The Andy Muschietti Movies Ranked
The 2017 take on IT was a surprising success for me, and indeed, it became the highest-grossing horror film yet upon its release. To my uninformed eyes, its Argentine director Andy Muschietti had come out of nowhere and nailed an updated vibe for Stephen King’s classic story. But Muschietti had been working in his home country and the United States for decades before this success. Almost entirely in conjunction with his writing and producing partner, sister Barbara Muschietti, Andy has directed seven films (four features and three shorts) in the 29 years since 1994. Many gaps between were filled with storyboarding, assistant directing, and other filmmaking duties, but with 2013’s MAMA, Muschietti’s career as a helmer took off.
Because of my appreciation for IT, I figured his career both before and after that film’s release would also be marked by a savvy eye and well-constructed pacing. Unfortunately, that’s almost entirely not been the case, as I’ll explain below. I’ve omitted Muschietti’s 1999 short released as part of the “new filmmakers showcase” HISTORIAS BREVES III from the Argentinian National Institute of Cinema and Audioviusal Arts, NOSTALGIA EN LA MESA 8, because I wasn’t able to track down a version with English subtitles and I felt it unfair to evaluate it without really understanding anything about its spoken dialogue, in spite of my years of high school Spanish.
#6 — MAMA (2013)
Muschietti’s first feature was the outgrowth of his 2008 short of (nearly) the same name. Produced by Guillermo del Toro, who was a fan of MAMÁ, MAMA is a worse film than its predecessor, if only because it had much more room to flail about. Over reliant on telegraphed jump scares and featuring an incredible number of terrible lines and associated deliveries from often great performers like Jessica Chastain and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, the film is just so typical of the depths studio horror films could plumb at the time. Wisely, the titular spooky specter is shown only peripherally for most of the movie’s runtime, but once eyes rest on it for too long, the ineffective CG stands out. I will acknowledge the fact that the sound design is quite good; the guttural sounds of Mama powerfully creeped me out. But too much of the film has an inert pace, never really setting into an interesting groove, let alone a scary one. MAMA is a great disappointment for a film bearing del Toro’s blessing, and retroactively, considering Muschietti’s main horror success.
#5 — MAMÁ (2008)
If MAMÁ is better than MAMA, it’s because it’s harder to really ruin one’s day in about three minutes. Serving up a very brief sequence mostly replicated in the feature, the Spanish-language short is able to work within a much more limited framework. It also stands as the ender of the biggest hiatus between directing credits for Muschietti, at about nine years since NOSTALGIA EN LA MESA 8. While still not overtly scary like its expanded successor, and perhaps too closely attempting to approximate contemporary scrappy internet videos based on creepypasta and the like, MAMÁ’s creature effect is entertainingly janky and its setting somber enough to essentially demo a more impactful film that would never come to fruition.
#4 — IT CHAPTER TWO (2019)
IT CHAPTER TWO was a great disappointment. IT was great, its follow up carried a stacked cast including heartthrob Bill Hader, and CHAPTER TWO’s story was already accounted for in its source material, and not quite contrived as a cheap need for box office success like many sequels’. But where its predecessor was able to marry goofy ’80s “children going on adventures” vibes with dark horror, IT CHAPTER TWO limply attempted to recreate the magic with an aged up group of performers. Perhaps it’s my appreciation for the kid actors’ abilities, or the fact that the second part of King’s novel just wouldn’t appeal to me as much, but something feels off about the whole construction of the characters’ chemistry and their logic and actions. While IT is never wholly scary to me in a true jumpy way, it certainly unsettles me more than CHAPTER TWO ever did. It’s not that the sequel is a total waste of time; some of the developments over the years are clever advancements of the characters and story and there are some visually exciting moments here and there. But IT CHAPTER TWO is just a clear letdown after the freshness of “chapter one.”
#3 — FIERRO CHIFLE (1994)
Although it is not listed on his IMDB, Muschietti’s first directorial credit FIERRO CHIFLE is shown on Letterboxd and has been discussed by the director himself. Thankfully, it’s also on YouTube with English subtitles. This student film, made while at the Argentine Universidad del Cine, is a really impressive orchestration of set design, special effects, lighting, and even performances. While treading well-known territory with a devil appearing to collect a soul sold to him in exchange for great worldly success and ending with a kind of corny twist, the tone Muschietti was able to create with assuredly limited resources is palpably macabre. FIERRO CHIFLE’s grunginess is appreciated and stands in stark contrast to the director’s recent too-slick bouts of horror.
#2 — THE FLASH (2023)
Look, THE FLASH isn’t really a good movie. It might not even be better than Muschietti’s student short, at its philosophical core. But sue me, I had a good time at the theater watching this overheated mess of a commercial product that just might herald the end of the “cape movie,” at least for DC and Warner Bros. The very real harm this movie has done, through Ezra Miller’s criminal behavior and accompanied cover ups and literally evident poor working conditions for visual effects artists, is not something to be taken lightly. But as a work led by Muschietti, it could have been worse. The way THE FLASH utilizes the “multiverse” conceit and shoehorns other, more famous characters into what is ostensibly a “solo” movie just might be the straw that breaks the camel’s back for those already tired dynamics in today’s blockbusters. Many jokes land with a thud. And indeed, the look of THE FLASH’s CG creations are often quite repugnant to look at. But here and there, Muschietti is able to create some legible action and steer performances into decent line delivery and humor. The movie’s emotional moments carry no baggage for me and its reliance on an outgrowth of “reference culture” is frustrating, but if THE FLASH is a relative success amid Muschietti’s filmography, it may be because I had lower standards for it and have been historically disappointed by the vast majority of his other movies.
#1 — IT (2017)
IT, besides the marginal impressions made by Muschietti’s shorts, is the lone exception to my disappointment. This breakout hit, which came after the biggest gap between the director’s features so far at over four and a half years since MAMA, is not some masterpiece of horror. I understand some of the contentious points about IT, that it lacks teeth or is simply not very well made. But what I think is on display with this adaptation is a really effective mainstreaming of dark ideas and the distillment of central King themes into blockbuster fare. The cast of kids are excellent performers and are really believable as a group of friends, the visual effects are creative and rendered with a certain factor that makes them feel more tangible than a lot of modern looks, and Muschietti even sneaks in a shot or two that are really quite beautiful. IT gets a little formulaic in its storytelling structure, veering to each character’s nightmares once before convening them all then rinsing and repeating ahead of the big finale, but the moments it jumps to and from are almost all compelling in their own way. And unlike anything else in Muschietti’s body of work, I feel the stakes of the movie and its characters’ plights resonate with me. IT is not a supreme King adaptation nor an overwhelming tonic to contemporary blockbuster horror filmmaking, but it’s wholly entertaining at a level Muschietti hadn’t quite pulled off before and certainly hasn’t since.
