Bill Skarsgård in ‘IT: Welcome to Derry’. Photo: Brooke Palmer/HBO.
Arriving on HBO Max on October 22 with its first episode is ‘IT: Welcome to Derry,’ which turns the clock back to 1962 so as to explore more of the dark history of the titular town and the equally titular presence, who feeds on fear and terrorizes the locals.
(L to R): Mikkal Karim-Fidler, Clara Stack and Jack Molloy Legault in ‘IT: Welcome to Derry’. Photo: Brooke Palmer/HBO.
While prequels have been around for years, it feels like we’ve been besieged by them in recent years, especially as studios and TV networks seek to find new ways to explore established franchises.
It’s a tough tightrope to walk –– audiences can tire of learning too much about certain characters (‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’ is an example), while lazy storytelling can creep in. But refreshingly, ‘IT: Welcome to Derry’ is a worthwhile addition to the canon of a story that began with Stephen King’s 1986 novel and has been most famously adapted into two big screen outings.
Script and Direction
Chris Chalk in ‘IT: Welcome to Derry’. Photo: Brooke Palmer/HBO.
‘Welcome to Derry’, thanks to the presence of some of the filmmaking team, faithfully connects to the movies without too many overt references. The show’s plotline and characters are smartly drawn, offering layered approaches to a variety of stories, not the least of which is Taylour Paige and Jovan Adepo as Charlotte and Leroy Hanlon, the latter of whom links the townsfolk with the nearby army base and the military’s attempts to learn more about its dark secret.
Andy Muschietti, who directed both the more recent movies, gives the show its own signature blend of everyday life and gory, bone-chilling scares.
Cast and Performances
Taylour Paige in ‘IT: Welcome to Derry’. Photo: Brooke Palmer/HBO.
It’s kudos to both the creators and the rest of the cast that the series doesn’t lean on Skarsgård’s creep-tastic Pennywise to generate its scares, at least not in his actual clown form. Paige and Adepo are both great, but the real winners are among the younger cast (including Amanda Christine and Clara Stack, who offer naturalistic work in the face of some truly terrifying set pieces.
Final Thoughts
Blake Cameron James in ‘IT: Welcome to Derry’. Photo: Brooke Palmer/HBO.
‘Welcome to Derry’ proves to be that rare prequel that works to enhance what has gone before, and finds interesting angles to peek into beyond even Stephen King’s source work.
Kicking off just before Halloween, it’s ideal creepy viewing for a fall evening.
‘IT: Welcome to Derry’ receives 82 out of 100.
Kimberly Guerrero in ‘IT: Welcome to Derry’. Photo: Brooke Palmer/HBO.
What’s the plot of ‘IT: Welcome to Derry’?
The show is set in 1962, 27 years before the events of ‘IT: Chapter One’ (which updated the book’s 1957 setting to 1988). The show dives into the lore of Pennywise and the town’s horrific history, drawing heavily from the “interludes” in King’s original novel — the eerie flashbacks and historical tragedies Mike Hanlon researched as an adult.
(L to R) Joshua Odjick as Parker, Jordan Gonzalez as Harkness, David Jonsson as McVries, Cooper Hoffman as Garraty, and Charlie Plummer as Barkovitch in ‘The Long Walk’. Photo Credit: Murray Close/Lionsgate.
The latest adaptation of one of King’s novels, ‘The Long Walk‘, which he wrote when he was only 19 and was directed by Francis Lawrence, is scheduled for release in theaters on September 12th.
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In honor of the new film, and August 19th being “King Day”, Moviefone is counting down the 19 best Stephen King movie adaptations of all time!
Idris Elba in ‘The Dark Tower’. Photo: Sony Pictures Releasing.
A boy (Tom Taylor) haunted by visions of a parallel world aids its disillusioned guardian in preventing the destruction of the nexus of universes known as the Dark Tower.
Four boyhood pals (Thomas Jane, Damian Lewis, Timothy Olyphant and Jason Lee) perform a heroic act and are changed by the powers they gain in return. Years later, on a hunting trip in the Maine woods, they’re overtaken by a vicious blizzard that harbors an ominous presence. Challenged to stop an alien force, the friends must first prevent the slaughter of innocent civilians by a military vigilante (Morgan Freeman)… and then overcome a threat to the bond that unites the four of them.
