Stephen king – Nilsa's world

For some time there have been rumors on the net talking about a third future part for this incredible saga that is “It” by Stephen King so hoping that this one is verified I take this opportunity to tell you about one of my favorite horror characters: Pennywise!

It was in 1986 that Stephen King’s novel saw the light of day. A story about a group of children fighting against a demonic creature that has taken on the appearance of a clown in the small town of Derry.
Stephen King, as often in his novels, will incorporate personal memories and anecdotes from his own childhood.
“It” is a novel mixing past and present, following the children, who have become adults, having to confront again the creature that had terrorized them.
The book, a block of almost one thousand three hundred pages, was quickly adapted into a television movie. It was in 1990 that “It” landed on American televisions.

In this article, I’ll focus more on the creature itself than on the rest of the story.
The creature is a key character in the novel and a lot of gray areas persist about it so let’s lift the veil on some aspects of “It”.

The clown Named “It”, is also known as Pennywise in. It is a very old creature, a demonic being, which would even date, before the creation of the universe. It comes from a place called the Macro-verse, a world beyond our own. Arrived on Earth for millions of years, the creature has remained lurking in the shadows awaiting the arrival of humanity.
She waited and when the first inhabitants arrived on what would become the city of Derry, the creature set off on the hunt. Alternating moments of pure violence with periods of hibernation of 27 years.
We don’t know his original form, more often than not, “It” looks like a clown, a shape he uses as a trap in order to more easily catch children.
It is also explained to us that the fact of terrorizing its victims before devouring them, allows their flesh to taste better, like a little salt on a piece of barbaque.
The creature appears to have some control over the psyche of the people of Derry, many of the crimes against children were never solved, and the adults either forgot or remained unmoved by these events as if nothing had happened.

Who is he really?

The creature comes from another world beyond our universe. She arrived on our earth millions of years ago, patiently waiting for humans. Its true form is impossible for man to understand, it cannot materialize in our physical world, it is revealed in the form of a giant spider during the final fight, because this form is the only one that comes close to this that it really is.

This spider-like form is also the one chosen by the creature to fight the club of failures, because not being able to materialize the fear of each of the members, it needed a form representing a universal fear, capable of frightening everyone at the same time.

Its true form?

“It” has a form made from orange light called dead lights. These lights are the creature’s best asset, because any human being who gazes into them will instantly lose their mental health. Only Bill, a member of the Loosers Club, will be able to see a glimpse of the dead lights through the eyes of the unseen creature. He will describe them as a gigantic, almost infinite, creeping entity made up entirely of orange lights.

Its transformations

The creature feeds on the fear of others. She is thus able to materialize each fear physically to frighten her victims before devouring them. In the TV movie, the creature can take on different appearances to terrify its prey, so we’ll see it take turns taking on the appearances of a familiar person, a werewolf, a mummy, but these are much more varied in the novel. We thus find there: the creature of “Creature from the Black Lagoon”, a pteranodon, leeches, a leper, the shark of “Jaws”, piranhas, Dracula or the witch of Hansel and Gretel.

The kids

The creature feeds on the fear of children, the latter being easier to frighten, the latter being more apt to believe in it, but the power of the imagination of the children as well as their innocence can also make them stronger in the face of “It”. Thus allowing the failure club to defeat him for the first time.

The coming of age will have quite an impact on them, their beliefs and their friendship will not be what it used to be. Their imagination will be diminished and 27 years later, when “It” returns, they will have to find their lost childhoods and find their complicity in order to defeat the creature once and for all.

A powerfull creature

In addition to being a shapeshifter, the creature can also create hallucinations so powerful that they are able to hurt their victims while being invisible to those unaware of its existence.
To this is also added:

telepathy
teleportation
telekinesis
mind control
time modulation.

“It” is therefore an extremely powerful entity.

His worst enemy

Outside of the loosers club, his worst enemy is a turtle named Maturin. Absent from TV movies and movies, this one comes from the same place as “It”. It is also said that this one is at the origin of our universe and unlike the clown, it is a benevolent entity. Like the ying and the yang these two creatures are at perpetual war with each other.

“It” and the turtle appear in other Stephen King novels such as “The Dark Tower” but the concept of Macro-verse is a bit confusing for those who haven’t read the novels. This may explain why the turtle was not used in the video adaptations of the story.

