I didn't find "Pennywise the Dancing Clown" scary at all. The truly terrifying characters were the adults in the film. Like most Americans, they were all in denial about the terrible danger threatening their children.

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I don't like horror films. They're too much like real life with its mass shootings, hurricanes, and the policies of that clown in the White House. So I demurred when friends invited me to see the film version of Stephen King's IT.

In the end, however, I was somehow persuaded. After all, as a box-office phenomenon, IT remains the highest grossing "R"-rated film in history. Its subconscious cultural content, I suspected, might somehow explain that huge box-office success. So I accompanied my friends to our local Miramax determined to find that content.

Before I get to that however, a word about the film itself... To put it succinctly, IT was quite boring. In terms of horror, it didn't even succeed in the (otherwise quite easy) task of scaring me!

Think about the movie's unlikely premise: a group of 7 pre-teens meet a terrifying clown who lives submerged in the sewer underworld of Derry, a small town in Maine. The kids are all outsiders; they even call their group "The Losers' Club." One is black, another Jewish, and the remainders a tomboy, a stutterer, a frail hypochondriac, an overweight intellectual, and a wise-cracking smart-aleck.

The Losers' adversary appears every 27 years to maim, kill and disappear children in Derry. No one but the kids can see the motley spirit who appears all-powerful. Nonetheless, in the end (spoiler alert), the children improbably, but only apparently kill the clown. (Readers of King's book know Pennywise will return in 30 years or so -- thus setting up the dreaded sequel.)

Oh hum!

None of this is to say that IT wasn't terrifying. However, its truly scary characters were the story's adults -- especially the Losers' parents. They were variously fat and lazy, sexually abusive, violent in the extreme, deceptive, authoritarian, possessive and stultifying.

What united them all was their mirror-perfect depiction of our country's adult refusal to recognize an extreme violence threatening our own children, even when it's staring us in the face. Nothing mobilized the adults; not disappearances, shootings, torn limbs, decapitations, bleed-outs, bullying, racism, child abuse, and even a room covered with blood. They just couldn't see any of it, and got angry when the children suggested that something was wrong.

Of course, all of this reflects our culture's normalization of terror in a country described by that other Mr. King (Martin) as the "greatest purveyor of violence in the world." We're blind, for instance, to the horror of our economic system that today allows the preventable deaths of 30,000 children each day -- without most of us taking any more note of the tragedy than the adults in Derry's Maine-stream.

With the clown, we leave the terrifying adult world, and enter an ironically less-threatening spirit world. But the spirit of what? The clown's name "Pennywise" might offer a clue. (After all, Stephen King did choose to call him that?) Pennywise's puzzling designation implies a connection between terror and money. Could he be the embodiment of an economic spirit that saves pennies, while being pound-foolish -- the implied second half of the clown's name? There's got to be some meaning there.

In any case, and regardless of Stephen King's intentions, our culture's short-term focus on saving pennies (e.g., by defunding public schools, and healthcare) destroys children's lives as surely as bites from the movie-clown's yellowed incisors.

So, my premonitions may have been spot-on. Despite its artistic demerits, IT does hold lessons for those determined to probe its cultural context. They include:

- Wake up!

- Realize our pound-foolish system is destroying our children.

- It depends on terror, fear, and violence to do so.

- Most of its older victims are in denial.

- Younger "Losers" know better.

- Listen to them.

- And don't be afraid of that violent, pennywise clown in the oversized suit.

- Get rid of him as soon as possible.

Authors Website: http://mikerivageseul.wordpress.com/

Authors Bio:

Mike Rivage-Seul is a liberation theologian and former Roman Catholic priest. His undergraduate degree in philosophy was received from St. Columban's Major Seminary in Milton Massachusetts and awarded through D.C.'s Catholic University. He received his theology licentiate from the Atheneum Anselmianum and his doctorate in moral theology (magna cum laude) from the Academia Alfonsiana in Rome where Mike studied for five years. There he also played club basketball for Eurosport and a team within Rome's Stella Azzurra professional organization. In 1972 he served for a year as coordinator of volunteers in Monsignor Ralph Beiting's Christian Appalachian Project. Then for 40 years, Mike taught theology and general studies at Berea College in Kentucky receiving its Seabury Award for excellence in teaching, Berea's highest faculty award. At Berea, Mike founded its Peace and Social Justice Studies program. He and his wife, Peggy, also organized and started the Berea Interfaith Taskforce for Peace. For years, he periodically taught liberation theology in a Latin American Studies Program in Costa Rica sponsored by the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. In Costa Rica Mike and Peggy were fellows at the liberation theology research institute, the Departamento Ecumenico de Investigaciones (DEI) headed by the great Franz Hinkelammert. In Mexico, they also served as fellows and program directors in San Miguel de Allende's Center for Global Justice. Mike's studies and teaching have brought him to countries across Europe and to Cuba (on 10 occasions), Nicaragua (12 occasions), Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Israel, India, Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Brazil where he and Peggy were associates of Paulo Freire. Mike's languages include Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, Italian, German, Portuguese, and Spanish. For three years he was a monthly columnist at the Lexington Herald-Leader in Lexington Kentucky. He has contributed more than 400 articles to the online news source OpEdNews where he is a senior editor. He has also published in the DEI's Pasos Journal, in the National Catholic Reporter and Christianity Today. His scholarship has been cited in the New York Times. Mike has authored or edited 10 books including one of poetry and a novel based on his experiences in Cuba. His latest book is The Magic Glasses of Critical Thinking: seeing through alternative fact & fake news (Peter Lang publishers). He blogs at http://mikerivageseul.wordpress.com/ Attempting to appropriate his identity as an ordained exorcist (all Catholic priests are), Mike also reads Tarot cards. He is a lifelong golfer and Chicago Cubs fan.