‘IT’ More Relevant Now Than When It Was Written, Says Andy Muschietti

Tonight at the premiere for HBO’s IT: Welcome to Derry, Andy and Barbara Muschietti, the Argentina-born, producer-director siblings, offered insight into the real-life relevance of the horror genre and Stephen Kings’s novel, specifically.

The Muschiettis developed the series with Jason Fuchs who, along with Brad Caleb Kane, serves as showrunner. Andy directs several episodes. He and his sister exec-produce through Double Dream.

As with the films, the inspiration is Stephen King’s 1986 novel IT, about a group of kids terrorized by IT, an evil entity that transcends generations and manifests itself in the form of Pennywise. The series was shot in Maine but, according to the director, it has echoes of Argentina’s Dirty War.

“My sister and I grew up in a dictatorship, and guess what? It was f*cking horrible,” he told the crowd tonight. “Even when it was ended and finished we still could see the ripples and consequences of the suffering and the pain. The dictatorship ended — they always do, and they always will. It ended badly.”

He said King’s novel was ahead of its time.

“When Stephen King wrote It, he was writing a masterpiece of horror and a coming of age story, but also it was a parable of fear mongering and the weaponizing of fear in the real world. That metaphor about fear mongering was very relevant when he wrote it, but somehow it seems much more relevant in the days that we’re living now. So that’s why I like to consider the show as a reminder that, if you believe in empathy and love, we can keep together and stand up against the violence and intimidation and cruelty that these f*cking clowns are bestowing upon us.”