Little Nightmares and Stephen King’s It
Grab your yellow raincoat, it’s panic o’clock. #literature #cinema #videogame
Welcome back to Artcade, the omnivorous digital museum of art and video games. This week we’re off to Maine—specifically to the not-so-sunny town of Derry, a place that doesn’t exist (has anyone ever checked?) where the best-case scenario is managing to move as far away as possible. Enjoy the read!
Andy Muschietti (2017) It [Audiovisual work] [Horror] [135 min] Warner Bros. Pictures
The terror, which would not end for another twenty-eight years-if it ever did end-began, so far as I know or can tell, with a boat made from a sheet of newspaper floating down a gutter swollen with rain.
[…]
A small boy in a yellow slicker and red galoshes ran cheerfully along beside the newspaper boat. The rain had not stopped, but it was finally slackening. It tapped on the yellow hood of the boy’s slicker, sounding to his ears like rain on a shed roof… a comfortable, almost cozy sound. The boy in the yellow slicker was George Denbrough. He was six.
Stephen King (2011) [1986] It [Literature] [Horror novel] Hodder & Stoughton
Everything starts with a child chasing his paper boat. It is a horror masterpiece, but it’s also a coming-of-age story in which kids grow up and, together, fight the evil that stalks Derry.
The novel goes beyond pure fright; it’s a manifesto of everything that made Stephen King a fan favorite: an ordinary small town, the banality of everyday life, and a supernatural twist that warps the whole picture. If you haven’t read it and you don’t mind a chill or two, add it to your list.
Tarsier Studios (2017) Little Nightmares [Video game] [Puzzle-platform] [3½ Hours.] (Xbox One) [Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4/5, Windows, Xbox One/Series X/S] Bandai Namco Entertainment
A small game that leaves a big mark, Little Nightmares is a puzzle-tinged adventure with unapologetically dark vibes. Our hero? A child in a yellow raincoat, hood up. Ring a bell?
The whole thing unfolds aboard a ship whose constant rocking tilts rooms first one way, then the other—making exploration even more disturbing than screenshots suggest. If that mood speaks to you, don’t sleep on it.
Information Desk:
Inspiration for It struck Stephen King after he read the Norwegian fairy tale Three Billy Goats Gruff. King basically swapped the bridge for a town and the goats for kids—then added a thousand pages of story.
Little Nightmares spawned a sequel, and chapter three is on the way (though the original team isn’t developing it).
It is so famous it gets name-dropped all over pop culture; it even shows up in the opening sequence of Donnie Darko.
My last two coins
There’s a particular splitch-splatch your shoes make when they slap a puddle—half lullaby, half warning. I used to lean over those miniature lakes, wondering how the sky—with all its clouds—could squeeze itself into that little mirror. Tilt your head just a few degrees and the postcard view suddenly fills with dark trees and gloomy buildings—hardly a best-day-ever panorama.
Years later the set has changed—puddles swapped for back-lit screens no bigger than a sandwich—but the trick stays the same. It’s all in the angle: even the brightest timeline, news site, or photo album can buckle beneath a fun-house lens and turn downright spooky. Funny how danger obeys an upside-down law of proportions: the smaller you feel, the bigger the shadow that finds you. So if you want the monster to shrink, don’t crouch—stand up to it. Works for puddles, glass rectangles, and, reportedly, real life too.
Until the next episode, ciao!