Introduction

The twentieth and twenty-first centuries mark the primacy of audiovisual media. In addition, universal fantastic literature has established itself as an important source of inspiration for filmmakers, who have incorporated remarkable Gothic, fantastic and supernatural themes in their work. Similarly, cinema has influenced literature and other arts in the form of aesthetic, formal and thematic contributions.

When literature, cinema, theater, comics, games or other artistic forms reflect conflicts between the real and the impossible, one can fit them into the category of the fantastic, a genre that emerged in Romanticism and that continues to this day. Narratives that present impossible phenomena and situations that violate the conception of reality exemplify the defining feature of this genre. This transgression entails characters experiencing strangeness in the face of incomprehensible circumstances. Thus, another important element of this genre manifests itself in the fantastic narrative: fear.

In various studies about humans and society, fear has been the subject of countless researchers. According to Yi-Fu Tuan, fear is an important subject to explore, as it provides us with relevant insights that have troubled civilizations since ancient times. The present study aims to investigate how fear is represented in the work It, by Stephen King, in both literary form and cinematographic production, as well as its importance in the construction of fantastic narratives. The propositions of researchers and scholars such as Yi-Fu Tuan, Stephen King (Dança macabra), David Roas, Marcel Martin, Jacques Aumont and others are employed as theoretical support.

Fear in fantastic literature and horror cinema

Numerous studies about fear have posited that fear is linked to mechanisms of protection against danger. Bauman (173) states that fear is rooted in our motives and purposes, which encourage us to take defensive action. Thus, the presence of fear demonstrates that human beings have deep concerns and frightening experiences. The phobic potential of the unknown is sufficient to trigger a sense of helplessness; the sources of fear are diverse and multiple.

It is no coincidence that supernatural themes are a constant in fictional prose. Moreover, it is important to note that studies on the relationship between fear and fantastic literature have evolved in recent years, and in this process, the fantastic genre has been characterized as presenting us phenomena and situations that signal a transgression of our reality. This rupture with the real is, therefore, a fundamental effect of fantastic narratives.

According to Tuan (12), fear concerns both psychological states and the real environment. It is a complex feeling in which one can identify two components: alarm and anxiety signals. In this way, one realizes that fear exists in the mind, except in pathological cases, and emerges from external situations that are threatening.

The landscapes that invoke fear are diverse. As Tuan (13) points out, the material landscapes of houses, fields, and cities control chaos. Every home is a constant reminder of human vulnerability. Thus, one understands that physical environments can act as a confrontation of fears. Similarly, people have sought to build refuge for the mind in which they can rest. As such, children's fairy tales, legends, cosmological myths, philosophical systems, and fantastic narratives function as an escape from the terrifying threats of the real world.

In this regard, in ancient times, Plato defended the theory of forms in which two worlds are presented to establish truths: the world of ideas and the sensible world. In this perspective, the reality of ideas was more important than the sensible world because everything one wanted would be realized in objective reality. Thus, the sensitive perspective would be a ghost of the truth established in the ideal world. One may use Plato's metaphor to reveal that the recurring fear in fantastic literature corresponds to a mimesis of man's conflicts and fears in the real environment.

The fantastic emerged and gained notoriety in ancient Egyptian civilization. The notion, for example, that the universe is governed by a supernatural mind or being appears in the works of the priests and sages of Egyptian civilization, as the historian Edward Burns (76) points out. The very practices of medicine were, according to Burns (79), corrupted by superstition and magical remedies, which demonstrates the fears that plagued the Egyptians.

The purpose of the fantastic narratives is to destabilize our sources of security by questioning the validity of the systems and beliefs created by and imposed upon on humanity. According to the works developed by Gaston Bachelard, when one seeks to investigate fear in literary works, one is confronted with "the psychological study of our intimate life" (20). The perception of the French philosopher is important because it validates the premise that through horror, there is the emergence of a diversity of memories that will directly affect the characters, the actions within a particular narrative and the reader him or herself through restlessness and hesitation before events.

In medieval England, ghostly beings were thought to be extremely dangerous and bizarre creatures. However, the Church and society seemed to know how to act in the face of their horror of these entities. Because, the culture of the medieval era accepted the presence of various types of spirits, thus, fear of the supernatural was not so intense. By contrast, in the following centuries, especially in the Victorian Era, supernatural being greatly frightened society, increasing the number of fear narratives. From Tuan's perspective (197), these stories produced great terror due to a suppressed and diminished belief in these beings, thus helping to create favorable contexts for fantastic literature.