“It”, is he really dead? (appearances and references in King’s work).

“It” appears in the “Tommyknockers” novel, one of the characters claiming to have seen a clown in a manhole as he passed through Derry. In the film there are several references to the city of Derry.
Even more surprisingly, the VHS jackets of the 2 TV films are almost very similar
In the novel “Dreamcatcher” there is also a reference to graffiti on a wall saying “Pennywise is alive”.
In the short story “Gray Matter” from the collection “Danse Macabre”, reference is made to a man working in the sewers of Bangor, who one day came out totally frightened, referring to a white light.
The story of the novel “Insomnia” also takes place in the city of Derry.

With all his clues, is it possible that Stephen King would imply that “It” would still be alive, hibernating somewhere? Will he ever come back to wreak havoc in our world?

Dr Sleep by Stephen King, the novel following his shining, has been brought to our screens by Mike Flanagan who takes the gamble, not only to adapt the book, but also to make it a sequel to the cult film by Stanley Kubrick!
So is it successful? I tell you everything
this in this new Midnight Session.

This Dr. Sleep brings us back thirty years after the terrible events that took place at the Overlook hotel. Young Danny has grown up and is trying to drown his torments in drugs and alcohol, but he will meet a girl who also owns The Shining, who is chased by a group of hippies. Kind of vampire who feed on those who have this power.
By going to her rescue, he will have to relive certain events that he would have liked to leave behind.

From the start, the film sets us in the mood for Kubrick’s work. The unforgettable music, the plan of Dany on her tricycle in the corridors, door 237 … It is a big visual slap that we take with full force. Then we see these characters who are like two peas in a pod with the original ones:

• Young Danny is immediately identifiable;
• Then comes the turn of her mother Wendy who is the spitting image of the original actress ...

We understand after a few minutes that we are not dealing with a simple adaptation but a real work done with a sincere love of the Kubrick film.
The one behind it is Mike Flanagan, director of the nice Oculus and the most forgettable Ouija the origins. He had already tried his hand at the King universe by adapting the novel Jesse in 2017, but it was especially with the haunting of Hill House that the director imposed himself in my eyes. Superb psychological horror stories in which the director really seems to have found his way.

With this Dr. Sleep, he still succeeds in a rather daring bet, adapting the story of Stephen King who follows his own novel but also making it the continuation of the film which was not the most faithful, Kubrick having taken a great artistic freedom and had moved away from what King had written, attracting the wrath of the latter who had treated it with very bad adaptations but still recognizing that it was a very good film.
So there was a lot of work to come to merge the two works making concessions on one, the dead end on details of the other to get to create this masterful film that is Dr Sleep.
Mike Flanagan gives us an incredible film in which he also succeeds in imposing his own artistic touch without coming to denote with the film which he wants to follow.

The adult Danny Torrance is embodied by an Ewan Mcgregor, who during 2h30 of film will never make you doubt his role perfectly embodying the little boy become man, tired of these nightmarish visions and who tries to find a place in this world despite its difference.
For the rest of the actors it will be of the same ilk:
The young Abra is beautifully interpreted, the members of the band are all very charismatic, especially Rose the Hat embodied by a Rebecca Ferguson who literally bursts the screen by the aura she gives off.

Visually the film is superb, the photography is magnificent and certain visual effects such as Rose’s astral journey which will fly over the Earth is breathtakingly beautiful. At that time I even thought that It Chapter 2 could have provided us with something equivalent to present to us the passage where Bill leaves his body to bring his mind back to Pennywise in the Macroverse.
in short, this passage from Doctor Sleep is absolutely sublime.
The final, on the other hand, will only give you chills all over your body with this return to the Overlook hotel, with these plans which perfectly copy this from the introduction of Kubrick’s film.

I would not go into details but know that Mike Flanagan will even succeed in giving us the final that King had written for the end of Shining and which had not been kept by Kubrick coming therefore finished the history of the hotel and of dany at the same time.

In fact, the more I talk about it, the more I have only one desire, it’s off to see this film again, and you know what I think that’s what I’m going to do, so I’m not telling you more but really go see this movie, you will not regret it because it is really an experience to live! Right now good movies are still quite rare so let’s not sulk our pleasure.

Tag: Stephen king

Midnight Session n°5 : Pennywise