Author Ben Mears (Lewis Pullman) returns to his childhood home of Jerusalem’s Lot only to discover his hometown is being preyed upon by a bloodthirsty vampire.
27 years after overcoming the malevolent supernatural entity Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård), the former members of the Losers’ Club, who have grown up and moved away from Derry, are brought back together by a devastating phone call.
Ewan McGregor in ‘Doctor Sleep’. Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures.
Still scarred by the trauma he endured as a child at the Overlook Hotel, Dan Torrance (Ewan McGregor) faces the ghosts of the past when he meets Abra (Kyleigh Curran), a courageous teen who desperately needs his help — and who possesses a powerful extrasensory ability called the “shine”.
One day in 1984, Todd Bowden (Brad Renfro), a brilliant high school boy fascinated by the history of Nazism, stumbles across an old man whose appearance resembles that of Kurt Dussander (Ian McKellen), a wanted Nazi war criminal. A month later, Todd decides to knock on his door.
Charlene “Charlie” McGee (Drew Barrymore) has the amazing ability to start fires with just a glance. Can her psychic power and the love of her father (David Keith) save her from the threatening government agency which wants to destroy her?
(L to R) Annalise Basso and Tom Hiddleston in ‘The Life of Chuck’. Photo: Neon.
In this extraordinary story of an ordinary man, Charles ‘Chuck’ Krantz (Tom Hiddleston) experiences the wonder of love, the heartbreak of loss, and the multitudes contained in all of us.
When twin brothers (Both played by Theo James) find a mysterious wind-up monkey, a series of outrageous deaths tear their family apart. Twenty-five years later, the monkey begins a new killing spree forcing the estranged brothers to confront the cursed toy.
In a small town in Maine, seven children known as The Losers Club come face to face with life problems, bullies and a monster that takes the shape of a clown called Pennywise.
Withdrawn and sensitive teen Carrie White (Sissy Spacek) faces taunting from classmates at school and abuse from her fanatically pious mother (Piper Laurie). When strange occurrences start happening around Carrie, she begins to suspect that she has supernatural powers.
After an accident, acclaimed novelist Paul Sheldon (James Caan) is rescued by a nurse (Kathy Bates) who claims to be his biggest fan. Her obsession takes a dark turn when she holds him captive in her remote Colorado home and forces him to write back to life the popular literary character he killed off.
Arnold Schwarzenegger as Captain Benjamin “Ben” Richards in ‘The Running Man.’ Photo: Tri-Star Pictures.
By 2017, the global economy has collapsed and U.S. society has become a totalitarian police state, censoring all cultural activity. The government pacifies the populace by broadcasting a number of game shows in which convicted criminals fight for their lives, including the gladiator-style ‘The Running Man’, hosted by the ruthless Damon Killian (Richard Dawson), where “runners” attempt to evade “stalkers” and certain death for a chance to be pardoned and set free.
A supernatural tale set on death row in a Southern prison, where gentle giant John Coffey (Michael Clarke Duncan) possesses the mysterious power to heal people’s ailments. When the cell block’s head guard, Paul Edgecomb (Tom Hanks), recognizes Coffey’s miraculous gift, he tries desperately to help stave off the condemned man’s execution.
After learning that a boy their age has been accidentally killed near their rural homes, four Oregon boys decide to go see the body. On the way, Gordie (Wil Wheaton), Vern (Jerry O’Connell), Chris (River Phenix) and Teddy (Corey Feldman) encounter a mean junk man and a marsh full of leeches, as they also learn more about one another and their very different home lives. Just a lark at first, the boys’ adventure evolves into a defining event in their lives.
Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) accepts a caretaker job at the Overlook Hotel, where he, along with his wife Wendy (Shelley Duvall) and their son Danny (Danny Lloyd), must live isolated from the rest of the world for the winter. But they aren’t prepared for the madness that lurks within.
(L to R) Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman in ‘The Shawshank Redemption’. Photo: Columbia Pictures.
Imprisoned in the 1940s for the double murder of his wife and her lover, upstanding banker Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) begins a new life at the Shawshank prison, where he puts his accounting skills to work for an amoral warden. During his long stretch in prison, Dufresne comes to be admired by the other inmates — including an older prisoner named Red (Morgan Freeman) — for his integrity and unquenchable sense of hope.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with director David Yarovesky about his work on ‘Locked’, how he came to direct the project, the Argentinian film it is based on, other inspirations, practical aspects of the story, and working with Bill Skarsgård and Anthony Hopkins on set.