For Tuan (11), throughout history, human consciousness of the supernatural has allowed an immeasurable and intensified increase in horror narratives throughout the world. Society has been permeated with ghostly beings, witches and monsters. These figures represent the fear of the unknown. Such supernatural beings and forces act as an embodiment of confronting an uncertain and unexplained landscape. In fantastic tales, for example, the forest occupies a prominent place; it is not a simple space for walk or play. In general, it is an environment that is frightening because of its extension and smells, because it is a habitat of dangerous beings and because of the abandonment that it can bring.

The above description urges us to raise the following question: Why are fantastic narratives frightening? The literary critic David Roas (139) points out that, the fantastic supposes a change in the reader's familiar world. It makes us lose track of the real. In addition, in the face of this loss, there is no other possible reaction than fear. However, it is important to highlight that we are not stating that fear originates exclusively from the fantastic. Our intention is to argue that it is a necessary element in the composition of fantastic narratives.

This proposition is confirmed in the eighteenth century, when romanticism provided the projection of numerous kinds of fear. The literary narratives contained by Enlightenment rationalism were liberated and ready to lead the reader into exotic, dark, macabre, inadmissible, and inexplicable spaces. According to Selma Calasans Rodrigues (23), the Romantic period announced to humans a subjective deformation of nature that was both physical and human. This development attempted to explain the phenomena that science could not solve. Thus, unknown landscapes populated the imagination of the population and frightened the readers of later centuries through innumerable narrations.

In this context, Tzvetan Todorov appears in his study The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to a Literary Genre, that the fantastic can be defined as:

In a world which is indeed our world [...], there occurs an event which cannot be explained by the laws of this same familiar world. The person who experiences the event must opt for one of two possible solutions: either he is the victim of an illusion of the senses, of a product of the imagination -and laws of the world then remain what they are; or else the event has indeed taken place, it is a part of reality- but then this reality is controlled by laws unknown to us [...] The fantastic occupies the duration of this uncertainty. Once we choose one answer or the other, we leave the fantastic for a neighbouring genre, the uncanny or the marvellous. The fantastic is that hesitation experienced by a person who knows only the laws of nature, confronting an apparently supernatural event. (25)

From the above, some critics of the fantastic field realm point utthat this kind of literature, fraught with a heavy burden of fears and anguishes, emerged as a way of addressing subjects censored in earlier times and exploring taboos. Italo Calvino discusses about the fantastic stories: "the problem with the reality of what we see -extraordinary things that are perhaps hallucinations projected by our minds, or common things that perhaps hide a second, disturbing nature, mysterious and terrible" (3). For the author, these themes are the essence of the fantastic, and because they are incomprehensible cause fear. Thus, when dealing with the presence of horror in fantastic narratives, highlights that it has the function of contemplating symbolic needs of the unconscious. Within this perspective, we point out that this fictional modality, added to the effect of fear, was consolidated as a configuration of human problems and the philosophical debates of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Similar to Calvino's perspective, the Argentine writer Julio Cortazar is one of the authors who stands out in the field of fantastic literature by focusing on themes that evoke the fears and mysteries of the world and of man. Many characters in his works experience feelings of deep anguish and fear. It is possible to perceive that Cortazar's fantastic seeks to reflect the image of the human being who lives surrounded by fears, sadness and anguish, since he has no control over his destiny. When referring to Cortázar's fantastic productions, the critic Jaime Alazraki argues that

[...] Cortázar se centra en la aventura de la vida. El silencio en que desembocan sus cuentos está traspasado por un refusilo bajo cuyo fogonazo adquiere visibilidad un paisaje nuevo de esa realidad maravillosa que el texto, como un puente, intenta cruzar. Nos hemos acostumbrado a llamar a ese espacio privilegiado fantástico, a falta de mejor nombre, agregaba siempre Cortázar, consciente de que el rótulo ocultaba su verdadero sentido. (22)

Corroborating this thinking, Tuan (17) argues that it is a mistake to think that human beings always seek stability and order. Anyone with experience knows that order is transitory. Everyday accidents and the weight of external forces over which we have no control frighten us and cause us to yearn for answers, even if we cannot completely gain control or maintain order. Thus, once the fantastic is articulated with fear, there is the possibility of representing how the relationship between a human and his or her environment occurs. One believes that the taste for fantastic narratives is because it reveals what the realistic narrative seeks to omit through the conventions of likelihood.

