ABSTRACT
Well, It (2017) happened; the first horror film to truly tap into the zeitgeist of the Trump era, one fully in line with the reactionary ethos of “crazytown.” Pennywise, the child-eating clown, might all too easily overlay onto that other orange-haired clown from television, but Pennywise is no Trump. Rather, it is the embodiment of inexplicable fears that are just “evil,” harkening back to pre-Enlightenment polarisations of good and evil. In the 2017 film adaptation of Stephen King’s novel, the origins of Pennywise and the reasons for his appearance are never questioned; rather, the response to it is clear to all – and all too clear: violence. No longer is it requisite to confront the origins of our (manufactured) fears (as another president once famously quipped, “fear itself”). In the new dispensation, power is fear, and thus the horror film, following suit, regresses to its most conservative narrative impulses, rallying audiences to pursue unquestioning the destruction of that which embodies their fears. In the case of Pennywise, that fear is a timely one – and one grounded in embodiment, as It’s polysemic incarnation calls forth (and calls on) meanings (trans)coded from political rhetoric of femiphobia and transphobia that catalysed the election.