Anthony Hopkins in the Horror/Thriller film ‘Locked’, a The Avenue release. Photo courtesy of The Avenue.
Moviefone: To begin with, how did this project land in your lap?
David Yarovesky: I just made a movie with Sam Raimi called ‘Nightbooks,’ and it was just a really great experience. So he sent me this script, which was not a kind of thing I’d ever done before. But Sam’s sending me a script, so I’m in, right? I’m going to do anything to work with Sam, but I had to kind of get my brain around how I’m going to take this on. The more I started digging in, the more I was like, “It feels like something I’ve seen before, but I’ve really never seen this before.” I couldn’t find a comp. So I started to pull on that thread and go, “Okay, you’ve got a guy trapped somewhere — what are things that are tropes for this subgenre?” I started to think about those tropes that we see over and over again, and I said, “Okay, one of the things is that you’re trapped in a little space.” So shooting it is very tricky. Oftentimes the cinematography is very simplistic and you’re really limited in shooting. So one of the things I wanted to do with this was really break that open and shoot this as a big cinematic movie and try to capture something that the people haven’t seen before.
MF: Did you see ‘4×4,’ the Argentinian film that this is based on?
DY: Immediately after reading the script, the next thing I did was watch ‘4×4.’ I loved it. I thought it was just so well done, super unique obviously. I had never seen something quite done like this before. I watched that movie one time and then I was like, “I don’t want to see this again,” because I love seeing remakes or reboots or adaptations where I can say, “Okay, this was their interpretation, and now we brought a new filmmaker in, and this is a totally different voice coming into this, and it feels totally different.” So my aim was to do that with this movie, to go in with the most respect and admiration for the original team that made this and did an incredible job with it, but take a crack at telling the story and see how my story ends up going down different paths than their story. I guess that was part of what had inspired me.
Anthony Hopkins in the Horror/Thriller film ‘Locked’, a The Avenue release. Photo courtesy of The Avenue.
MF: Did you look at films like ‘Buried,’ which come at the same problem (shooting in a small space) from different angles?
DY: I had actually seen ‘Buried’ a couple of times over the years, but I rewatched it for this. I love ‘Buried.’ I think ‘Buried’ is incredible, but I mean, they’re very trapped in there. They’re very contained. Then ‘Phone Booth,’ of course. All these movies were clear inspirations, but this is ‘Phone Booth’ or ‘Buried’ in ‘Christine,’ so it takes it to a different place. This movie has a foot in the elevated thriller space, and it has a foot in the genre space. I think it’s because it’s so experiential — at times, Eddie’s terrified, so it can feel like a horror movie to a degree. I also think oftentimes movies like this can become a series of puzzles and traps to solve that are heightened and not believable. I love that stuff, but I wanted to ground this movie in reality, and I wanted to just sort of explore, “Okay, if a guy wanted to build a trap car and capture someone and really take revenge, what would that really look like?”
MF: How plausible was it in terms of what the car was able to do, and what William was able to control remotely? Did you have things that you wanted to try that weren’t possible?
DY: I’m not actually a car person at all. I am not a big car guy. I don’t know the new car stuff or whatever. But when I took on this movie, obviously I had to learn a lot about cars and car manufacturing and building and design. In that process I really came to sort of love cars in a way and get pulled into it. Now I find myself driving around going like, “Oh, that’s the new thing. Oh yeah, I like what they did with this.” So after doing many deep dives, I found that there were a number of companies that will modify cars, like an Escalade or whatever, to be armored in a number of different ways. The sky’s the limit. There’s like multi-million-dollar cars that are made to transport princes and kings and stuff. I tried to follow every painstaking detail of it. I’ll give you an example of that, something that probably you saw and didn’t notice. In the trailer, there’s a moment where Anthony Hopkins’ character is standing outside and the window lowers and he says something. But if you look at the window, it’s layers and layers and layers of window, because the armored glass is that thick. I’ve not heard one person mention that they saw that, but we went through that painstaking process to make sure that detail was in there for people. We did a lot of research and I really wanted to keep it all within the boundaries of what is realistic and believable for right now, and in doing that, we really followed that to a very intense degree. We did our absolute best to try to recreate what that would be like, how you would achieve it, and so on.