Fantastic literature employs the supernatural to cause readers to shiver; horror cinema has likewise engaged in this aim, for it operates under the assumption that the unknown frightens everyone. Nevertheless, it is remarkable that people love to peek at terrifying images. In Dance Macabre, Stephen King (Dança macabra) analyzes the fascination that terror causes in literature and film, pointing out that we invent horrors to help us endure true horrors. This analysis correlates with the infinite creativity of cinematography to seize destructive elements and turn them into cathartic tools for the viewer.

Horror cinema, similar to fantastic literature, attracts the viewer because it narrates, symbolically, the things we are afraid to openly express to society. According to King, the horror movie is an invitation to indulge in delinquent, antisocial behavior: committing acts of gratuitous violence, indulging in our dreams of power and surrendering to our fears (49). Given this, when we turn our attention to the literature or cinema of fear, we should realize that the situations presented always approach inadmissible endings and cause us dread, which is not surprising, because, as pointed out before, horror operates as catharsis for the viewer/reader.

For Jacques Aumont, in order to achieve the effects of horror, cinema uses the framing surface, highlight effects, bright backgrounds, graphics and geometry, oblique lines and approximations of plans (182). All of these methods aim to point to the rooted fears -the pressure points- that humans have to learn to deal with. Just as the fantastic effect causes a destabilization in literary narrative, horror films extract their best effects from supernatural and human fears using cinematic conventions.

According to King (Dança macabra), horror cinema does not celebrate death, as some critics suggest; it exalts life. The cinematography of fear does not celebrate deformity, the supernatural, the monstrosities, but confronts these problems via the vehicle of human misery: "the horror movie is the celebration of those who feel capable of examining death because it does not yet dwell in their own hearts" (227). Given this position, it is possible to point out that the world of the fantastic narrative, whether in literature or cinema, continues to problematize the order or disorder in which people pretend to live. Based on the discussion provided above, in the following section, we will analyze how fear is represented in the literary work It (1986) by Stephen King.

The representation of fear in the literary work It (1986), by Stephen King

It, A novel was first published in 1986. The storyline takes place during summer vacation from school in the 1950s, in the quiet town of Derry, where seven friends live: Bill (the protagonist and leader of the Losers Club), Richie, Stan, Mike, Eddie, Ben and Beverly. It is through these characters that King develops the theme of fear.

According to Lisa Rogak, Stephen King reports that It is his final proof about monsters: "I put everyone in that book. The idea for the narrative came from different experiences" (161). King reports that he wanted to write a book in which all the monsters he loved in childhood -Dracula, Frankenstein, the werewolf- were in the same space. In this way, he produced one of his greatest works in a story that embodies the theme of fear, exclusion and childhood in danger in the 1980s.

At the beginning of the novel, George Denbrough, Bill's younger brother, is killed by a murderous clown, Pennywise. After that, Bill begins to face several physical, psychological and supernatural attacks. Bill's trauma is the cause of the stutter he developed during childhood, as well as the element that puts him on the sidelines in the city of Derry, as noted in the following speech: "[...] I had really bad times, usually when I was called in class, and especially if I knew the answer and wanted to give it, I usually turned around. After Georgie died, it got a lot worse" (King, It: A, novel 41). The worsening of Bill's stuttering, developed after the loss of his brother, makes it difficult for Bill to approach his family and friends, especially at school, as noted in the following excerpt from the novel:

They made fun of his stutter, of course. An occasional random cruelty came with the jibes. One rainy day, as they were going to lunch it the gym, Belch Huggins had knocked Bill's lunch-bag out of his hand and had stomped it flat with one engineer boot, squishing everything inside. (King, It: A, novel 146)

This excerpt illustrates that the difficulties in Bill's interpersonal relationships are justifiable. Exclusion occurs as the character realizes that retreating into loneliness is better than being exposed to the "bullies" at school. Concerning fear, in the fantastic literature of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, according to Rodrigues, many supernatural events are embodiments or manifestations of "human nature" (28). In this way, Bill's mental disorders, arising from the constant mourning for his brother, define one of the effects of the fantastic within King's narrative. The haunts of the supernatural entity are potentiated by stuttering memories, and the environment in which it operates: the house full of his brother's memories.

