Liz and I watched It tonight and…it was not what I was expecting. At least as a whole. I…really liked it. A lot. I was in. I’m in on the next movie. Can’t wait to see it.
Now, I didn’t think It was a perfect movie. It wasn’t mind-blowing or anything. But, it was unlike any other horror movie I’ve ever seen, in that it was surprisingly…wholesome? And sweet? Liz said it best, it was like if the Goonies were rated R. And that’s just something I’m not sure I’ve seen before, at least in the modern era of movies. I was expecting it to be dark. And I don’t mean the scary parts, because those were obviously dark and horror-movie level, that’s where the “R” comes in the Goonies comparison.
I mean I expected the heart of this movie to be one of despair and violence, which is what I’ve grown accustomed to seeing in horror movies, even the ones where people actually live in the end…they’re lucky to have survived, but there is no hope beyond that, really. They just got lucky. I watch most horror movies and walk away from them feeling like the monsters are out there, and they’re going to get all of us eventually. It never stops. We can’t escape it. The monsters are death, and there is no escape from death.
But, this movie did NOT have that in its center. No, this movie had hope. It had a undeniably bright center that said we can defeat anything, even pure evil, if you have hope, and you’re not afraid. And that, I was just not expecting. I know it’s a part of the story, I’ve seen the original TV miniseries, and I’ve seen Stranger Things…I just haven’t seen that in a horror movie in the past 20-30 years. Stranger Things was billed to me as a straight-up throw-back to that 80s era. This movie wasn’t. I mean, the guy who directed it, directed Mother, which I hear is dark as SHIT.
It was just surprising to me. I felt like I was watching a version of horror that *I* could write myself some day. All my stories have a chewy center, not a rotten one.
So, I took all that, and turned to my own story, the one I’m getting back to tomorrow, and I wrote down some new-ish ideas. Really what I wrote were clarifications of ideas I’ve already had.
It’s getting there. Clearer and clearer. Mostly, the problem with my book is developing this one relationship. It’s complicated, which is super interesting and properly challenging on the one hand, but very, very hard on the other.
I’ll get there.
Good night 🙂