Bill Skarsgård in the Horror/Thriller film ‘Locked’, a The Avenue release. Photo courtesy of The Avenue.
MF: Can you talk about working with both Bill Skarsgård and Anthony Hopkins?
DY: You’re talking about two of the greatest living actors today. Both of them are playing these intense roles and bringing their A-game. When the two of them met, they met on set. I didn’t want them to meet before. I wanted to be like, “Hey, nice to meet you. Get in the car. We’re doing it now.” I parked the SUV under a bridge and we did the movie like a play, with Anthony Hopkins calling into the car and Bill there. The day they met, they walked up to each other and it was like nothing I’d ever seen. It was almost like a weigh-in at a boxing match. The two of them were just standing and looking at each other, and they just start grinning at each other and staring into each other’s eyes like they were about to have this cage match, and it went on for, I don’t know, 20 seconds or something. They were just staring at each other, sizing each other up. I’d never quite seen anything like it before. Then obviously we jumped right into it, and they just went for it. It was so wild to see. I really feel like we captured a little bit of magic that day. I think the entire crew really felt it. There were these texts that were going around that people were just like, “I can’t believe I’m watching this happen. It’s Hannibal versus Pennywise and blah, blah, blah.” It felt like a really special thing that was happening.
MF: Did you shoot it that way too, with Anthony Hopkins calling into the car?
DY: No, no, no. We couldn’t shoot it that way, but we rehearsed it that way so that we could create these moments that felt really naturalistic. Then we did a whole recording pass so that we could get the best performance possible from Bill. Sometimes we used Anthony Hopkins’ voice, sometimes it was me, so that there could be an interactivity. Sometimes it was the first AD — whatever that moment needed to make it feel alive. Then we replaced all of it again. Anthony Hopkins came back in, and we re-recorded all of it to keep it alive really, to keep that sort of naturalistic thing happening.
Anthony Hopkins in the Horror/Thriller film ‘Locked’, a The Avenue release. Photo courtesy of The Avenue.
MF: Finally, did either of them add any bits of business that wasn’t in the script, just to flesh out their characters a bit more?
DY: I went to breakfast with Anthony Hopkins before he signed onto the movie, and he told me how much he loved the script. Shout out to Michael Arlen Ross, the writer, who was totally responsible for that, and also the original filmmakers who made a great movie. We started talking about the character, and he would just become William, and he would talk to me like I’m Eddie. We started talking about our lives, and we started talking about our relationships with our families and morality and the human capacity to do evil. We just start going down all these really deep paths, and through that, we started to shape this character. Then Anthony Hopkins would call me almost every night for a long time, and we would talk through aspects of the character, aspects of how he felt, what he thought, and then he would talk to me again like I was Eddie. Through that, he would give me ideas that we would put into the script and we created this thing together. I really wanted to shape it around who he was and where this was going. It was a really organic process, but I think in order to create that sort of naturalistic feeling of the movie, I think it needed to be organic.
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What is the plot of ‘Locked’?
A petty criminal named Eddie (Bill Skarsgård), desperate for money so he can take care of his daughter, breaks into an SUV but finds himself locked in the heavily fortified, trap-laden vehicle by its owner, William (Anthony Hopkins), who torments Eddie via remote control as part of his own twisted plan for vengeance.
Bill Skarsgård in 2017’s ‘It’. Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures.
Preview:
Bill Skarsgård is slapping on his Pennywise make-up again.
He’ll appear in the ‘It’ prequel series on Max.
Taylour Paige, Jovan Adepo and Chris Chalk are among the cast.
Given the success of the two ‘It’ movie adaptations, it was somehow inevitable that the story would continue somehow. And indeed, a TV prequel –– with the working title of ‘Welcome to Derry’, after the town in the movies and Stephen King’s book –– was announced as in the works last year.
And now a key element of the movie is returning, as Bill Skarsgård is ready to head to clown town again, reprising his role as demonic entity Pennywise.
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What’s the story of the ‘It’ prequel?
Bill Skarsgård in 2017’s ‘It’. Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures.
‘Welcome to Derry’, or whatever it ends up being titled, is also based on King’s ‘It’ book, with the movies’ director Andy Muschietti working with producer/sister Barbara Muschietti, and Jason Fuchs (who revised the ‘It: Chapter Two’ script and was a co-producer on that movie) to devise a new story that takes place before the events of the movies. Brad Kane and Fuchs are running the show, and the cameras have been rolling since April.
