Genre Analysis: IT
       Anxieties about conformity and being stuck inside a mental box to fit in are all part of the 
Suburban Gothic genre. Being afraid to step outside the box and be your true self can be hard 
especially when you are surrounded by a community of people who all share the same beliefs 
and values. Many details like preying on vulnerable children, haunting family houses, and 
attacking the bourgeois are all part of the suburban gothic genre. Implementing surprise elements to shock the audience also emphasizes the anxiety the audience can feel when the prey gets trapped into the manipulation of the attacker. 
      To continue, children in the suburban gothic genre are the main targets and victims of the 
perpetrators because of their lack of experience in life and their vulnerability. Kids don’t have 
the certain mental tools it takes to determine if a situation is dangerous or not. Most children are gullible and believe that the enemy is trying to be “friends” with them. Specifically, in IT the 
children chosen as the victims were the outliers of the town which adds another element of the 
suburban gothic genre. It states that “They are outliers within a social system that values 
straightforward definition above all else” (Dines). In the movie IT it is very common that the 
kids get referred to as losers for being different like stuttering or weight issues. 
          A recurring theme of the Suburban Gothic genre is the past coming back to haunt you. It 
is stated, “Gothic horrors such as Poltergeist thus moralize that suburban America’s ignorance of 
or disregard for the past will always result in that past coming back to haunt it (Dines). In IT the 
theme of the past is correct since Pennywise comes back to haunt the town of Derry every 28 
years. In many scary movies the hauntings are caused by Indian burial grounds or satanic rituals. 
For example, “Is there anything more to suburban Gothic’s preoccupation with the presence of 
the past than a simple reworking of the biggest cliché in the book of American hauntings, the 
house built over an Indian burial ground? (Dines). This quote shows how there are certain 
elements to this genre that come naturally for the viewer to catch.

         Perpetrators in this genre love to use common interests with the victim to form a false 
sense of “friendship” but what the children don’t realize is that it is just a form of mental 
manipulation. It is shocking to see how the predators in the situation don’t force their victims 
into doing something but rather manipulate the situation to have more fun. In IT the character 
Georgie fell for a false illusion that was created by a clown pretending to be genuine. In reality 
Pennywise offering Georgie a balloon and his boat back was a way to win the kid’s heart. 
Combining all of these factors and feeding off of the vulnerability of a young child was the 
perfect combination to trap Georgie without actually forcing him to get into the sewer. 
            To conclude, the Suburban Gothic genre has repetitive details that don’t come as a shock 
to the audience but the way they are implemented can cause the audience to get a feeling of the 
supernatural world. It involves using personal fears to gain power and the anxiety of the post war world with the rise of the suburbs just added panic to the people who didn’t belong in society’s 
eyes. 

                                                                   Works Cited
Dines, Martin. “Suburban Gothic and Banal Unhomeliness”. The Literature of Suburban 
Change (2020): Edinburgh University Press.

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