'IT' is Here and is Totally Crushing the Box Offices

This past weekend, Stephen King's "IT" opened in theaters and totally crushed things at the box office. The movie adaptation of Stephen King's classic horror novel looks to be both visually impressive and completely terrifying. Take two minutes and watch the official trailer if you haven't already. Take notice of the genius use of vibrant color pops woven into the otherwise muted color tones. 

First things first, I haven't read the original book or seen the original TV mini series. I also haven't been to the theaters to see the 2017 adaptation yet either. I'm still trying to decide if I think I can handle it or if it's going to freak me out too much because this one looks like a pretty scary movie regardless of how you feel about clowns. Part of me would be scared to death and the other part would want to appreciate the use of the color red.

 
I've got to give props to the visuals, the trailer alone is everything that you want in a horror movie and apparently audiences are flocking to the theaters to see for themselves. The music is masterfully suspenseful blended with the colors and the “gotcha” moments where something jumps out at you. Something about the colors feel like they are adding their own element of terror. What is it about the color red that works so well here, or works so well in horror movies in general? Is it just the association with blood?


Whether it's a single red balloon or the pop of red makeup (be it a nose, lipstick, or the hair), not to mention that any on-screen blood will no doubt be as in-your-face as can be. Sometimes subtle and other times not so much, the intelligent use of bright colors against otherwise muted or bland color palettes can be so visually striking that we can't look away. Might be red, orange, yellow, something used to define a scene through the use of color.

 
What do you guys think? Keep things spoiler-free, but chime in with your thoughts, if any, on this movie. Have you seen IT? Will you see IT? Do you have a childhood phobia of clowns that has scarred you for life? What about as it relates to your photography and videography work. Have you consciously experimented with a color splash before? 

Evan Kane is a portrait photographer based near Seattle. He specializes in colorful location portraits with a bit of a fairy tale flair. Always looking to create something with emotion behind it, he fell backwards into photography in mid 2015 and has been pursuing this dream ever since. One if his mottos: "There is always more to learn."

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12 Comments

The cinematography and color grading are gorgeous !

I know, right?!

I like the new one. The original was like if Ronald McDonald was in the mob.

Can learn a lot about lighting, mood and setting a scene by watching some films and "It" is a good movie for that. If you've seen Stranger Things and liked it, you'll like this one."

A good film can inspire.

Some of our most classic and cherished movies were about foreign cultures, Ben Hur, Lawrence of Arabia, Spartacus (Lawrence Olliver was British). Many (like Lawrence of Arabia) were collaborations between American and British studios that brought actors like Peter O'Toole and Michael Caine to the screen, or perhaps a person named Cary Grant that you might have heard of. Errol Flynn was Australian by birth. The Director of Casablanca was from Budapest. Look at the 5-10 previous winners of Best Picture, the only ones I could say aren't deeply about issues related to America are perhaps The King's Speech and Slumdog Millionaire. I think Hollywood has always taken talent from all over and some of the greatest productions of "American" film industry have had "foreign" collaborators, directors, artists, actors, etc... As for films now not being smart enough in my opinion Dunkirk, Baby Driver, Her, Spotlight, There Will Be Blood, La La Land, Birdman, or 12 Years a Slave are all great, just to name a few. All of those original by the way, as have all of the Oscar winners for the past 8 years if memory serves me correctly. I wanted to make sure there is a rebuttal to that particularly contentious part of your statement, and hope I have done so respectfully.

Didn't the article say keep it spoiler free? Want to spoil a few other movies while you're at it?

Stephen King wrote Shawshank Redemption (Adapted from his book)....He's not that overrated. Unless of course, you dislike the movie

Fair enough...Well how about Carrie, or The Shining, Green Mile, or Stand by Me? We all know he has probably around 25 or 30 books turned into films(at least). But at the same time....Just like photography we all see the world for a different set of eyes. its all "Art" and as you said "subjective".

Haha, that is crazy Luc, I actually didn't know that about Shawshank until you commented. Crazy considering I'd put it in my top list of movies of all time!

Ahhh, when I was reading the book, I had to put it in the freezer at night. So scarey. Not doing the movie, no way.

Oh dang, that is crazy! The reviews keep touting this one as a pretty solid movie, so I'm definitely mentally preparing myself to see it.

The movie was terrifying lol. It is the first movie to scare me since poltergeist haha.