Andy Muschietti is directing four episodes of a planned nine-episode season.
How Pennywise fits into the story remains to be seen, but we predict he’ll be up to his old tricks terrifying (and killing) people.
Who is in the ‘It’ prequel series?
Jovan Adepo plays Sidney Palmer in ‘Babylon’ from Paramount Pictures.
The cast for the series already includes Taylour Paige, Jovan Adepo, Chris Chalk, and James Remar. And while Skarsgård previously indicated he wasn’t sure if he’d be involved with the series, it sounds like he was just waiting for a deal to be locked in.
What has Skarsgård been saying about his prior Pennywise experience?
Bill Skarsgård stars in ‘John Wick: Chapter 4.’
The actor has been talking recently about an uncomfortable early experience with the role of Pennywise, revealing that he wasn’t sure about Warner Bros.’ idea to showcase his look as the character a year before the first movie itself arrived.
“When you are 26, you don’t feel young at all, but now, looking back at it, I was a kid. [The studio] did a thing that I felt was kind of mean. It was fairly early on in my career to take on something that had so many eyeballs and expectations on it. I was so incredibly nervous to start this job, and then the Internet is having so many hateful opinions on the weird, strange look of the thing.”
While HBO/Max haven’t confirmed an exact launch date for the series, it should be on TV in 2025 (surely nearer Halloween since that feels like the right time for an ‘It’ project).
Bill Skarsgård in 2017’s ‘It’. Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures.
Don’t expect Owen Teague to demand that any “damn dirty” apes get their “paws” off him in the next iteration of the ‘Planet of the Apes’ movie franchise. Because he’s playing the lead simian.
Since Disney bought 20th Century Fox, the studio has been looking to keep the successful ‘Apes’ franchise going following the most recent trilogy.
‘The Maze Runner’ director Wes Ball landed the job of handling the next film in the series, and since jumping aboard in 2019, he’s been writing the script and figuring out how to follow in Matt Reeves’ footsteps, working with VFX experts to design the various ape characters and more.
This July, he kicked off the extensive casting process required to full the main roles and according to Deadline, Teague impressed the director and studio bods with his audition, leading to a swift deal to play the primary ape.
Ball’s search is ongoing for people to play other Apes and the scattered human survivors as the story continues, though exactly what that will be is a mystery for now as all involved are keeping the plot a strict secret.
It’s no surprise that Disney would view the ‘Apes’ films as an important asset in its stable – originally adapted from Pierre Boulle’s novel, the 1968 original film featured Charlton Heston as astronaut George Taylor, who crash lands on a mysterious planet where intelligent apes rule and savage humans are their slaves.
1968’s ‘Planet of the Apes.’
That movie ends with one of the biggest and most famous twists in science fiction history (spoiler alert for those who have not watched it and somehow don’t know): the planet is Earth in the far future, where mankind has ruined civilization and apes have risen to dominate.
‘Planet of the Apes’ was a big hit, spawning a franchise of several follow-up films and a TV series.
In 2011, Fox started charting how humans fell with ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ directed by Rupert Wyatt, which switched the origin for mankind’s problems to a virus spreading across the globe. Andy Serkis donned performance capture gear to play main ape Caesar.
Whatever name the new movie carries will likely extend Caesar’s legacy (second spoiler alert: he dies at the end of ‘War’) and show the next evolution of the apes’ rise to power.
As for Teague, he saw success with two Stephen King adaptations, playing a bully in the ‘It’ movies and nabbing a role in the latest TV version of ‘The Stand’. He’ll be back on screens in Netflix thriller ‘Reptile’ and Nicole Holofcener’s next film, ‘Beth & Don.’
‘The Crow’ in comic book and movie form famously features a man brought back from the dead by a supernatural bird to wreak revenge against those who attacked and killed him. A reboot of the idea has had such problems making it through development hell, it could have used some assistance itself.
Now, it looks like the movie might finally make it to screens as ‘It’ actor Bill Skarsgard signed on to star.
James O’Barr’s comic book originally focused on a man named Eric, who along with his fiancée Shelly, find themselves under attack when their car breaks down. They’re brutally assaulted and murdered by a gang, but a mystical crow brings the man back so he can hunt down and take out the criminals responsible.
