Scarecrow's Blog From the Darkside

*** When your opening scene has Bill Skarsgård’s Pennywise eating a cute kid’s arm off, dragging his screaming, armless body into a sewer drain, it does appear that all bets are off. This kid, the brother of a sickly, slightly older, stuttering but tender-hearted Jaeden Lieberher, wears a yellow slicker, has the sweetest voice and presence, following after a paper boat made to ride rain water down streets of their local sidewalks in town. Unfortunately the kid happened to follow his paper boat right to the sewer drain featuring the demented Pennywise, with his devilish grin and skin-crawling speech. Kids have been disappearing in town and this boy becomes yet another added to that list. Pennywise has been busy. Who or what is Pennywise? I think that is the perhaps the film’s specific problem that might be rectified in Chapter Two but in Chapter One (this film), he just seemed to remain a spectre of terror preying on the vulnerable kids’ deepest fears. One kid sees his brother

I remember going through the first season of Dexter quite anticipating how this angle, from the perspective of a serial killer (of very bad people) and how he views the world, other people, and his own self. Dexter trying to fit within a societal construct that he feels no emotional connection towards yet “acts the part” is probably one of the most striking aspects of the show to me. The fanciful macabre personality that does its happy dance throughout each episode is obviously a huge lure to the show, but I think Dexter’s attempts to be “human” when he clearly understands that his whole life is an act performed reasonably well without those around him (except Sgt James Doakes, it seems) realizing it is a major draw to me, personally as a viewer. In “Crocodile” Dexter observes that he can logically reason the victims’ pain but can’t feel it. He’s seemingly physiologically divorced of the feeling needed to understand a victim’s pain on that emotional level many consider nece

  Science is neat. But I’m afraid it is not very forgiving. So we finally get a name for wherever it is that Will currently resides and even see inside it: The Upside Down. This comes courtesy of Dungeons and Dragons and a theoretical discussion between Mike and his gang and the science teacher. I’m just glad I have something to call it now. As has been the case of the last few episodes, alternating subs all tied to the Upside Down and Dr. Brenner’s lab experiments further develop in The Flea and the Acrobat. Like Jonathan and Nancy getting a gun and bat with plans to kill the monster that “took” Will and Barbara. Sheriff Hopper infiltrating Brenner’s lab and seeing the “portal” to the Upside Down, only to be injected with a sedative, finding himself back in his junkheap trailer while Joyce contends with a returning husband with ulterior motives (not being back for “moral support” as it might appear) as a funeral is underway for Will. Mike and the boys talking with the sci

I had been wondering when the official Charlie episode might eventually be introduced in the first season. Being a guitarist for his band, Driveshaft, Charlie was introduced to women, drugs, a record deal, and possible fame and fortune. But as he run around on the plane looking for a bathroom to ease his anxiety with smack in a baggie, Charlie was far from the glamour and bright lights, adoration of screaming girls wet in their panties and noisy sound equipment reaching the rooftops of impressive venues. He is trying to cope with addiction, the prospects of recovery and detox, and hoping that he might can substitute his current product with something Jack might have available among his cache of medicinals. John Locke knows of Charlie’s addiction and what he’s fighting, offering support and wisdom…but Charlie is an addict so often all that matters to him is the next high. Struggle is nature’s way of strengthening. “The Moth” is a damn good redemption story about a young