August has been an extremely rough month for movie-goers, but the good news is that Andres Muschietti's IT will soon be here to pop that balloon (if you pardon the pun). Now that early reactions to the film are online, buzz is quickly spreading, and anticipation is growing. Even author Stephen King is getting in on the action by very specifically decorating his house in Bangor, Maine:
The local ABC affiliate WMTW has posted this report about goings-on around Bangor, and have revealed that Stephen King has gotten his home ready for the arrival of IT by putting a single red balloon in one of his windows. The inflatable is positioned behind the curtains so that anyone from the street can see it, and while there apparently hasn't been any confirmation about the purpose of its existence, it's really pretty obvious.
For those who don't quite understand what's going on here, it's simple to explain. The villain in IT is an child-murdering entity that often takes the appearance of a clown to lure in his victims, and one tool that he uses to do this are balloons. Furthermore, it's often used to represent the sinister presence, even when he doesn't actually appear in person. Warner Bros. has been playing this visual cue a lot in the marketing for the movie, be it official stills:
Or the main poster:
It's pretty easy to see how Stephen King's new house decoration plays into this idea. Basically, when you do finally get to see IT, you're probably going to spend a few weeks/months/years flinching whenever you see a red balloon floating around. And god forbid it pops.
IT, adapted from Stephen King's novel by Chase Palmer, Cary Fukunaga and Gary Dauberman, stars an impressive young cast including Jaeden Lieberher, Wyatt Oleff, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Sophia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard, Jack Dylan Grazer, Chosen Jacobs, and Bill Skarsgard as Pennywise. The film will be in theaters on September 8th, and you should definitely stick around here on CinemaBlend for our full coverage coming over the next few weeks.