Director Alex Proyas, along with writers David J. Schow and John Shirley, adapted the comic book for the 1994 movie, which featured Brandon Lee as Eric Draven, a rock musician slain alongside his fiancée by a criminal gang on Devil’s Night in Detroit.
It was made infamous by the death of Lee on set in an accident involving a blank round in a prop gun. It went on to become a box office success, spawned three sequels and a TV series spin-off.
Various combinations of filmmakers and actors have attempted to reboot the idea in recent years, but none of the movies have made it into production.
Bill Skarsgård in season one of ‘Castle Rock.’
‘Blade’ director Steven Norrington came up with a fresh take in 2008, which went through different variations including Nick Cave writing a screenplay and Mark Wahlberg considering the lead role. Norrington, though, walked off the project over creative differences.
The next year, ’28 Weeks Later’s Juan Carlos Fresnadillo came aboard, while ‘Watchmen’ writer Alex Tse took a fresh crack at the script. Bradley Cooper was offered the lead but turned it down (the fact that he was developing a take on ‘Paradise Lost’ with Proyas might have had something to do with that.
A spat over the rights emerged saw Fresnadillo leave, to be replaced by F. Javier Gutiérrez, with another new script in the works. Luke Evans became the latest potential star, but that didn’t come to pass either.
Most recently, ‘The Nun’s Corin Hardy was attached to the movie, and he oversaw a version that briefly had Jack Huston in the lead before being replaced by Jason Momoa. Yet even that compelling combo was stymied, largely by “creative and financial differences” which led to Hardy and his chosen star leaving in 2018.
Since then, the project has been stalled, but now appears to be alive once more thanks to Sanders’ involvement and another new script, this time by ‘King Richard’ Oscar nominee Zach Baylin. A shoot is scheduled for Prague and Munich starting this June.
Skarsgard, of course, played Pennywise in both ‘It’ movies and the voice of Deviant Kro in ‘Eternals’. He’ll be seen as Marquis in ‘John Wick: Chapter Four’, due out on March 24th next year.
Here are the best slasher pics that all fans of the horror movie genre should see.
25. ‘Disturbing Behavior’ (1998)
Dimension
Not a great film, but a decent premise, at least — it’s a high school version of “The Stepford Wives,” with delinquent teens turned into overachieving, fascist automatons. Katie Holmes and James Marsden are the well-scrubbed leads, but Nick Stahl steals the movie as the most tormented of the teens.
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24. ‘The Slumber Party Massacre’ (1982)
This chiller, about teen sleepover guests menaced by a power-drill-wielding serial killer, was written as a genre parody (by “Rubyfruit Jungle” novelist Rita Mae Brown, of all people), but it was shot as a straight horror film. It works on both levels, scary and tongue-in-cheek.
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23. ‘Urban Legend’ (1998)
Dimension
Here’s one about a copycat killer whose murders mimic famous urban legends. A cast that includes Jared Leto, Joshua Jackson, Alicia Witt, and Rebecca Gayheart give this premise more credibility than it merits.
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22. ‘My Bloody Valentine’ (1981)
Not just the name of a cool band, “My Bloody Valentine” was also perhaps the goriest of the early wave of holiday-themed slasher movies. Here, the target is a Valentine’s Day dance in a mining town beset by gruesome tragedy. The killer is armed with a miner’s pickaxe and has a fondness for cutting out people’s hearts and putting them in candy boxes. How festive.
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21. ‘Sleepaway Camp’ (1983)
You’d think “Friday the 13th” would have had this territory covered, but you’d be wrong. Typical exploitation fare, but for a gender-bending shocking-twist finale worthy of “Psycho.”
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20. ‘The Faculty’ (1998)
Dimension
Robert Rodriguez’s tongue-in-cheek teen horror movie, written by “Scream” scribe Kevin Williamson, probably deserves a better reputation than it’s earned over the years. The tale of a high school whose students believe their teachers have been taken over by alien parasites is not that original, but it’s well-executed — thanks to Rodriguez’s inventive direction and a cast of future all-stars that includes Elijah Wood, Jordana Brewster, Josh Hartnett, and Jon Stewart.
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19. ‘I Was a Teenage Werewolf’ (1957)
Today, it’s considered camp, but back then, the idea of a teenage monster was actually considered shocking. This movie launched a series of similar exploitation films in which puberty, adolescence, and delinquency are conflated with monstrous metamorphoses. It was a huge hit, and it made a star out of Michael Landon in the lead role.
