It (2017)

Quick note here: I record and edit these in advance, so this was recorded on January 14 while we were still in quarantine and had just gotten Mr. Peepers, Alicia’s kitten. So no one in my house has Covid anymore, we are out of quarantine, and the kitten is definitely part of all of the podcasts now. I also apologize for all the background noise at the beginning. I was really on edge and couldn’t stop fidgeting.

I, in my infinite wisdom, decided to watch this alone in the middle of night when everyone else was asleep. I have no idea why I thought it was a good idea at the time. Even editing this scared me all over again, especially when Alicia walked past my room in the dimly lit hallway, and all I saw was her dark reflection in the warped mirror at the foot of my bed while I was at the part with the picture in Stanley’s father’s office.

Episode notes:

I actually watched the original It and chapter 2. Neither of them scared me because there was too much of a focus on the group coping with their own issues as adults who are trying to come to terms with this traumatic event, so it detracted from the horror. For me, a really scary movie gets inside my head; it’s not just about special effects. So if the scare aspect is not the main focal point, then it won’t scare me. Startle maybe. Definitely not scare. That’s not to say someone else won’t find them scary though. There were more monsters in Chapter 2, which also makes it harder to scare me. There’s more of a psychological horror thrill when my imagination does most of the work.

I intentionally did not focus on the bullying part of this movie. I actually wanted to feel what it was like to be scared by this movie, and if I had dwelt on the bullying, then it would have detracted from the horror. So if you read the book or watched the movies, you already know that the bullies are a plot point. I just chose not to highlight them.

I also did not focus on the apparent sexual abuse Bev suffered from her father. If that is a trigger for you, then you need to be aware that while you don’t actually see anything, it is pretty heavily implied.

I did not read the book, so I don’t know which storyline is correct for Mike. I definitely liked the original one better. I felt like he was a well developed character who had depth and actually tied the whole thing together, and in this movie, he felt more like an afterthought. He is the researcher in Chapter 2, but I hated what they did with him as a kid.

I couldn’t find out what the phobia for basements is or if one even exists, but apparently being afraid of basements is part of claustrophobia (fear of small spaces), cleithrophobia (the fear of being locked or trapped in an enclosed space), and agoraphobia (fear of being unable to escape or get help if something goes wrong).