Editorials
Feasting on Fear: The Shared Horror of ‘IT’ and ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’
New Line Cinema is known as “The House that Freddy Built” because the major success of A Nightmare on Elm Street was a huge boost for their studio and spawned a massive horror franchise that continued to bring financial success. The popularity of the series eventually waned, and New Line set their sights on other lucrative projects in the decades since but have returned in a massive way thanks to the Conjuring franchise. Yet, they seem to have really come full circle with It and It Chapter Two, two halves of a horror story centered around an otherworldly being that uses its victim’s fears as a meat tenderizer before feasting upon their flesh. A description that sounds a lot like fan favorite boogeyman Freddy Krueger, does it not?
Granted, It is an ancient alien creature that precedes civilization. It feasts on human flesh because fear floods the body with the chemical behind fear, therefore making it tasty. Freddy Krueger was a child molester and serial killer in life who returned as a vengeful spirit, drawing strength and power from fear as he slaughtered his victims in their dreams. Krueger is a collector of souls, not flesh. But both It and Krueger are near invincible in their element, and both prey on their victims fears as a means of weakening them.
Every single one of the Losers Club is confronted with their worst fears; guilt over the loss of a brother, parents destroyed in a fire, a repulsive Leper for a germaphobe, a gigantic Paul Bunyan statue, and so on. In A Nightmare on Elm Street, Krueger simply uses scare tactics to gain strength. It’s as the series progresses that he becomes more creative in his dreamscapes and uses fear in a similar way as It. In A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, he uses Taryn’s fear of relapse against her. In A Nightmare on Elm Street 5, he uses Greta’s model aspirations and body image anxieties against her by making her literally eat herself to death. By the next sequel, Freddy’s Dead, Krueger put tongue firmly in cheek by incorporating pop culture into his kills.
2017’s It updated the timeline from Stephen King’s source novel by setting it during the ‘80s. The exact decade from which Freddy Krueger emerged. While It, and its preferred shape of choice Pennywise, often tailored its appearance to align with its victim’s deepest fears, director Andy Muschietti didn’t want to get too meta with New Line’s involvement in the film. Meaning It never took on the appearance of Freddy Krueger – even if it was considered at one point in time. But that doesn’t mean visual references didn’t sneak in, in other ways.
There’s the easy to spot Easter eggs, like A Nightmare on Elm Street 5 appearing on the Derry theater marquee during the summer of 1989, or the movie posters. There are also the advanced level Easter eggs. Pointed out by eagle-eyed writer B.J. Colangelo, adult Richie Tozier (Bill Hader) is sporting a shirt that looks an awful lot like the shirt Jesse (Mark Patton) wore in A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge during that iconic dance scene. Considering Richie’s main arc in It Chapter Two, the similarity is likely not a coincidence.
New Line’s connection to Krueger as well as the time period may have made it easy to insert the Easter eggs, but It’s connection to A Nightmare on Elm Street runs deeper; the timeless nature of fear. Horror is designed to scare and frighten, and the two entities at the center of these movies are essentially fear personified. Evil beings that can manipulate perception and bend the rules of physics to create terror incarnate. Whatever you dream, It and Freddy Krueger can conjure it up in nightmarish form. There’s no limit to their creativity. And that makes for visually exciting horror films, as the Elm Street and It movies have proven decades apart.
Freddy built the house, and you could say Pennywise is doing him proud.
Editorials
‘Immaculate’ – A Companion Watch Guide to the Religious Horror Movie and Its Cinematic Influences
The religious horror movie Immaculate, starring Sydney Sweeney and directed by Michael Mohan, wears its horror influences on its sleeves. NEON’s new horror movie is now available on Digital and PVOD, making it easier to catch up with the buzzy title. If you’ve already seen Immaculate, this companion watch guide highlights horror movies to pair with it.
Sweeney stars in Immaculate as Cecilia, a woman of devout faith who is offered a fulfilling new role at an illustrious Italian convent. Cecilia’s warm welcome to the picture-perfect Italian countryside gets derailed soon enough when she discovers she’s become pregnant and realizes the convent harbors disturbing secrets.
From Will Bates’ gothic score to the filming locations and even shot compositions, Immaculate owes a lot to its cinematic influences. Mohan pulls from more than just religious horror, though. While Immaculate pays tribute to the classics, the horror movie surprises for the way it leans so heavily into Italian horror and New French Extremity. Let’s dig into many of the film’s most prominent horror influences with a companion watch guide.
Warning: Immaculate spoilers ahead.
Rosemary’s Baby
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The mother of all pregnancy horror movies introduces Rosemary Woodhouse (Mia Farrow), an eager-to-please housewife who’s supportive of her husband, Guy, and thrilled he landed them a spot in the coveted Bramford apartment building. Guy proposes a romantic evening, which gives way to a hallucinogenic nightmare scenario that leaves Rosemary confused and pregnant. Rosemary’s suspicions and paranoia mount as she’s gaslit by everyone around her, all attempting to distract her from her deeply abnormal pregnancy. While Cecilia follows a similar emotional journey to Rosemary, from the confusion over her baby’s conception to being gaslit by those who claim to have her best interests in mind, Immaculate inverts the iconic final frame of Rosemary’s Baby to great effect.