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18. ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ (1992)
Yeah, this horror-comedy lacks the dark brilliance of the TV adaptation that followed, but the original movie, for all its “Valley Girl”-with-vampires silliness, is actually not that bad. That climactic prom night vampire attack certainly hints at where Joss Whedon would go with the series.
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17. ‘Last House on the Left’ (1972)
This early Wes Craven film is adapted from no less arty a source than Ingmar Bergman’s “The Virgin Spring.” Two teenage girls are tortured, raped, and murdered by a Manson-like gang, but their parents capture the killers and wreak bloody vengeance. Craven later remade the movie when he could command a real budget, but the original, in all its cheap, exploitative glory, is the one to watch.
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16. ‘Prom Night’ (1980)
Sony
Long before “I Know What You Did Last Summer” came this cult-fave entry in the group-secretly-responsible-for-manslaughter-stalked-by-vengeful-killer genre. Jamie Lee Curtis cemented her early scream-queen reputation as the dead girl’s sister, whose prom night is ruined by the relentless slasher.
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15. ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ (1997)
The kids-stalked-by-hook-handed-killer plot is no more original than the urban legend that spawned it. Still, as with other Kevin Williamson horror movies, this one benefits a lot from the casting, which includes Jennifer Love Hewitt (in her first ghoulish role), “Scream” alumna Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze, Jr., and Ryan Phillippe.
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14. ‘The Blob’ (1958)
Fox
Steve McQueen’s first feature film lead came as the teen hero in this tale of a small town whose populace is rapidly being consumed by a mass of alien Jell-O. The film’s clever centerpiece involved the blob attacking an theater full of teens watching a horror movie. (Meta!) The 1988 remake with Kevin Dillon and Shawnee Smith isn’t bad, either.
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13. ‘The Craft’ (1996)
Sony
A coven of teen witches uses magic to obtain the usual teen-girl wants: boyfriends, clear skin, etc. Of course, they go too far (especially freaky Fairuza Balk), and a cosmic comeuppance is in order. Known more for its style than its scares, this one was still frightfully influential.
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12. ‘Fright Night’ (1985)
This fondly-remembered horror comedy about a teenage boy who discovers that his suave neighbor, played by Chris Sarandon (“The Princess Bride”), is a vampire but can’t convince anyone except for a cheeseball TV horror-movie host (Roddy McDowall). Pick this over the Colin Farrell remake.
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11. ‘Final Destination’ (2000)
New Line
A nightmare vision keeps a group of teens from boarding what turns out to be a doomed plane, but Death will not be cheated. It soon picks off the survivors one by one, by staging a series of elaborate, lethal accidents. As the franchise continued, the killings became increasingly complex — and far-fetched. Still, there’s much to be said for a horror villain that can’t be defeated, only put off for a while.
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10. ‘Ginger Snaps’ (2000)
Motion International
This Canadian cult-classic launched a franchise and brought something fresh to the werewolf genre. Here, the afflicted heroine’s monstrous changes are linked to her beginning menstruation and burgeoning sexuality. The result is both scary and a smart critique of the horrors of puberty for girls in our society.
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9. ‘The Lost Boys’ (1987)
WB
This horror comedy earned a lot of derision for giving us the Coreys (Haim and Feldman), but it works on many levels — gothic teen romance (between bitten Jason Patric and Jami Gertz), teen peer pressure cautionary tale (if a gang of teen vampires tries to recruit you, just say no — especially if creepy Kiefer Sutherland is the gang leader) — comic-book parody, and seedy frightfest.
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8. ‘Friday the 13th’ (1980)
You never forget your first visit to Camp Crystal Lake, especially if you’re a promiscuous teen. Before Jason became an unstoppable, hockey-masked killer in the later entries, it was his mom who did the slashing, back when the premise was still fresh.
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7. ‘It Follows’ (2014)
RADiUS
This bare-bones teen horror thriller centers on a young teen and her friends plagued by some sort of curse (its origins and specifics are intentionally, terrifyingly, vague) that spreads like an STD. That aspect makes the film even more relevant and clever as it slow-burns toward one hell of an unsettling climax.
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6. ‘IT’ (2017)
WB/New Line
Stephen King scored his most successful (commercially) adaptation with this record-breaking hit, that pit the teens of Derry against the murder-fueled clown Pennywise. The rest is box office history.