On the first night of summer vacation Bill went into Georgie's room. His heart was beating heavily in his chest, and his legs felt stiff and awkward with tension. He came to George's room often, but that didn't mean he liked it in here. The room was so full of George's presence that it felt haunted. He came in and couldn't help thinking that the closet door might creak open at any moment and there would be Georgie among the shirts and pants still neatly hung in there, a Georgie dressed in a rainslicker covered with red splotches and streaks, a rainslicker with one dangling yellow arm. (King, It: A, novel 164)

Through this fragment, the narrator describes in detail the character's reactions upon entering his brother's room. Cardiac acceleration, body tension, and the bonds of his consciousness with the past act as drivers of fear. Paul Ricoeur (96) states that memory is of the past, and this past is that of my impressions. The negative experience recorded by Bill's memory is evoked every time he enters the room, as the narrator points out: "the room was so full of the presence of his brother that it seemed haunted" (King, It: A, novel 251). The haunting marked in the prayer corresponds to the traumatic memory stored and not yet forgotten. In this way, the author prepares the narrative for the presentation of the evil threat, Pennywise. In moments of extreme fragility, the narrator will relive a terrifying scenario in order to evoke the supernatural entity.

We also return to King's earlier description of Georgie to point out that Bill's traumatic memory is the bridge to fear for the reader. By pointing out that "Georgie dressed in a raincoat covered with red stains and streaks, a raincoat with a hanging and dead yellow arm" would emerge from the closet (King, It: A, novel 251), King employs the fantastic effect in his narrative. Bill, in a way, is aware that the disfigured being emerging from the wardrobe is no longer his brother but a creature transcending humanity, namely, Pennywise himself.

If we consider fantastic literature as a work designed for the destabilization of reality, we will find that this passage drives this destabilization, as is illustrated by Bill's impression: "I couldn't help but think that the closet door would slowly open at any moment." (King, It: A, novel 251). This passage alludes to the unusual events -the unexpected and unexplained appearances of the embodiment of evil- that will follow throughout the novel.

Beverly Marsh further exemplifies the destabilization of reality through fear. She is the only girl in the Losers Club. Throughout the narrative, we follow her development through the flashbacks that the narrator presents to us. Beverly is an important figure in the story because through her, the author addresses the issue of violence against women in the forms of rape and harassment. However, this debate will take place through the fantastic filter, that is, the hesitation and the unusual atmosphere surround this event. The trauma resulting from sexual abuse and physical violence are aspects that reverberate precisely in the fear and social exclusion of the young in this social context.

At one point in childhood, Beverly was harassed by a gang of boys. The perpetrator of the violence was a boy named Henry Bowers. In addition, her father is abusive. As we read further, we realize that these characters are used by the supernatural entity to terrorize the young girl. The physical and psychological suffering inflicted on the girl is a literary device capturing what many children face daily.

According to Silva, "Violence is a phenomenon that develops and spreads in social and interpersonal relationships, always implying a power relationship, which is of the order of culture and permeates all social layers" (19). Thus, the fantastic approach, which the author proposes to us, is a way of enhancing this relationship of male power over female power, conveying the fear and exclusion of victims. The following passage exemplifies this relationship via a dialogue with the father that manifests this masculine power and violence:

What the Sam Hill's wrong with you?" he asked, his brows drawing together. The two of them were here alone this evening, Bev's mom was working the three-to-eleven shift at Green's Farm, Derry's best restaurant. "The bathroom!" she cried hysterically. "The bathroom, Daddy, in the bathroom-" "Was someone peekin at you, Beverly? Huh?" His arm shot out and his hand gripped her arm hard, sinking into the flesh. There was concern on his face but it was a predatory concern, somehow more frightening than comforting. (King, It: A, novel 261)

This passage presents some aspects relevant to our analysis. In the first instance, the literary text presents us with the context of constant harassment and abuse. The father takes time to consummate his illicit acts against the girl. Second, Beverly's hysterical shouts reveal the supernatural threats the young woman suffers at home. Pennywise expresses his presence to the girl through whispers in the bathroom plumbing. Finally, there is a brief explanation of the father's violence and power over his daughter's body: his concern is predatory. Therefore, we infer that paternal abuse is the physical manifestation of the presence of the evil being, as well as the source for the potentiation of fear in the fantastic narrative.

