type of horror films that exist that we call psychological horror but it’s usually the case that they still end up falling under at least one or two of these categories examples of such films are Midsommar and Hereditary which I think both came out in 2017 also. The film which we will be focusing on today falls under two of these categories of horror.
Why IT works (HHHAA!! see what I did there)
Today we are going to be looking at Andy Muschietti’s IT and we are going to be examining why it’s an example of what a perfect horror film could look like and also how to create authentic terror in a horror film. You see a lot of people make the mistake of thinking that the way to go about creating fright in a horror film is by utilizing well timed jump scares and by setting up extremely intense frightening looking scenes and although there is some utility in doing that I’ll argue that those things alone aren’t enough to compel genuine horror. In fact I believe that authentic horror comes from a narrative stand point. Your story has to depict fear in the minds of those even reading the script and that can only be done by properly designing your story. It’s this particular element that IT and Stranger things get right, they take time to establish characters and establish the story and these in turn establish the horror.
So let’s look at how to structure a narrative to properly portray horror and dread and let’s look at how both stranger things and IT managed to pull this off but first we need to talk about the plot of the movie and by that I mean the plot of IT.
Horror portrayed in Character-relationship dynamics
At this point I feel like a resounding drum because I keep on repeating the same points in most of my reviews and for good reason. In the end, it is simply because all great films have a formula for success and good directors and writers know this formula well. Some know it well enough to be able to break them down restructure them in a new way and still maintain the essence of what makes them great with some of them even being recognized as modern day masterpieces in the film industry (I'm looking at you Christopher Nolan and your amazing work with ‘Tenet’). One of the formulas to any great story (by the way I will be using story and film interchangeable so please do bear with me) is understanding how character-relationship dynamics establishes the nature of your story or in simpler terms, conflict defines your story. In the film IT we see how the main characters are written to be young children who have to come together to fight this evil entity. The reason why this works so well for the overall story is because the children are established as weak and helpless who face this outer worldly evil that is set out to terrify and kill each and every one of them. This way we as audience understand that they don’t stand a chance against what they are up against and they don’t just say it in words, we see it in their actions, and their relationship and interaction with Pennywise. Just from reading that alone, you are convinced of the horror in the film.
As easy and as practical as this principle sounds many horror films make the mistake of creating protagonist characters that don't inherently fit the into the genre [that is they are written as strong capable hero-type characters which tilt the dynamics in their favour] and so in order to make them fit in, they undermine these characters by writing in them traits that counteract these heroic trait. What this eventually leads to in most cases is something known as character inconsistency where a character is not well balanced and the stories avoids doing anything to balance such character out. They fail to realize that for any horror film to truly be convincing the conflict between the protagonist and the evil has to be significantly one sided favouring the antagonist. The protagonist has to be at a disadvantage and not just any disadvantage but extreme disadvantage up to the point where the audience are very much concerned about his or her safety. It's this traditional understanding of cinema that has made it so that most horror films feature female protagonists.
Horror portrayed through one sided conflict.
From the onset of this film we see how much of a disadvantage the members of the losers club are in. They are the bullied unpopular kids with each one of them is dealing with their own personal issues in their lives, some form of trauma that is the root of their fear. With Billy it is the fact that he blames himself for the loss of his brother, with Stanley it's the disappointment his father feels of not meeting up his expectations, with Eddie it's his fear of diseases his overbearing mother has put on him. Then there's Beverley who suffers physical and sexual abuse from her father coupled with the reputation damage she suffers from the rumours, there's Mike who probably has had It worse compared to everyone else, his parents died in house fire and he literally watched them burn to death. Each one of them has faced life altering trauma and these trauma act as a means through which Pennywise can torment them.
The level of Pennywise's influence goes as far as even the entire town. In subtle ways he manipulates the reality and the lives of the town people casting this sort of shadowy presence over the town. We see this when it manipulates the bully into killing his father, we see this when Beverley goes home and we are introduced to her father only for the television commercial to begin to say "you'll float in the sewers and be happy as a clown". We see it when he manifests behind Ben while he's in the library in the form of the librarian. All around we can see his influence and this further frightens us because we understand how close to helpless our protagonists are. We watch as it helpless torments children before eventually eating them and we understand just how evil and powerful it is. Seeing all this we know for certain that our group of protagonists is great danger and their chances of survival are infinitesimal when compared to the power of their tormentor and so we are genuinely concerned and we are invested in seeing them come out even if it’s with a little bit of plot convenience.
