It takes years to make a film, so its difficult for movies to comment on current events.
Most recently, she served as an associate producer onThe BFG.
The views expressed by Becker below are her own.
Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures
The first time I saw a dead body was when I was 4 years old.
And the only person who ever made me feel better about that was Stephen King.
It was 1985 at an open casket wake.
Warner Bros.
I was confused by a wristwatch still ticking on the corpse.
Surely this was a mistake.
If my relatives watch was still ticking, he had to be, too.
Brooke Palmer/Warner Bros.
How could they bury him alive?
Their reactions were similar to mine.
Now Im part of a club, I thought.
The camaraderie between children in the face of death is a long-running theme for Kingand apparently for me.
There are monsters, for sure.
Evil wasnt always a given; sometimes it was a choice.
So was goodness and decency.
Lonely, but not alone in my fears.
This time, it also felt like the stakes were different.
Pennywises terror spans the 20th century.
The math is easy.
This isnt a coincidence.
It wasnt lost on the writers, director, and producers who made this film either.
And hate is a tool.
And thats something Pennywise does, so thats something resonating in our society right now.
The pieces were there before, but they fit perfectly.
Stanley is a Jew.Lets not forget that the White House issued a Holocaust Remembrance Day statement without mentioning Jews.
Richie is the son of an alcoholic.
Trump called Libertarian VP candidate Bill Weld an alcoholic when he criticized his proposal to deport 11 million people.
This is a reference to the prison industrial complex, one that is worsening under Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
And what about Trumps refusal to immediately condemn Nazis and white supremacists in the wake of Charlottesville?
Ben is overweight.Remember when, Trump weight-shamed Miss Universe 1996 Alicia Machado, calling her Miss Piggy.
Its a frequent maneuver of his.
Kelly corrected him, saying, For the record, it was well beyond Rosie ODonnell.
He shrugged unapologetically and responded with, Yes, Im sure it was.
Bill stutters.Who can forget candidate Trump at a podium, stuttering to mock a disabled reporter.
Hes the ultimate bully.
So what does that mean for today?
The Losers stand out in Derry the way most of us feel like outliers in Trumps America.
Our President has no tolerance for misfits or weaknesses.
Hes said as much.
When he doesnt understand us or finds our differences to be a threat, he literally calls us losers.
And with the name calling comes the inevitable casualties.
When the Losers leave the Well House traumatized by their encounter with Pennywise, they turn on each other.
Richie punches Bill, blaming him for getting them into this mess.
Mike says his grandfather was right about being black in this town, telling Bill, Im an outsider.
Gotta stay that way.
In a chilling example of apathy, we hear them (and others) say, Its summer!
and that they should be outside enjoying it instead of fighting back.
Thats what kids are supposed to do, they tell each other.
At one point, only Beverly has the sense to know this fatalism is exactly what Pennywise wants.
Itwants to divide us, she says.
But Id like to take that one step further.
Like a true monster,Ithad to first distract them for divide them.
People facing a new trauma move on from the last before its even resolved.
This is a warning about the flippancy of follow-through in the age of instant information.
In many cases, the adults in town refused to even acknowledge there was a problem.
That kind of gaslighting sounds familiar, too.
Heres the bottom line.
When Stephen King wrote this book in the mid-1980s, he wasnt predicting the rise of Donald Trump.
King also understood that what scares someone in their childhood could very well be what defines them as adults.
He understood that bullies are timeless and they come in all shapes and sizes.
And that a lack of empathy can metastasize, spreading through a population.
One powerful person behaving cruelly can activate the worst impulses of savagery in the rest of us.
Itnow holds the record for the biggest horror film opening EVER.
Ive described Pennywise as a clown, but thats not all he is.
Hes also a shapeshifting, manipulative fearmonger who ruins the lives of everyone he touches.
But its not his chilling face paint or signature red balloon that makes a clown so terrifying.
Its the terror he ignites and the havoc he wreaks.
Its his laughter that rings out as we tear each other apart.