In addition to sexual abuse, which signals an unhappy and antisocial life, Beverly is excluded from others at school because of her social status. Her poor condition is exemplified by her attire, which is of poor quality compared to that of her classmates. However, we emphasize that the fantastic work reveals that the social exclusion of the young woman includes more than her socioeconomic status because of such obstacles as fear of the father, isolation at home, family poverty and fear of the supernatural entity, as the following excerpt conveys:

A black fear stole over her heart and closed her throat. She found herself afraid to turn over on her right side -her favorite sleeping position- because she might see something looking in the window at her. So she just lay on her back, stiff as a poker, looking up at the pressed-tin ceiling. Some time later -minutes or hours, there was no way of telling- she fell into a thin troubled sleep. (King, It: A, novel 264)

From the passage mentioned above, we identified that fear is a fundamental component of the narrative because it is from fear that the unusual event will be developed. Thus, by introducing the reader to Beverly fearing the unknown (or the supernatural), the narrator motivates the reader to feel hesitation. However, the hesitation can be caused in different ways, depending on the language code.

In the following section, we will analyze the representation of fear in the cinematograph narrative, showing how this artistic vehicle evokes hesitation in the audience and analyzing the resources that cinematography uses to unveil fear and exclusion in the film version of It.

The representation of fear in a cinematographic version of It (2017)

In September 2017, movie theaters opened their screening of It - The Thing - Part I. The film production fits into the supernatural horror genre and was directed by American filmmaker Andy Muschietti. The film is based on the eponymous book of 1986 written by author Stephen King. This production reached remarkable box office numbers, especially in the United States.

In It of 2017, Muschietti transports us to the city of Derry where, as in fantastic literature, monsters emerge into reality. In the film narrative, the supernatural element is not only consolidated in the consciousness of the characters but also the basis of the whole story. Pennywise, the evil entity, comes in the form of a murderous clown that has the power to impersonate its victims' fears. However, we point out that the real horror in the movie stems from the children's relationship with family, trauma and fears. From this perspective, we will analyze, in light of the concepts of film language, how the representation of fear occurs in the cinematic narrative.

About film language, the French film critic and historian Marcel Martin explains that "cinema is a language" (22). The film is writing in images. Martin also points out that the filmic image represents material, aesthetic and intellectual reality, as it is capable of affecting our feelings and assuming an ideological and moral significance. Thus, we understand that what is presented to us in a movie needs deciphering, but many viewers cannot fully comprehend the meaning of the images. Our work is just one interpretation of the many possibilities of meaning in Muschietti's work.

According to Martin, from these concepts, it is necessary to analyze the creative role of the camera. In the first instance, we highlight the frameworks. They correspond to the first aspect of creative participation of this cinematic element. They reveal the way the filmmaker plans and organizes a particular fragment of reality. Second, it is important to emphasize that in film representation, there is a selection of various types of planes, shooting angles, and camera movements (traveling, panning, and trajectory). Last, we emphasize nonfilmic elements such as lighting, costumes, scenery, color, wide screen and the performance of the actors. They are called non filmic because they are used in other arts.

In light of the above, we will analyze some aspects of the representation of fear in the character Bill. We will interpret some cinematic techniques used by Muschietti. We will investigate some plans or some movie sequences. The plans and sequences listed suggest an exploration of framing / exclusion relations. Let us look at the following image:

Source: stills from the DVD version. All rights belong to the production company New Line Cinema.

Figure 1: Sequence plan of It - The Thing (2017) (from left to right). 

For analysis, we chose a sequential plan in which Bill is walking home with a sad and lonely countenance. The camera pans from below to focus on the depressed aspect of the character. According to Martin, we call this approach the whole plan because framing provides a very pessimistic, dramatic or lyrical psychological tone. We defend that the choice of this plan evidences the constant mourning for the death of his brother and the social exclusion Bill endures.

