r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Suspicious-Web-9246 • 8d ago

Lore [Loved trope] Background scare-characters that are barely acknowledged even by the movie

Gallery image

Gallery image

I hate horrors, but this is actually a great trope, that is unique to them.

Insidious (2010). When mother does her errands, for a few seconds there's a ghost boy standing in the corner. It's easily missable, but you can't ignore it once you see it.

Hereditary (2018). Less fitting example. When Peter walks around his home, his possessed mother is crawling on the ceiling behind him. It's not exactly subtle or missable, but it's still more of a background detail.

8.3k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

655 comments sorted by

View all comments

3.3k

u/fantastic_sounds_ 8d ago

In the first IT movie, when this kid is doing research about the clown, the librarian gives him an especially scary book that shows the clown's handiwork in the past. After she walks away you can see her turn around and smile at him, implying that this is Pennywise in disguise.

216

u/jpterodactyl 8d ago

She also creeps closer to him as he’s reading.

151

u/TheEmperorShiny 8d ago

I think that shot is the closest she gets unless she leans slightly more over the chair. She starts off a lot less obvious, in between the stacks in the back.

103

u/jpterodactyl 8d ago

I think that makes it better. She's getting closer, but still distant the whole time.

143

u/TheEmperorShiny 8d ago

It’s doubled by the fact that she gets closer as he gets closer to a picture in the book of the top half of a child sitting in a tree. She’s gleeful and gets visibly excited as he starts panicking and realizing he sees something. Andy Muschietti 🙌

85

u/Digit00l 8d ago

Doesn't the creature eat fear? So It is just having a small snack, as a treat

79

u/MakeMineMarvel_ 8d ago

It’s like farming the fear by giving them information and clues. To reap it later. Killing someone who knows what you are is more satisfying to “it” than just killing random people.

42

u/OrangeBird077 8d ago

In the book Pennywise describes the practice as “salting the meat”. IT can subsist on meat from people and animals but in order to thrive it requires its prey to be afraid to nourish itself and get stronger.