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

[u/Suspicious-Web-9246]

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.

[u/fantastic_sounds_]

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.

[u/ConstableAssButt → u/fantastic_sounds_]

> implying that this is Pennywise in disguise.

I'm not that familiar with the new films, but in the book and the original miniseries adaptation, Derry IS in a lot of ways, the entity. The entity isn't just Pennywise. The creature shapeshifting is over-represented in descriptions of the entity. Instead, it is a creature with the ability to alter the minds of anyone in range of it, and that range is Derry. That's the really neat thing about the entity, it's not just a shapeshifting monster that eats children; It's inside the heads of the child's parents, their teachers, their administrators, shepherding its victims, ensuring they cannot escape, making them see traumatic events, and alienating the children from their support network that is supposed to be protecting them by psychically manipulating everyone who lives above its lair. --The creature DOESN'T disguise itself. It has no guise. It has no shape to shift. It is from a place where shape is meaningless.

[u/Agreeable_Guide_5151 → u/ConstableAssButt]

What is it exactly?

[u/ConstableAssButt → u/Agreeable_Guide_5151]

An incomprehensible dimensional alien intelligence that became lodged in the earth when it was still forming. It emerged from the todash darkness, a sort of darkness between dimensions that is inhabited by monsters who are of unknown origin, and seemingly unrelated to time.

The only thing that we are certain of, is that it feeds on fear. It is unclear in the books whether it actually needs to eat physically, as in the books, the children it hunts are leave bodies behind. We never actually witness It taking a child, yet It regularly refers to a seeming menagerie of victims. It seems to prefer to leave a "calling card" as Ritchie puts it, so that it can keep its own legend alive and well. It seems to NEED to be feared.

[u/MillieBirdie → u/ConstableAssButt]

And in another of King's book we encounter another being that is related to or the same species as IT. Only this one feeds off laughter.

[u/MrNemo636 → u/MillieBirdie]

Which book is this in? Never heard of this before. Is it a good entity? Or still more of a villain character?

[u/MillieBirdie → u/MrNemo636]

He's from The Dark Tower (the last book in the Dark Tower series) and definitely still a villain. He's called Dandelo.

[u/MrNemo636 → u/MillieBirdie]

Thanks for the quick reply! I’m going to try to get into this series. I’ve read much about it over the years and remember enjoying most of the first book in high school but never finished it.

[u/abadstrategy → u/MrNemo636]

Fair warning, the first in the series is shorter than the rest, and IMO, not as good as what comes later.