There was a mass assault by a middle school student in Korea recently. It was a very horrible and mean thing. It was almost impossible to believe that teenage girls who had just entered puberty did it. Where did their violence come from? Is it human innate cruelty? Or is this society making them?
Either way, the fact that such violence has penetrated deep into our daily lives makes us feel frightened. The violence that the little girls committed was very close to us. And the way they treated the weak was so brutal and cruel. This incident has played a role in awakening the danger of daily violence. But people will soon forget it.
America's small town, the stage of the movie 'It', is a place where such everyday violence is prevalent. The film begins one day when the rain is heavy and the boy Billy is sending out his brother George. Billy was pitiless. In the living room on the first floor, their detached mother is playing the piano. George is left unprotected to his mother and brother. Although not intentional, Billy does not even keep his younger brother from setting a paper boat outside the day when the rain is pouring down. It was never a coincidence that George was the victim of 'it'.
It is a bloody place if you know the small town 'Derry' which looks serene at first sight. There are also a lot of adults who think that there are winners and losers in the world, and if they do not become winners, they should become losers and face a miserable fate. Mike, who can not shoot a sheep with a gun for slaughter, gets a serious scolding from his father. In the conversation of school children, blood blooms and flesh is removed. Billy and Eddie, Stanley and Rich of Loser Club mind Henry's crowd everyday. Pretty girl Beverly is covered in dirt in the bathroom. There is a sign on the front of the police station with the phrase "No Solicitors After 7 p.m.". There is a romantic beloved New Kids on the Block in the same town as Derry. His name is Ben. He loves Beverly.
Henry gang often harass them. The loser clubs, Mike and Ben are all their peanuts. The violence they wield to children is routine. However, adults do not protect children. They are cowardly and greedy. The world was such a place for them to see. The 'it' that haunts this town is not strange. 'It', a monster that appears only to children who are weak, and harasses and eats them, is the incarnation of violence and barbarism that is common in Derry. In this situation, three new members join Loser Club. It's Mike, Ben, and Beverly. They begin to combine their strengths in a desperate situation where they can survive only If they become stronger. And they begin to oppose the strong men who have been tyrannical to them. They grow into a new strong being in the course of a fierce battle with 'it'.
The small town 'Derry' is a space created by Stephen King, the original author, to project American society. He probably wanted to show the brutality of American society, a society only for winners. The movie 'It' throws a strong message to American society. This is not just a horror movie. I was sympathetic to the message that Stephen King threw upon me.
The scenery of Derry where the weak can not be protected is not much different from that of Korea.