Though Andy Muschietti has directed only a handful of movies throughout his career in the film industry, every single one of them – all except The Flash – has been really good. In fact, his debut movie as a filmmaker, Mama (2013), was nothing less than a grand blockbuster, paving the way for him to create more supernatural/horror/thriller content.
But while fans are scared to the core by the nightmarish monsters in Mama and IT movie series all the while in love with Muschietti for creating such magnificent big-screen projects, little do they know the true basis on which the monstrous characters are created: from a nightmarish monster that haunted the director as a child.
This IT Scene Was Incarnated From Andy Muschietti’s Own Childhood Memories
In Andy Muschietti’s super famous movie series IT, there is a scene where the lead character Stanley Uris has to go to his dad’s office room for some reason, where hangs a painting of a woman playing a flute of which Uris is truly terrified to the point where he can’t bear to even look at it. While going to the room was easy, the twist came when he had to straighten the creepy crooked painting.
Talking to The New York Times not much later to explain how he conceived this scene, Muschietti revealed:
“It’s a literal translation of a very personal childhood fear. In my house, there was a print of a[n] [Amedeo] Modigliani painting that I found terrifying. And the thought of meeting an incarnation of the woman in it would drive me crazy.”
That being said, it is worth noticing how the creepy woman in the painting from IT is quite similar to the titular character from Mama, Muschietti’s other blockbuster masterpiece: both have elongated deformed faces with eerily hollow-looking eyes. Continuing in the interview, The Flash director shared how this was inspired by Amedeo Modigliani’s paintings.
“[Amedeo Modigliani] often does these portraits with elongated characters. His vision of humans were with elongated necks, crooked faces, and empty eyes most of the time. It was so deformed that as a child, you don’t see that as an artist’s style. You see it as a monster.”
Now fans know the true inception of Andy Muschietti’s nightmarish characters!
How Andy Muschietti Took Advantage Of His Childhood Nightmare To Lead A Thriving Career
By making films like Mama and the IT movie series, Andy Muschietti proved that he is truly and utterly unique and extraordinary: While most would want to run away from the things that have been haunting them from their childhood, The Flash director instead thought of using them to his own advantage, and thus, ended up making it big in Hollywood.
The supernational horror film Mama, which was Muschietti’s debut film, was made on a budget of $15 million only, but its worldwide gross crossed $28.4 million at the box office, making it a huge commercial success. Not only this, but it was even widely commended by fans and critics alike, thus accelerating Muschietti’s way into Hollywood to make the IT movie series.
Talking about that, IT was made on a budget of a mere $35 million, and yet, its worldwide gross at the box office was beyond mind-blowing: a whopping $123.4 million with stunningly remarkable reviews from viewers. Its sequel, IT Chapter Two, on the other hand, wasn’t that huge of a success but still made over $12 million more than its budget of $79 million.
As it turns out, Andy Muschietti didn’t make it big in Hollywood just through his movies’ box-office grossing but also won most of his accolades and nominations through these three movies only.
Source: The New York Times