Then, the frame returns to the starting position, i.e., to a long shot or ambiance. The camera then follows Bill to a meeting with his father, who is in a contrasted plane angle, while Bill is in a chopped plane. This contrasted cinematic language suggests the magnification of the father figure, for this plan infers superiority and authority. In contrast, according to Martin, the boy's chopped-up framing is used to point out that the focused element is inferior to convey moral discouragement in the scene. As we follow the scene in the movie, we notice that his father is very harsh with Bill, as he confronts Bill about creating a replica of the Derry City sewer pipe. Bill's goal was to find his brother or at least his body, but this idea does not please the family.

The choices of angles and frames make it clear that the cinematographic work presents a brief overview of the conflicting and traumatic relationship after the loss Georgie. As we pointed out in the literary analysis, all these problems lead to the loneliness and exclusion of the character, who feels responsible for his brother's death.

Going further into the analysis, we find that the moment the father and son are facing each other, the filmmaker uses a flat combination of angle height and angular side. This choice constitutes a framework called the American plan and high-angle shot. The camera focus is on the father figure, who confronts the young man about his behavior. At the same time, Bill's position infers that the camera is aligned straight with the neck of the filmed character, a rear shot. This framing option highlights the family disintegration that occurs after Georgie's death.

After Bill's discussion with his father, the camera resumes framing to a joint plan. The return, in the same plane as the beginning of the sequence, again reveals an emphasis on the psychological aspect of the narrative character. The use of this feature shows that it is the human face that best expresses the dramatic and psychological burden characters endure in horror narratives. Thus, we understand that these aspects create and condition the meaning and expressiveness of the image in the cinematographic work.

Continuing with our investigation, we will show some aspects of fear representation in the film narrative through the character Beverly. For this, we will interpret some techniques used by Muschietti to manifest horror. The chosen plans and sequences suggest an exploration of the framing / fear relationships. Let us look at the sequence selected below:

Source: stills from the DVD version. All rights belong to the production company New Line Cinema.

Figure 2: Sequence plan of It - The Thing (2017) (from left to right). 

For this second analysis, we chose a sequential plan where Beverly is ready to meet friends, but her father calls her to talk. The scene begins with a close-up frame - in this type of choice, the director chooses to emphasize the proximity of the object by having it occupy the entire frame. According to Martin, when selecting this type of plan, the filmmaker conveys a psychological effect of intimidation via the emphasis on the focused element; this technique is helpful for unveiling a dramatic charge in the narrative.

It is important to note that in the construction of this film sequence, the Beverly's father dominates much of the closed frame. This choice is pertinent since he is responsible for the fears that plague the girl. The constant physical and sexual abuse, although not explicit in the cinematographic work, is conveyed through the proximity, the framing, the dialogues and the nonverbal language of the characters in action. For example, Beverly's stare, facial expressions, handshake, and sexualized speech convey her fear.

Just as literature makes use of linguistic effects, word pictures and plurisignification, cinema, in turn, has a very solid architecture to construct its plots. In the following plans, Beverly faces her father, who tries to abuse her. The filmmaker uses the overall plan for this sequence. Through it, we see the terrifying expression of a father who wishes to take advantage of his daughter's body. Similarly, as noted in the analysis of Bill's character, we note that Beverly's position infers that the director positioned the camera at a right angle or rear plane. This option emphasizes the erasure of the character, since fear overwhelms her happiness.

We emphasize that lighting is a very interesting feature in this scenario, as it provides the atmosphere of supernatural events. In addition, low light suggests an emotional atmosphere and even certain dramatic effects. As we are faced with supernatural terror, we realize that the whole construction of the scene prepares the viewer for Beverly's encounter with Pennywise - the evil entity. Thus, the use of the constant shadow sequence can be a powerful threat factor in the face of physical, psychological and supernatural violence experienced by the character.

As the scene progresses, Beverly enters the bathroom in an attempt to escape her father's aggression. The director uses a long shot. In this frame, we find that the camera is far from the character and that she occupies only a small part of the scene. This feature works as an ambiance plan. However, we can infer that it has an impressionist significance; that is, the scenario simultaneously conditions and reflects the character's fears, since it suggests a space of constant sexual violence in the film.

