Yesterday, IT director Andres Muschietti unveiled the first look at the soundtrack for the highly anticipated film adaptation of Stephen King’s horror classic coming in September via a short Instagram video. The first glimpse of the IT movie’s soundtrack is exciting in itself given the huge amount of people who can’t wait for the film’s debut, but a closer analysis of the eight-second clip of a live orchestra scoring a song actually reveals a few things about the movie itself.
The Score Takes Place As Ben Hanscom Flees A Headless Child
The clip is accompanied by the caption “RUN HAYSTACK!!!” Those who have read Stephen King’s IT will know that “Haystack” is a nickname the members of the Losers’ Club (the name given to the main septet of protagonists) give to Ben Hanscom, one of the members of said group who struggles with a weight problem. That means that the quick-tempo score being played by the orchestra in the clip is dubbed over a chase of some sort, an idea that coalesces with the quickly panning footage visible in the monitor at the upper-right of the screen for the first second or two of the video.
Several people in the Instagram post’s comments section propose ideas of when the Ben Hanscom chase being scored might take place. Some say it might be the chase with Henry Bowers that ends with Ben meeting several other members of the Losers’ Club in The Barrens. Some theorize it might be after Ben’s encounter with the titular creature in its mummy form. Some say that it may be Ben running from Pennywise the clown.
The final answer, though, comes from Reddit user Bobb_Gray, a member of the dedicated Stephen King subreddit who has established himself as the community’s resident expert on production details for the IT movie. Gray notes that he is a member of a fan group for the movie that also contains several people who went to one of the two public test screenings for IT . Those members tell him that the score comes from a scene where Ben is chased through the Derry Public Library by a headless child who was decapitated by the 1906 explosion of the Kitchener Ironworks. This may explain the text that can be seen on the screen during the video, which looks like it may be part of the word “Easter.” The Kitchener Ironworks accident occurred during an Easter egg hunt.
The IT Movie Is Not Going For The Same Tone As Stranger Things
A common concern among Stephen King fans who hope the movie will increase the author’s public image is that they might see the movie and think it is a ripoff of the recent smash hit Netflix original show Stranger Things . After all, they are both to be set in small town America in the 1980s and both follow a group of children fighting a monster who use their bicycles as their main form of transport. In fact, reports Movie Pilot , IT was the biggest influence behind Stranger Things .
This short clip shows that, in terms of its musical score at least, the IT movie will be able to differentiate itself from Stranger Things . While the score for the Netflix show relied heavily on low-key ’80s synth tunes that sound like they were lifted out of an actual 1980s horror film, the song fans will hear during Ben Hanscom’s chase scene is decidedly more thrilling in the traditional cinematic sense. Those commenting on Muschietti’s Instagram post call it “classical,” “epic,” and “apocalyptic.”
What Do Fans Think?
As mentioned above, there is a huge contingent of pop culture beyond excited for the IT movie’s September 8 debut, and the music only amps up that excitement even more. In short, people are unanimous in loving what they hear in the clip.
“This sounds epic! Great job!,” writes Instagram user Stesta621.
“The music sounds great and this alone almost gave me a happiness heart attack and I don’t know how to control myself!” adds Matthew Cody Lang.
What are your thoughts on our first look at the music from the IT film? Leave your opinions in the comments section below. When you’re down there, you’ll float too.
[Featured Image by Caseycallenderart/ Deviant Art ]