Using plot convenience correctly
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Due to the way the story of IT is written to be that is because of the overwhelming disadvantage our protagonists face it makes sense for the writers to write in certain plot conveniences to give them some sort of advantage. The issue of writing in plot conveniences isn’t an easy one. Often times writers find themselves in the situations where they use this writing technique the point where it really becomes noticeable to the audience even to the point of them calling it plot armour. Often times in many films it comes in the form of aide getting to the protagonist in such ways that don’t necessarily make sense. The main purpose why it is used is the stories progression is intertwined with the life of and journey of the protagonist and so if the protagonist if the story dies, then the story abruptly ends and it leaves the audience very angry and dissatisfied. However it is usually the case that the use of this technique puts the story progression in trouble simple because it chooses to progress the story at the expense of common sense which inadvertently leads to authenticity of the story being questioned. With all this being said it would be safe to assume that the use of plot convenience in any story is inherently bad but noting is further from the truth infact I would argue that there is no happy-ending story out there that doesn’t make use of plot convenience. The only that set authentic films from inauthentic films is in simply how it is used in the story and in IT we are given a classic example of how it should be used. The first thing we notice about the plot convenience of this show is that it is highly deserved and warranted. It doesn’t feel as though it is put into the story to make it more exciting neither is it put there due to lazy writing.
The only that set authentic films from inauthentic films is in simply how it is used in the story and in IT we are given a classic example of how it should be used. The first thing we notice about the plot convenience of this show is that it is highly deserved and warranted. It doesn’t feel as though it is put into the story to make it more exciting neither is it put there due to lazy writing. Instead it is used out of necessity. In the scene where the gang visits pennywise’s lair for the first time they are unprepared, terrified, frustrated and are literally walking into a death trap. To some who see this it might seem out of place and delusional for them to do this but the truth is that their action [by that what I really mean is Billy’s action] is born out of a sincere emotion, a reasonable motive. At the time he first walks into pennywise’s lair he is simple reacting with the instincts of a cornered animal. He has had to suffer and endure so much pain and torment that he can bear it no more and the passiveness of everyone around him is something he can no longer bear and so he decides to be brave and fight. Not because it is the honorable thing to do but simply because it is the only option that gets him a shot of doing something. What this does to us the viewers and how it affects the story is that in making that decision, in choosing to finally be fed up and fight, the story progression has completed his character arc and his turn around signals the beginning of the end of the story arc. In that moment, it makes perfect sense to apply plot convenience to the story. For the first time Billy and the losers club are about to fight back. They are inadequately prepared and they are still facing a huge disadvantage none the less they are fed up from all the torment and they will fight. They will most likely die so what does the story do, it gives them one small subtle advantage. In the midst of the horrors pennywise shows them, Beverly manages to impale IT through the head and instead of instantly eating them all up it reacts by pausing in its tracks and retreating even when it had the upper hand.
When we the audiences are seeing all this happen we don’t pause to question why it didn’t kill all off them instead we are simply relived to see that our band of adolescent fighters survived to fight another day. This is because other than the plot convenience being used in this instance as a way to save our protagonists, we are well aware of how close they came to dying and we know first how just how lucky they are to be alive. The convenience is disguised as luck and this luck is appreciated because all throughout the film we see how our band of heroes have been unlucky what does this mean well if you want to use plot convenience the right way, make your story in such a way that your protagonist will really really need it. In order words write your conflict in such a way that it would seem logical to use plot convenience to save your protagonist. Secondly write it in such a way that it is subtle. You don’t want it to be obvious, like we see in the illustration I gave the PC [i’m just going to call it that here because it I’m tired of writing plot convenience over and over again] is rather subtle. It’s not pronounced or repeated and it doesn’t diminish or affect the trajectory of the character nor the story arc. It simply finds its place in the story and it fits perfectly like a glove with all the other elements coming together to reveal the beautiful art piece hidden with the thousand pieced puzzle. In other words don’t make your plot convenience be an inconvenience to other elements of the story
Conclusion
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Ok so I had something else to talk about here but this article is already four pages and over two thousand words long and I wouldn’t want it to be a strenuous read so here’s what’s going to happen, I’m going to end this here and hopefully maybe, jjjuussttt maybe I will do a part two next time and talk about the other elements that make for a great horror film. Until then I will see you next time so, eat your vegetables, sleep well and good night everyone
CIAO