The other selected frames return to the patriarchal figure. In the first frame, before entering the bathroom, the father is positioned in a profile frame. In this type of frame, the camera forms an angle of approximately 90 degrees. It is important to note that each frame tells a story. If we add the father's costume, which in Martin's view, is an element of significance, with the camera's positioning and angulation, we realize that the home is like a prison and the father an abusive guard. In the next image, to defend herself against aggression, Beverly throws a porcelain utensil in her father's face. The director uses a front frame to convey the intensity of the scene, which impacts the viewer as the father's body falls and his blood runs through the bathroom.

Ultimately, we note that in addition to the real-world threat, Beverly must fight supernatural fear. At the end of the sequence, after the interaction with her father, the girl is attacked by Pennywise and is paralyzed. This attack is one instance when the fantastic effect manifests in the narrative. Is it an unusual event that Beverly perceives as supernatural due to all the emotional trauma she has experienced? Or is the character in the real environment, since the clown is the embodiment of the young woman's own fear? The outcome of the sequence is quite unsettling, since after her paralysis, the narrative shifts to another scene. The appearance of the evil entity creates a jump scare, as the supernatural threat appears only seconds after her father's attack through a close-up frame, terrifying the character and the viewer.

Final considerations

The fantastic narrative usually presents plots in which the coherent, stable and governed by reason world is not as real as it appears. This genre brought in its structure two striking characteristics: transgression and fear. This literary modality was able to differentiate itself from genres such as the marvelous, science fiction and gothic, because it produces in its narratives -whether in literature or cinema- a hesitation and destabilization of reality. There is an intrusion of abnormality within normality.

The works of Stephen King and Andy Muschietti are important because, in constructing their narratives in a fantastic perspective, they not only address issues that cause horror, terror or disgust, but also help us to think and rethink the way of facing the world. More specifically, the novel and the film are relevant because they present characters, narrative spaces and narration of acts capable of inspiring fear in those who contemplate them.

As for fear, it was shown to be necessary in the literary and audiovisual works analyzed. It consolidates itself as a fundamental effect in these narratives, because in both literary and cinematographic work, there is a transgression of our conception of reality in the face of the events presented. In addition, fantastic literature and fantastic cinema use divergent processes for the construction of fear: the literary figurations (which we seek to identify in the novel) and the processes of film composition (which we use to analyze the composition of fear in the audiovisual work).

In addition, the fantastic element present in It enables the reader/viewer to experience the horror of such topics as exclusion, violence, sexual abuse and family conflicts. However, with the presence of supernatural elements and the exchange between the real and unreal, it manages to convey to the reader/viewer a perplexity regarding meta-empirical phenomena.

The supernatural monster, Pennywise, for example, proves to be metamorphic and a radiating element of the supernatural, as pointed out by Todorov. Human and supernatural monstrosities assume, in the King's narrative, a metaphorical embodiment of fear, highlighting the psychopathologies, cultural differences and anxieties present in society.

On the audiovisual work of Andy Muschietti, we found the following results: firstly, the supernatural, fear and hesitation are fundamental elements for the cinematographic production to exist within the limits of the fantastic. In this way, it is possible to point out that the Muschettian work falls into the fantastic category, since the narrative is built on the tension between the real and the unreal.

Our analysis broadens the discussion about the relationship between literature and cinema. Although there are many productions and literary critiques about fantastic narratives, few privilege reflections on the literature and cinema of fear. In King's words, the genre that specializes in death, fear, and monstrosity demonstrates man's inexhaustible ability to create unlimited dream worlds and put them to work reflecting human anxiety (Dança macabre 30). Inherent to human nature, fear is closely linked to the mechanisms of protection against danger. As an emotional feeling related to our survival instincts, the experience of fear comes almost always from the awareness of our finitude which may be the reason for these fantastic narratives become so popular and so evoked in both literary and cinematic productions.

In conclusion, analyzing the literary and filmic work makes it possible to reflect on the existing interfaces between the two forms of artistic representation in postmodern times. This dialogue between the fantastic literature and the horror cinema, as presented in this work, signals the wide dimension and the countless possibilities for the representation and recreation of fear within the universe of the arts.

As suggested by Lothe, the film hold us firmly in the optional illusion that images displayed in rapid succession come to life. Film is formally light and the intensely visualizing force of the film is fundamental to the colossal breakthrough this art form has had in the in the world. Visual arts in general shows us an illusory real world that resembles to the world we know ourselves into which we are free to peep a couple of hours without participating.