Editorials
“Stranger Things” Just Raised the Bar for the Upcoming ‘It’ Adaptation
New Line is probably real worried right about now.
Netflix series Stranger Things has somehow managed to dethrone Pokemon Go as the number one topic of discussion on all my social media feeds, and I haven’t yet come across a single person who has anything bad to say about it. In other words, I haven’t been forced to de-friend anyone for having terrible taste, and that makes me feel pretty good about the company I keep. For anyone who loves the ’80s and all the wonderful entertainment it gave us, the series is nothing short of a nostalgic gift.
Created by the Duffer Brothers, who seemingly came out of nowhere and immediately established themselves as my new favorite creative duo, Stranger Things is set in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana, in the 1980s. After a young boy named Will goes missing and a mysterious little girl turns up in his place, the boy’s bike-riding friends set out on a quest to find him, along the way befriending the little girl and discovering that she has some pretty impressive powers. The girl, nicknamed Eleven, is being hunted by the government agents she escaped from, and she claims that Will is alive – and she knows how to find him.
There are many side-stories going on in Stranger Things, involving Will’s distraught mother (played by Winona Ryder), the town’s sheriff, and a teenage girl whose friend, like Will, has gone missing, but it’s the pint-sized gang’s mission to find Will that is very much the central plot of the series. As they eventually discover, Will has been taken by an otherworldly creature that resides in “The Upside Down,” an alternate world that runs parallel to our own. At its core, Stranger Things is a kids vs. monster tale, the overall vibe of the series evoking gems like The Monster Squad, The Gate, and of course, a certain Stephen King story.
Above all else, Stranger Things is a love letter to the work of Stephen King, fueled by no shortage of Amblin nostalgia, and the plot most closely resembles that of King’s It. Though they don’t have a gang name, the kids in the series are very much cut from the same cloth as the lovable Losers’ Club, viewed by the “cool” kids in town as weird outsiders and frequently bullied as a result. But though they may be geeks, they’re the only ones who show no fear in the face of a monster invading their town, stopping at nothing to get their friend back and bravely doing battle with the creature who took him.
In many ways, and at many different moments, Stranger Things feels like a pseudo-adaptation of Stephen King’s It, which is somewhat concerning given the fact that a direct adaption of King’s It is currently in the works over at New Line Cinema. Filming recently began on the two part, Andy Muschietti-directed “remake” of the 1990 mini-series, and the out-of-nowhere arrival of Stranger Things has surely thrown a big ole wrench in the studio’s plans – if only because the bar, well, it’s just been raised quite a bit.
Did I mention that the first part of the new It is set in the ’80s? Uh oh.
Prior to Stranger Things dominating social media chatter and being universally praised by everyone it was intended to be enjoyed by, all Muschietti’s adaptation of It really had to be was better than the original mini-series, which most agreed was not too daunting of a task. In fact, even the biggest fans of the mini-series seem to be excited about the re-adaptation, hopeful that it will be better than what we got back in 1990. But now, in the wake of Stranger Things tapping directly into King’s novel and mining it for something both familiar and new, it’s hard not to feel like a direct adaptation of the book now seems kind of passé. At the very least, it’s hard to imagine Muschietti topping what Netflix has brought to the table with their latest hit series, even if he has Stranger Things star Finn Wolfhard on his team.
Needless to say, if you can’t wait for the new It, cozy up on the couch with Stranger Things. It’s everything you’re probably hoping Muschietti’s It will be, and that makes me feel a little bad for New Line right about now. The bar, I must insist on repeating, has just been raised.
BIG TIME.
The trailer for Ti West’s upcoming adaptation of A Christmas Carol raised a lot of eyebrows when it dropped earlier this week. While plenty of folks initially dismissed Ebenezer as a derivative project meant to cash in on the recent wave of unnecessary prequels that expand the backstory of beloved characters (such as 2023’s Wonka), Charles Dickens’ original novel already made a point of exploring Ebenezer Scrooge’s origins in detail – meaning that this new film is likely just a particularly faithful adaptation of the source material under a different name.
Couple that with the fact that the movie is being helmed by a genuine horror auteur and I think it’s safe to say that the latest iteration of the first modern ghost story is in good hands.
That being said, one detail that immediately jumped out at me during the brief teaser (other than a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nod to Johnny Depp’s iconic bedroom death scene from the original A Nightmare on Elm Street) is the fact that many of Ebenezer’s ghosts appear to have been directly lifted from the iconic John Leech illustrations that accompanied the first edition of Dickens’ novel.
Here are a couple of stills from the trailer compared to the original artwork:
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
The Phantoms in ‘A Christmas Carol’ and ‘Ebenezer’
Marley’s Ghost in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
Mainly working with old-school wood and steel engravings that would later be transferred to print, Leech was instrumental in crafting the iconic look of history’s most influential phantoms – especially since Dickens is said to have been deeply involved with the creation of these so-called “comic illustrations.”
And since the novel is commonly said to have popularized spiritualism in Victorian England, much of the ghostly iconography that we still see in genre media to this very day (including some of Ti West’s previous films) can be traced back to the author’s partnership with Leech.
Ebenezer won’t be the first A Christmas Carol adaptation to borrow heavily from these designs, but I can appreciate how Ti West is incorporating an important part of horror history into his latest film.
Ebenezer will be available in theaters starting November 13.
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