FORTVILLE — If red balloons inspired by the “It” horror franchise that have popped up on Fortville storm drains make a Halloween encore, they’re sure to be a hit with residents.
But they’ll be a dud with town officials.
The balloons dotted town streets earlier this month ahead of the premiere of “It: Chapter Two,” the sequel to 2017’s “It,” based on Stephen King’s 1986 novel that also spawned a television miniseries in 1990.
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The novel opens with a boy chasing his paper boat down a rainy street before it washes down a storm drain, where a clown later discovered to be a cosmic evil offers the boy a red balloon before killing him.
Balloons first showed up in Fortville last year leading up to Halloween.
Homages of the floating crimson offering from a killer clown that’s haunted horror-seekers for decades aren’t the only thing in Fortville having to do with “It.” What’s been dubbed the Fortville “It” House at 115 W. Staat St. boasts an exterior in need of a fresh coat of paint, a creepy clown wreath on a second-story window, an eerie clown figure behind another window and a spooky doll on a rocking horse on the front porch. Ghoulish garnishes showed up on the property last year ahead of Halloween, too.
Then, last week, the property drew Andrew Johnson of Andrew’s Jeep Creations in Louisville, Kentucky, who drove his “It”-inspired Jeep to Fortville and parked it outside the house for visitors to snap photos.
Jeff Ratliff and Ronald Lowry each share a 50 percent interest in the house. Ratliff declined to comment while Lowry could not be reached for comment.
Lowry filed suit against Ratliff in May in Hancock County Superior Court 1 citing “serious disputes… as to the possession of said property” between the two. The complaint asks the court to establish the right of temporary possession of the real estate and other rights of the parties while the case is being litigated and the property is being sold.
This Halloween will likely be the house’s last with its scruffy surface, as a court order requires it to be painted by Nov. 7.
Olivia and Tristan Ogden of Fortville strolled past the “It” house on on a recent Sunday while playing “Pokemon Go” on their phones. Both fans of the “It” franchise, they said the house and the balloons bring Fortville residents together.
“We love the whole concept of it and the sense of community,” Olivia said.
Residents have even started wearing T-shirts with “Fortville” and a red balloon framed in an outline of Indiana on the front and the phrase, “Loving IT here in Fortville” on the back.
Tristan called the balloon endeavor “impressive” and thinks its critics make up the minority.
“I think more people are having fun with it,” he said.
But, like any good movie plot, this script presents a conflict.
The town of Fortville posted a message on its Facebook page earlier this month indicating it didn’t want to discourage the fun, but asked residents not to “attach any balloons in or near the roadways where a young child could be tempted to run into the path of a vehicle while trying to retrieve one.”
The post also asks residents to “be sensitive to others who don’t think a movie about a clown luring children away using balloons, then killing them as lighthearted fun,” adding the town received several complaints from concerned parents.
Michael Frischkorn, a Fortville town councilman, said at last week’s town council meeting that putting the balloons on public property opens up the town to potential liability.
“When there are balloons hanging from public property and you don’t do anything about it, the town is basically giving tacit approval to it being there,” Frischkorn said. “So if someone is injured because of it, for whatever reason, then it comes back to the people who have the pockets, and that’s the town and that’s the taxpayer, ultimately.”
Frischkorn said he didn’t have a problem with residents having red balloons on their own private property.
He added he was dismayed to find an “It” movie poster on the town’s veterans memorial before he removed it.
“Have a little respect for some things,” he said.
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”At a glance” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
- 1986: The novel, "It," by Stephen King, is published
- 1990: ABC releases the "It" miniseries
- 2017: "It" film adaptation hits theaters
- 2019: "It: Chapter 2" premieres
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