The Exorcist
William Friedkin’s horror classic shook audiences to their core upon release in the ’70s, largely for its shocking imagery. A grim battle over faith is waged between demon Pazuzu and priests Damien Karras (Jason Miller) and Lankester Merrin (Max von Sydow). The battleground happens to be a 12-year-old, Regan MacNeil (Linda Blair), whose possessed form commits blasphemy often, including violently masturbating with a crucifix. Yet Friedkin captures the horrifying events with stunning cinematography; the emotional complexity and shot composition lend elegance to a film that counterbalances the horror. That balance between transgressive imagery and artful form permeates Immaculate as well.
Suspiria
Jessica Harper stars as Suzy Bannion, an American newcomer at a prestigious dance academy in Germany who uncovers a supernatural conspiracy amid a series of grisly murders. It’s a dance academy so disciplined in its art form that its students and faculty live their full time, spending nearly every waking hour there, including built-in meals and scheduled bedtimes. Like Suzy Bannion, Cecilia is a novitiate committed to learning her chosen trade, so much so that she travels to a foreign country to continue her training. Also, like Suzy, Cecilia quickly realizes the pristine façade of her new setting belies sinister secrets that mean her harm.
What Have You Done to Solange?
This 1972 Italian horror film follows a college professor who gets embroiled in a bizarre series of murders when his mistress, a student, witnesses one taking place. The professor starts his own investigation to discover what happened to the young woman, Solange. Sex, murder, and religion course through this Giallo’s veins, which features I Spit on Your Grave’s Camille Keaton as Solange. Immaculate director Michael Mohan revealed to The Wrap that he emulated director Massimo Dallamano’s techniques, particularly in a key scene that sees Cecilia alone in a crowded room of male superiors, all interrogating her on her immaculate status.
The Red Queen Kills Seven Times
In this Giallo, two sisters inherit their family’s castle that’s also cursed. When a dark-haired, red-robed woman begins killing people around them, the sisters begin to wonder if the castle’s mysterious curse has resurfaced. Director Emilio Miraglia infuses his Giallo with vibrant style, with the titular Red Queen instantly eye-catching in design. While the killer’s design and use of red no doubt played an influential role in some of Immaculate’s nightmare imagery, its biggest inspiration in Mohan’s film is its score. Immaculate pays tribute to The Red Queen Kills Seven Times through specific music cues.
The Vanishing
Rex’s life is irrevocably changed when the love of his life is abducted from a rest stop. Three years later, he begins receiving letters from his girlfriend’s abductor. Director George Sluizer infuses his simple premise with bone-chilling dread and psychological terror as the kidnapper toys with Red. It builds to a harrowing finale you won’t forget; and neither did Mohan, who cited The Vanishing as an influence on Immaculate. Likely for its surprise closing moments, but mostly for the way Sluizer filmed from inside a coffin.
The Other Hell
This nunsploitation film begins where Immaculate ends: in the catacombs of a convent that leads to an underground laboratory. The Other Hell sees a priest investigating the seemingly paranormal activity surrounding the convent as possessed nuns get violent toward others. But is this a case of the Devil or simply nuns run amok? Immaculate opts to ground its horrors in reality, where The Other Hell leans into the supernatural, but the surprise lab setting beneath the holy grounds evokes the same sense of blasphemous shock.
Inside
During Immaculate‘s freakout climax, Cecilia sets the underground lab on fire with Father Sal Tedeschi (Álvaro Morte) locked inside. He manages to escape, though badly burned, and chases Cecilia through the catacombs. When Father Tedeschi catches Cecilia, he attempts to cut her baby out of her womb, and the stark imagery instantly calls Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury’s seminal French horror movie to mind. Like Tedeschi, Inside’s La Femme (Béatrice Dalle) will stop at nothing to get the baby, badly burned and all.
Burial Ground
At first glance, this Italian zombie movie bears little resemblance to Immaculate. The plot sees an eclectic group forced to band together against a wave of undead, offering no shortage of zombie gore and wild character quirks. What connects them is the setting; both employed the Villa Parisi as a filming location. The Villa Parisi happens to be a prominent filming spot for Italian horror; also pair the new horror movie with Mario Bava’s A Bay of Blood or Blood for Dracula for additional boundary-pushing horror titles shot at the Villa Parisi.
The Devils
The Devils was always intended to be incendiary. Horror, at its most depraved and sadistic, tends to make casual viewers uncomfortable. Ken Russell’s 1971 epic takes it to a whole new squeamish level with its nightmarish visuals steeped in some historical accuracy. There are the horror classics, like The Exorcist, and there are definitive transgressive horror cult classics. The Devils falls squarely in the latter, and Russell’s fearlessness in exploring taboos and wielding unholy imagery inspired Mohan’s approach to the escalating horror in Immaculate.
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