It (also referred to as Stephen King's It) is a 1990 horror television miniseries based on the novel of the same name. The film stars Tim Curry in the eponymous role of "It" (also known as Pennywise).
Production
The miniseries was filmed in New Westminster, British Columbia, which stood in for the town of Derry. An actual former movie house in New Westminster, the Paramount, appeared in several scenes in the miniseries, including an establishing scene where the young Losers go to a Saturday matinee and a later scene where the adult Richie drives by the theatre and sees a disturbing message from "It" on the marquee. In reality, the New Westminster Paramount stopped showing movies in 1983 and now functions as a strip club.[citation needed]
As part of the casting process, Rozz Williams of gothic rock band Christian Death auditioned for the part of Pennywise, going so far as to arrive at the audition in a costume he made himself. However, Wallace ultimately decided that Tim Curry's audition was of a higher quality. Footage of Williams' audition, in which he recites Pennywise's dialogue from one of the more sexually explicit scenes in the book, has circulated widely amongst Christian Death fans, and has given rise to (false) rumours of an "alternate version" of the film with Rozz in the Pennywise role and most of the excised content of the book restored.[citation needed]
Plot
It aired as a two-part television movie on November 18, 1990 on ABC, and loosely follows the plot of the novel. The first half of the film, set in 1960 (in the novel it is 1958), introduces a group of social misfits, the "Losers Club", as they meet and form a tight-knit group in the face of a cruel and intolerant world. Most individually come into contact with the child-killing monster, which they name "It", haunting their hometown of Derry, Maine. It usually appears as the thing the child victim most fears before taking the form Pennywise the Dancing Clown (Tim Curry). The separate encounters are fortified later when they all see Pennywise reaching out from a photograph in an album owned by Michael Hanlon, one of the children.
The film opens with a young girl riding her bike singing. It is about to storm outside and her mother tells her to come on inside. The girl gets off her bike and bends over to pick up her doll. As she picks it up, she hears children laughing in the distance. Then she hears a clown giggle. As she turns around the voice whispers "Hi". She sees a seemingly friendly clown; it is Pennywise luring her to his death trap. The mother of the girl comes outside to find her daughter murdered(the body is never shown).
Spurred on by Bill Denbrough's desire for revenge on It for killing his younger brother, the Losers resolve to locate Its home in the sewers and destroy the threat to Derry once and for all. Henry Bowers, a disturbed bully, and two of his friends - Patrick Hockstetter (Gabe Khouth) and Belch Huggins (Drum Garret) - follow the group into the Barrens and into the sewers, in a bid to ambush and kill them as revenge for a rockfight, in which the Losers easily won, saving Mike Hanlon. Bill leads the others into a vertical pipe, leading to the sewers. Stan Uris is pulled away from the group by Henry and Belch, where Henry pulls a pocketknife out. Meanwhile, Patrick has been ordered to ambush the group from another side. It, in an unseen form seen only from first-person camera movement (other than a bright light, referred to as the deadlights) makes its way from under a grate and eats him alive. (This happens off screen; the last thing seen is Patrick screaming before the camera goes into his mouth.)
As Bill, Beverly, Richie, Eddie, Ben, and Mike come to the middle of the sewers, they discover Stan is missing. In another part of the sewers, Henry prepares to kill Stan with the pocketknife as Belch restrains him. As Henry prepares to do so, It, only the deadlights seen shining, bursts a sewage pipe. As Henry and Stan watch in horror, Belch is folded in half through the narrow sewage pipe and taken away by It. Henry calls his name but to no avail. It makes its way out of the pipe. Stan flees, and Henry's hair turns white from the sight of Its unseen form. Stan meets up with the group and they avoid looking into Its deadlights. It vanishes, and smoke fills the chamber. The seven form a circle, although It attempts to break it by appearing as Bill's brother George, and Beverly's father, along with attempting to scare Richie in the form of a werewolf. Richie sends it away by not believing it is there. As Stan repeats the Boy Scout Oath over and over, as if it were a mantra, It (in the form of Pennywise the Clown) pins him against the wall. As Pennywise prepares to devour him with Its fangs, Eddie sprays It in the face with his asthma inhaler, pretending it is battery acid. Half of the clown's face burns away, and Beverly cracks Its head open with a silver slingshot, revealing the bright light underneath. However, before Beverly can finish It off, Pennywise flips through the air, and is sucked through the drain. The group grabs his arms, only for the glove and one of the clown's claws to rip off, revealing a larger claw. Pennywise vanishes entirely. The group argues and decide It is dead. After fighting It, and believing to have succeeded in killing It, they come out from the sewers and make a promise to return if It ever comes back.
The second half of the film, set in 1990 (instead of 1985 like the novel), focuses on the now-adult Losers who agree to return home to Derry (except for Stan Uris, who kills himself when he learned It had returned) to destroy It once and for all. Again, the Losers must face not only the terrible creature, but also Henry Bowers, the bully who made their childhoods miserable and is now an incarcerated madman under the influence of It, who is determined to kill them all. It, in the form of Pennywise the Clown, appears to Henry on the moon as he watches from the insane asylum bed. The clown befriends him and tells Henry he must go back to Derry and kill them all. As Pennywise explains, Henry can kill despite the Losers' level of belief, such a thing being able to injure It. Pennywise puts disgusting creatures in fortune cookies at a restaurant reunion for the six of them. A later meeting at the library shows the adults discovering Stan's head, used by It in the library refrigerator. It visits Henry in the form of the deceased Belch, who hands Henry his lost switchblade. It allows Henry to escape by appearing to the guard as a clown with the head of a rottweiler, although it is unclear whether It kills the guard or merely scares him away. In the meantime, as the six of the gang try to depart in their rooms at a hotel, Mike is attacked from behind by the adult Henry Bowers with a knife. Ben is distracted by It in the form of Beverly, who then scares him by appearing as Pennywise the Clown. Mike is stabbed and injured with the pocketknife, but is saved by Ben and Eddie. Henry stabs himself accidentally and dies slowly.
