Freddy and Pennywise: Memory Loss and the Personification of Childhood Trauma

Edna St. Vincent Millay said “Childhood is the kingdom where nobody dies.”

The 2017 film adaptation of It argues that childhood is actually just as treacherous as the rest of reality–worse even, because you are a child, so no one will believe you. Instead, memory is the kingdom where nobody dies. But memory, in its own way, can be a minefield of a different sort.

Horror is a dangerous genre to live in, especially if you’re a sexually active teenager, or the overwrought parent of an increasingly creepy kid. When a writer or director wants to amp up the creep factor, something related to childhood is always a safe choice; lullabies, old toys, children staring at nothing the way my cat often does. In It, the heroes are children: The Losers Club, a group of seven 12-year-olds in small-town Derry, Maine. Their tormentors range from teenage bullies, to abusive parents, to a demonic shape-shifting clown named Pennywise.

It begins in 1988, with Bill, the Losers’ de facto leader, making a paper sailboat for his six-year-old brother Georgie to play with in the rain. Georgie–wearing a yellow raincoat, already a dismal sign for any child in horror–chases his boat down the rainy street until it falls into a storm drain. Inside the storm drain is Pennywise the Dancing Clown…