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5. ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ (1984)
If other slasher films implicitly punished teens for bad behavior, this one went after them merely for thinking bad thoughts. Not even your subconscious is safe from Freddy Krueger. Yeah, this franchise-launcher has a lot of lame imitators to answer for. On the other hand, it also gave us Johnny Depp. So there’s that.
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4. ‘The Cabin in the Woods’ (2011)
Joss Whedon co-wrote with director Drew Goddard one of the best modern horror films, full of meta references to many movies on this list. In doing so, they successfully pay homage to — and subvert — the genre. Ever wonder why so many teens meet stab-happy deaths at the titular location? “Cabin” answers that question with an intricate (and terrifying) “upstairs, downstairs” mythology that involves zombie pain worshipers, werewolves and, of course, a mer-man.
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3. ‘Carrie’ (1976)
MGM
The first Stephen King novel to be translated to the screen, “Carrie” remains a well-executed film of bullying and horrific revenge. It’s a cautionary tale about religious extremism, an allegory about the terrors of puberty and female adolescence, a hear-wrenching showcase for Sissy Spacek in the title role, a source of iconic moments (Worst. Prom. Ever.), and a brutally effective Brian De Palma scare machine, right down to that shocking final shot.
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2. ‘Halloween’ (1978)
Universal
John Carpenter’s classic pretty much wrote the rules for teen slasher films as we know them. Michael Myers is, of course, one of the scariest horror villains ever, and Jamie Lee Curtis is one of the great scream-queens of all time. The rest of the franchise may have come to seem rote, but the original is still plenty terrifying.
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1. ‘Scream’ (1996)
Dimension
Before the franchise descended into (deliberate?) self-parody, Wes Craven‘s slasher saga managed to spoof a tired genre while revitalizing it for a new generation. It works as both a parody and a damn scary movie on its own terms.
And of course, Bill Skarsgard returns as Pennywise, the sinister clown who terrorizes the town of Derry.
And with the younger versions also returning, it seems the movie needs all the time it can get to tell its story.
“At the beginning, when you’re writing and building the beats of the story, everything that you put in there seems very essential to the story. However, when you have the movie finally edited and it’s four hours long, you realize that some of the events and some of the beats can be easily lifted but the essence of the story remains intact,” Muschietti explained.
“You cannot deliver a four-hour movie because people will start to feel uncomfortable – no matter what they see – but we ended up having a movie that is 2 hours and 45 minutes, and the pacing is very good.”
The long runtime isn’t likely to deter moviegoers. “Avengers: Endgame” ran for three hours and became the No. 1 grossing movie in history. And “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” which clocks in at two hours and 45 minutes, just became Quentin Tarantino’s best-opening film.
Cue all the “When to take a pee break during ‘It: Chapter Two’” articles.
Bill Skarsgård, who memorably plays Pennywise the Clown in the horror hit franchise “It,” is set to star in the upcoming true crime drama “Gilded Rage.”
Variety reports Skarsgard is attached to headline the film, which comes from director Charlie McDowell (“The One I Love”).
The project is adapted from a Vanity Fair article about the murder of hedge fund millionaire Thomas Gilbert Sr., whose death was originally believed to be a suicide until an investigation ended with the arrest of his son.
Skarsgard will play Thomas Gilbert Jr., who was accused of murdering his father after his allowance was cut. Gilbert Jr.’s trial is currently ongoing.
Skarsgard has been busy since breaking out in “It.” He appeared in Hulu’s Stephen King adaptation “Castle Rock” and will reprise his role as Pennywise in “It: Chapter Two.” Other upcoming projects include “The Devil All the Time” and “Emperor.”
And of course, Bill Skarsgard returns as Pennywise, the sinister clown who terrorizes the town of Derry.
The movie cuts between the present and the past, so the younger actors — Finn Wolfhard, Sophia Lillis, Jaeden Martell, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Chosen Jacobs, Jack Dylan Grazer, and Wyatt Oleff — are all returning.
Today, it’s considered camp, but back then, the idea of a teenage monster was actually considered shocking. This movie launched a series of similar exploitation films in which puberty, adolescence, and delinquency are conflated with monstrous metamorphoses. It was a huge hit, and it made a star out of Michael Landon in the lead role.
