When Anything Goes, Nothing Matters
07 Nov 2026I was thinking back to the It movies from 2017 and 2019. Although they were well received, I remember finding them a tad overrated. I went in blind to the source material, expecting a horror masterpiece. I simply couldn’t connect with the story for some reason.
After consuming so much fiction (over 2,000 movies and more!) from nearly every genre in existence, I’ve figured out why. A very specific writing trap can make me mentally disconnect from the material even in the midst of the most intense battle sequences.
I don’t think I’m overly particular about this and I’m sure many can relate.
I call it the problem of “when anything goes” and it seems most prevalent in fantasy fiction.
Note: This post contains moderate spoilers for the It franchise, vaguely revealing the premise and threat, but not the endings.
Simply put, this happens when rules of the story lack cohesion to a point where the story is totally unpredictable by the viewer.
Good storytelling is built on internally consistent rules.
This is easily done in stories set in an analog of the real world. Pure dramas like Marriage Story don’t have to worry about familiarizing the audience with any special world rules. It’s a pure human character story. Pseudo-drama Don’t Worry Darling teetered on the cusp of becoming too weird but ultimately stayed grounded, as that was its appeal.
Stories that sit closer to pure fantasy, sci-fi that’s distant from the real world, and the like have to be most cognizant of this trap.
Somewhere in the storm of worldbuilding and “show, don’t tell”, it may be tempting for writers to slide down the slippery slope of trying too hard to surprise the audience. They may do this by introducing unexpected plot devices at inopportune times - character powers, technological solutions, new rules for in-world magic and so on.
Before the true and complete lore is revealed, It (2017) and It Chapter Two (2019) are examples of this style of writing. The titular “It” is depicted as a smorgasbord of different (in my opinion, generic) horrors. It has no single form; it takes the form of its victims’ fears. Therefore, it’s impossible for the audience to predict what it will do next, and therefore how the protagonists may attempt to defeat it.
The 2023 game Alan Wake II from Remedy Entertainment unfortunately went too far down the slope for me. After incredible worldbuilding from Control (2019) in the new weird genre, AWII carried heavy expectations in the same area. I thought the studio would continue exploring supernatural concepts from their grounded, almost scientific perspective. Instead, we got a 0% predictable, abstract, Lynchian dreamscape (nightmare-scape?) of a story. While the game had many redeeming qualities, I couldn’t get fully attached to the narrative because literally anything could happen in the following scene.
Good stories stay one step ahead of the audience’s predictions, not ten. Good writers tantalize their audiences with an expectation of predictability. How predictable the story actually is, is up to the writer. Unexpected is not the enemy either. Ideally, the story is peppered with some predictable moments as rewards to validate the audience’s efforts and keep them engaged, but too much of that is also not good. Completely predictable stories have their place in the world. However, they are seldom innovative; this too can make me mentally check out. Netflix is full of generic, predictable comedies, but we know that they’re in the business of producing movies that can be watched in the background while doing chores.
The ending is also the writer’s choice, perhaps influenced by genre. Some stories end on a satisfyingly predictable note (comedy, romance, long-running TV sitcoms), and others on a shockingly unpredictable twist (many mysteries, horror). Endings are delicate business, and perhaps a topic for another day.
Pixar’s Onward does a brilliant job at not overwhelming the viewer with world rules despite being set in a magical fantasy land. The world is grounded, with relatable parent-child relationships, human concepts like drivers’ licenses, and everyday anxieties depicted in non-human characters. The core plot is still very human, despite revolving around a literal magic spell to let a son meet his deceased father once.
2026’s The Drama nailed the balance. The main conflict itself caught me off guard when introduced. The rest of the movie had me hooked. Through the dialogue between the two couples, this movie invites the audience to participate in the hypothetical. At the same time, I was constantly trying to predict what would happen next and how it would end. It’s one of the most engaging movie narratives in recent memory. Good Fortune, a comedy released the same year, is another decent example. I went in expecting a straightforward plot that I’ve seen in countless mid-budget theatrical comedies. And sure, it was far from the year’s most innovative plot or ending. Yet, it toyed with my expectations of a class-divide social commentary. As soon as I realized its mildly unexpected plot elements, it had me strung along for the ride.
It – Welcome to Derry, the prequel series to the It movies, actually redeemed the franchise for me. I half expected an overrated prequel to overrated movies. Turns out, it adds just the right amount of structure to the lore, some Stephen King universe connections, and a sci-fi angle to the premise that surprised me. I know it’s based on the same source material. But I haven’t read it, and I’m really appreciating this new side to the concept, deconstructing the random horrors into a phenomenon which can ultimately be explained by science. Moreover, the first season is a promising setup for some non-traditional storytelling (my favorite!) in subsequent seasons. In fact, it was my late bloomer viewing of the first season a year after release, that inspired this post!
