"It", the film that explores our deepest fears

The writer Stephen King is known for exploiting his great creative talent in the most twisted ways. His goal is to create worlds in which terror creeps into the lives of the protagonists of his fiction.

The latest adaptation of one of his works has recently arrived in movie theaters. “It” is a story about childhood, friendship and the way in which adult life violently bursts into the comfort zone Exploiting our weaknesses. And he does it by using one of the most interesting psychological resources to create a disturbing atmosphere: the fear of clowns, which can become a real phobia.

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What is the film about?

It's story is relatively simple. A boy disappears during a rainy evening while chasing a paper boat washed up on the street, and his brother sets out to find it by exploring the sewers of the small town where he and his family live. He will do it accompanied by his friends, all of them socially excluded by the rest of the students (that's why they called the gang of Losers), of a young man out of school and a teenager stigmatized for her sexuality.

Little by little, this group will discover that the trail of the missing child leads to an entity that takes the form of a clown with grotesque features and that is hidden in the sewage system of the city.

Fears, bullying and a comfort zone

Although Stephen King's eponymous book has a very complex and nuanced story, this adaptation to the big screen sacrifices part of the original story (or rather, its first half) in a very worthy. What does not change is the way in which the aesthetics of the clown serves to express without words what is the nature of terror in it.

Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård), the murderous creature referred to in the film's title, takes the form of a clown for most of the time in order to get closer to the children. However, in reality It is a creature linked more to the demonic than to the world of the circus: Has the ability to transform into people's most intimate fears to make them lose control until they are helpless. At that time, he feeds on her fear and her flesh.

Now, what makes this adaptation of It special is the way in which it captures everyday life. In the film, the lives of the protagonists, just at the gates of puberty, are reflected in their most insignificant details: from their problems making friends, their ways of having fun and even, and this is important, the way they relate to their families.

In both the book and the movie, Stephen King's story consists of introduce the element of terror in a context defined by the familiar. A world in which, even if there is violence (as in the case of bullying), occurs within clear limits that everyone knows. Near the adults and with the police watching. But Pennywise breaks this dynamic, because she breaks the comfort zone of the protagonists, while revealing the darker side of that space that seemed safe.

Friendship as medicine for fear

Something that draws a lot of attention from It is the crudeness with which it shows the world of adults. In this film, the tendency towards the abuse of minors is very present and clearly overrepresented and there is not a single adult who is characterized by its correct morality.

In fact, what most of them have in common is that they try to isolate their children, to keep them confined to the domestic and family sphere. The degree of overprotection sometimes reaches pathological extremes, and expresses a very clear idea: the fear of delve into the adult world, to go beyond what would be dictated by the custom that has been followed for years.

Pennywise and his trump card

Pennywise, who uses her powers to take advantage of the fears of each of the young people, takes advantage of the deep vulnerability in which these family contexts leave the protagonists. All she has to do is create visions that recreate the deepest fears from each of them. However, it does not take into account that in a context in which families are dysfunctional, these young people can build a second family. They have each other.

That's why Pennywise tries to attack through fear. Phobias have the characteristic of making us lose sight of what is rational (literally, they are fears based on situations in which it is unreasonable to fear something). Appeal to the most basic emotions It is something that can divide us, and it tries to do the same with the group of Losers, to capture the members one by one.

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What the phobia of clowns tells us

Pennywise's aesthetic already tells us a lot about the movie. She is dressed as a timeless clown, with clothes typical of various historical stages, to put emphasis that it is something that has been frightening the population since the beginning of the creation of the city. He is not a monster that represents a particular type of fear, but represents fear, in the abstract: he will take whatever form is appropriate to scare humans.

On the other hand, Pennywise presents a mix of childish and demonic characteristics. What better way to express the break with childhood and the entry into the stage of risks and uncertainty of adulthood than a clown with childish cheekbones and a mischievous smile and, at the same time, cracked skin and swollen head, striving to give the appearance of being what really is not.

For evolutionary psychologists, fear makes sense as a protection mechanism, to avoid danger without having to stop and question whether or not we should run away. Our nervous system automatically decides that the correct answer is "run". But sometimes, this same terror causes us to develop fears unnecessarily, as if it were a phobia of clowns, of what appears in a safe context. Fear can make us lose sight of what all adversity can be faced in company, be it from our royal family or not.

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Terror is faced in a group

Adulthood may be scary, but in the end we always have the opportunity to not face those fears by being alone, with no one to cover our backs. Yeah life gives us reason to worry, it will be because we have the freedom to look beyond our individual limitations, to turn to our friends, the chosen family.

Clown phobia is an example of what is designed to amuse us and make us feel good in a family context. and sure, many times, we can come to experience it in a more toxic way than the real dangers of life as beings ripe.

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