After Bill visits Mike in the hospital, Mike gives Bill the two silver pieces they once used against It many years ago. In the meantime, Bill's wife Audra has followed him from England. Audra stops in the middle of the night to ask for directions from a grizzled attendant (Boyd Norman) at a gas station. As Audra talks to him, the attendant's voice changes. As Audra prepares to leave, the attendant asks her if she wants a balloon. When Audra turns to face the man, he is now Pennywise the Clown. Pennywise repeatedly asks her if she wants a balloon, the deadlights in his eyes hypnotizing her, before grabbing her (offscreen). Mike is stabilized at Derry hospital and Ben and Beverly share a kiss. The five left make their way into the sewers they had entered decades ago. Bill discovers Audra's purse. The adults are taunted by a phantom of the clown (It), before It vanishes into thin air. After It taunts Bill in the form of Georgie, stating it is "all his fault", Bill repels It by saying Georgie's death was not his fault. The group finds a way through a small door believed to be Its lair, discovering many victims, including Audra. She is alive but in a hypnotic state. The five of them are finally confronted by It, this time in the form of an enormous spider. Bill, Richie, and Ben are hypnotized by the deadlights, located on Its abdomen. Eddie attempts to injure It with his aspirator as he did as a child, but as they are not children and do not believe, it is useless, but distracts It from his attack on the others. Eddie is grabbed and mortally wounded by It before Beverly shoots out the deadlights with her childhood slingshot and one of Ben's silver pieces. The others mourn Eddie, then chase It. They kill It by dismembering the spider, Bill ripping out Its heart. The movie ends with a healthy Mike detailing the future of his friends. Richie now has a career in the movies, starring with a man any of the lucky seven, is reminiscent of Eddie Kaspbrak. Ben and Beverly have married and are expecting a child. Bill is staying in Derry for a while and despite this, the Losers' memories of the incident are fading, even Bill and Mike sometimes have to re-introduce themselves to each other. Bill shakes Audra out of her mental illness with a dangerous ride down Derry's street using his childhood bicycle "Silver". This is shown to echo the time that Bill saved the young Stan Uris from the pursuing clown. Before the credits roll, Pennywise's laugh is heard one last time.
Cast
Adult characters
Child characters
| Actor |
Role |
| Jonathan Brandis |
Young Bill Denbrough (B..b..b..Billy Boy) |
| Brandon Crane |
Young Ben Hanscom (Haystack) |
| Emily Perkins |
Young Beverly Marsh (Bev) |
| Seth Green |
Young Richie Tozier (Beep Beep Richie) |
| Adam Faraizl |
Young Eddie Kaspbrak (Eddie Spaghetti) |
| Ben Heller |
Young Stan Uris (Stan the Man) |
| Marlon Taylor |
Young Mike Hanlon |
| Jarred Blancard |
Young Henry Bowers |
| Drum Garrett |
Belch Huggins |
| Gabe Khouth |
Patrick Hockstetter |
Other characters
Trivia
- Bill is the author of horror novel titled "The Glowing". This may refer to Stephen King's "The Shining".
- The night guard at the asylum is named Koontz, named after Stephen King's rival author Dean Koontz.
- In the movie the words "Beep beep Richie" are often used. In the novel it's explained that this phrase is meant to get Richie to shut up.
- The movie the children are watching when they dropped the soda and popcorn on Henry Bower's gang is I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957).
- On the DVD commentary track, the actors note that Tim Curry's characterization of Pennywise was so creepy and realistic that everyone avoided him during the filming.
- Jonathan Brandis was on "SeaQuest DSV" (1993) where Seth Green made a few guest appearances.
- Jarrad Blancard (young Henry Bowers) hated having to call Marlon Taylor (young Mike Hanlon) a "nigger", and would often apologize to him before and after filming for his character's excessive use of the slur.
- Jonathan Brandis and John Ritter both tragically died in 2003. Brandis hanged himself in November, while Ritter suffered a fatal aortic dissection in September.
Reaction
In 2004, British magazine Radio Times held a survey for the scariest program aired on television, in which It came first. The X-Files came second. Others on the top ten list included Twin Peaks, Ghostwatch and Tales of the Unexpected.[citation needed]
DVD release
The film is now available on DVD on a double-sided disc with part one on the front and part two on the back. The "To be continued..." and the 1st set of closing credits at the end of Part one and the 2nd set of opening credits at the beginning of Part Two (unlike the VHS release) have been removed. It also features an audio commentary by the director and a few of the cast members excluding Tim Curry.[citation needed]
Remake
On 12 March 2009, Warner Bros. announced that the production of a new adaptation of Stephen King's novel had started, and will be releasing a theatrical remake in 2011. Dan Lin, Roy Lee and Doug Davison are set to produce. [1]Not much is known about the remake except it will be R-rated and it will take place in the mid 1980s and the present equally.
References
External links
