Horror is something that I have always been drawn to. Since a young age, my favorite holiday has been Halloween. As a kid, there was something special about getting dressed up in a costume and knocking on the doors of the houses with the spookiest decorations in the dead of night. Trick-or-treating was a thrilling experience that I only had once a year. As I transitioned into my teenage years, my new Halloween tradition became throwing a party at my house. Each year, the party is filled with monster-themed foods and terrifying decorations intended to make my house look haunted. All of this is in celebration of the one night where fear is everything.

Getting scared is quite fun. That’s why Halloween is always so exciting. It’s also why I stayed up late on many nights of my childhood reading RL Stine’s chilling Goosebumps books, as did many other kids. We were all proud of ourselves for being able to read such scary tales, which goes to show that one reason people enjoy being scared is because they like to feel brave. People enjoy the feeling of enduring something scary; it makes them feel tough and fearless. I am currently revisiting the Goosebumps series, and although they do not present the same level of terror as they did many years ago, they are enjoyable. The fundamental aspects of good scary stories are present.

Another reason to like the horror genre is because of the monsters themselves. Frankenstein, Dracula, werewolves, ghosts, etc. Even to those who have never watched a horror movie, these are iconic names. The Hotel Transylvania movies are successful not because they’re scary, but because they bring together many of these famous and beloved monsters. The Goosebumps series has its own unique monstrous characters like Slappy and The Haunted Mask, which are loved by readers, despite their evil nature.

I definitely am a fan of horror, but it wasn’t until about two years ago that I began watching horror movies on a more regular basis. I have seen a good share of them now, and I love them because they provide about an hour and a half of fear that gets your heart racing and keeps you very engaged. A lot of movies use the ‘jump scare’ gimmick to startle audiences, and they include disposable characters that only exist for the purpose of being killed by the main threat at some point in the film. These movies are fun to watch and keep you on the edge of your seat, but I would not say that they truly embody what the horror genre is about.

Horror books cannot give readers jump scares, because jump scares are reliant on slow and quiet moments being suddenly interrupted by something loud and startling. That is a tactic that can only be done properly in films. So how do books manage to convey horror? And how is the mere concept of a monster, like Frankenstein, horrific? It is my belief that horror is about the paranormal and unnatural. But what differentiates horror monsters from superheroes, who are also paranormal and unnatural? Typically, when it comes to horror, there is something unsettling or disturbing. Frankenstein is a seven foot tall man who was assembled by a mad scientist from the parts of other deceased humans. Dracula is a man with chalk-white skin who feasts on blood. Werewolves are people who transform into vicious beasts under full moons, and ghosts have a whole array of strange and scary qualities. These abnormal traits fill us with a sense of fear that we find enjoyable. A commonly occurring type of monster in modern horror films is demons. They possess people, and the possession is often displayed in a terrifying manner. These horrific scenes and monsters are what resonate with us. Not the jump scares that startle us for only a brief moment, or the frequent killing of characters, but the parts that are truly supernatural, and like nothing we would ever witness in real life.

Without having read the lengthy novel or watched the original television movie, I went to see IT last weekend, believing it to simply be a very scary clown movie. I was absolutely blown away by what I witnessed. There are spoilers ahead, so be warned. When Pennywise sinks his many rows of teeth into the arm of a young boy in the opening sequence of the film, it becomes instantly apparent that he is not just a clown. He is in fact an extremely powerful being that captures children, brings them to the sewers, and consumes them every 27 years. His true form is never quite shown; he is capable of changing his appearance to look especially frightening to whomever his target is at any given time. I believe that this film is an excellent horror story, because Pennywise (who eventually is referred to as IT) is basically the living essence of fear. He takes on many forms, and is truly terrifying. At one point, he chooses to take on the form of a woman in an extremely creepy painting. When this happens, it is absolutely horrific. I had never seen such a frightening and unsettling face in any horror movie scene before. This face was not masked by darkness; it was brought into the light, and it was like something from a nightmare.

This film was not reliant on jump scares, gruesome killings, or unnecessarily dark rooms. It truly explored the full potential of a horror movie with a high budget, by bringing in many scary forms of IT. The movie brought nightmarish themes to the big screen in a way I have never seen done before. Another reason that I loved this movie was because of the characters. It unexpectedly focused heavily on the individual lives of the main cast of kids, as well as their interactions with each other away from all the horror. Their personalities were genuinely accurate to many kids of that age, and the scenes where they spoke back and forth with each other were highly entertaining. There was a three-way romantic subplot within the central friend group, as well as many other subplots regarding the relationships of the kids and their parents. The main girl has an abusive father, one boy has a strict religious father, and another has an over-protective and dishonest mother.

The character building made for an excellent story, and the many terrifying and well-animated forms of IT exceeded the modern standards for horror movie monsters. I greatly enjoyed this film, and I even paid a second visit to the theater to watch it again. Now I have purchased the book, and I will observe the similarities to the film as I read. IT was a phenomenal horror movie, and I recommend it to anyone who is a true fan of horror. Over all, I give the film a solid 8/10.