Why Andy Muschietti’s IT Reboot Is Such a Big Deal

The age of reboots and remakes is nigh upon us, and of course my attention is completely focused on the horror reawakening.  The greatest part about this horror reawakening is that the two most iconic generations of horror are making a comeback, including the Dark Universe with the Universal Monsters and the 80’s – early 90’s monster/slasher flicks.  For those of you who are not as familiar with either generation let me learnt ya something real quick.  The Dark Universe is reviving Dracula, Frankenstein and his Bride, The invisible Man, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Phantom of the Opera, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.  This was all also launched with the premiere of the newly rebooted, and immediately driven straight into the ground, The Mummy, movie.  I think by now you all know how we at Wicked Good Gaming feel about the horrible mis-casting of Tom Cruise as the lead, when we all know that the only person who is qualified to be in any Mummy movie is Brendan Fraser, the one and only Rick O’Connell.  The 2017 Mummy is averaging a 37 Metacritic score and a 16% Rotten on Rotten Tomatoes, and when I think about it, it’s probly best that we as a website decided to protest the viewing of this movie because we would have single handedly dropped the ratings even more.  Many fans of the series, and horror in general now have a shaky outlook on what is left to come following the…I’d say dumpster fire, but I don’t want to offend dumpster fires… that is The Mummy 2017.  A similar phenomenon occurred in the mid 2000’s to early 2010’s with the attempted reboots of classics like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday The 13th, and Nightmare on Elm Street, all of which leading to little appraisal or success.  Here we are, in 2017 with one of my all time favorite horror movies (TV Mini Series / Book), being remade into an absolute cinematic feast for the eyes…what a fucking time to be alive.

Andres Muschietti has reinvigorated the spirits of horror fans worldwide with his stunning take on Stephen King’s IT.  Over the film’s opening weekend it managed to become the Top Earning Horror film of all time in the US box office.  It still sits roughly 200 million dollars behind The Sixth Sense as the highest grossing horror movie of all time, in 5th place currently, but let’s just take into consideration The Sixth Sense has had almost 20 years of income while Andres Muschietti’s IT has been out for 2 and a half weeks.  Let that shit sink in for a second here.  It only took IT 2 and a half weeks to reach 66% of The Sixth Sense’s OVERALL earnings…and that movie came out a little under 20 years ago.  Andres Muschietti has now set the bar for not just what reboots need to achieve, but horror movies in general need to aim for.  I don’t plan on going into any spoilers or review territory here, I think I might save that for a later date when everyone else has gotten the chance to see it, but IT was an absolutely terrifying thrill ride of a horror movie and I went into it, alongside my best friend, who also shares the same affinity with the 1990’s IT, with skepticism.  “How could anything live up to how great the old IT was?”.  Needless to say, we were both blown away by this movie, with both of us finding ourselves cringing and shuddering in anticipation from what nightmarish concoctions PennyWise had planned for the Loser’s Club.  IT was cast, shot, and executed brilliantly and has truly set the bar for up for what horror really needs to be in our day and age.  I think following the critical and commercial implosion that was 2017’s Dark Universe’s, The Mummy and with IT being projected as the highest grossing horror movie of all time due to it’s incredible success, the upcoming set of horror features, mainly the Dark Universe reboots as well as the 80-90’s reboots really have big clown shoes to fill.  I am not typically optimistic, but I have a bright outlook for the future of horror and I think we have Andy Muschietti to thank for it.