It (1990)

 

 

So we go back to the world of Stephen King with 1990’s version of the novel It.  I read It for the first time when I was in my late teens.  Somewhere in between the ages of the characters that make up the ensemble group nicknamed The Losers.  Nowhere near the age of the adults and a little past the age of the kids in the story.  I was able to identify with the kids back then, today I identify with the adult versions.  The kids are forced to deal with an evil spirit that takes the form of a clown named Pennywise.  Pennywise has set up shop in the town of Derry which is Stephen King’s home-base town that he writes about frequently.  That is when the story isn't set in his other favorite town Castle Rock.  Through flashbacks we see how the group of twelve-year-olds were effected by Pennywise and how they were able to unite in order to defeat the demonic entity.  Thirty years later they are forced to unite once again as Pennywise has come back to Derry and he has picked up where he left off killing the towns children.  Tommy Lee Wallace (Halloween 3 Season of the Witch and Fright Night Part 2) does the directing duties.  He confidently admits he used a lot of techniques he picked up from working with John Carpenter on Halloween as well as The Fog.

 

As someone who I have personally met I can say he is a really nice guy and it doesn’t matter if it’s in a restaurant or at a horror movie convention he will take the time to sit and talk about all the movies he’s worked on.  The framed IT poster that he signed for me hangs in my living room today.  Playing Pennywise is the legend Tim Curry (Rocky Horror Picture Show and The Worst Witch), who I have also had the pleasure of meeting.  Sorry I don’t mean to name drop but ya know how it is.  Now where was I?  The Losers Club consists of seven members:

 

Richie Tozier is the comedic relief of the group whose loud mouthed antics often get him and the group into trouble.  Playing Richie is Seth Green (Family Guy and Buffy the Vampire Slayer) as a child and Harry Anderson (Night Court) plays the adult version.

 

 

Eddie Kaspbrak is the smallest of the group as well as being an asthmatic often relying on an inhaler in order to breathe during frequent attacks that seem to be induced by stress.  Proving everyone has a role to play he proves to be an integral part in beating Pennywise.  Adult Eddie is portrayed by Dennis Christopher (Django Unchained and Breaking Away) with Adam Faraizl playing the young version.

 

Richard Masur (The Thing and My Girl) is Stanley Uris as an adult.  Stanley is a Jewish boy scout who as an adult is less willing to help a second time then the other six are.  Playing the younger version on Stanley is Ben Heller.

 

Annette O’Toole (48 Hrs. and Cat People) is the adult Beverly Marsh the only female member of the club.  As a child Beverly was the victim of physical abuse from her father.  She would see that pattern repeat itself as an adult with her current relationship.  At times Beverly is shown to be the strongest of the group.  Emily Perkins (Ginger Snaps and Another Cinderella Story) is Beverly at 12 years of age.

 

Tim Reid (WKRP In Cincinnati and Simon & Simon) plays Mike Hanlon the only member of the club who stayed in Derry and is the first one to realize that Pennywise is back.  As an adult Mike is sort of the town historian and works at the Derry library.  Playing Mike when he was a child is Marlon Taylor.

 

John Ritter (Three’s Company and Bad Santa) plays the adult Ben Hanscom.  Ben is the new kid in town who gets picked on by other kids for being overweight until he meets the rest of The Losers, which changes his life for the better.  If you consider this "better".  Brandon Crane plays the younger version of Ben and he and Ritter had two of the more difficult roles to play as the two had the most differences in their appearances so the only visual connections would be in their mannerisms which both actors were able to capture beautifully. 

 

Richard Thomas, who was mostly known as John Boy in the TV family drama The Waltons is the grown up Bill Denbrough who is a horror writer not unlike Stephen King himself.  Bill is the founder of The Losers Club as he is the one with the most reason to find and kill Pennywise.  When Bill was a child his younger brother George is one of the victims of Pennywise.  Due to the character having a stutter (that, like Eddie’s need for an inhaler, is more defined in times of stress) both Thomas and Jonathan Brandis (The Neverending Story 2, Ladybugs, and Stepfather 2), who played the younger version of the character agreed that the stutter was the hardest part about playing the role.

 

Also starring is Olivia Hussey (Black Christmas and Romeo and Juliette) as Bill’s wife Audra who is captured by IT and placed in a catatonic state after she comes to Derry looking for Bill. 

 

I have to say this is a banger of a cast and nobody and I mean nobody puts in a weak performance.  Some are seen more than others however they are of no less importance.  As I said before everyone has a part to play and they all play it as needed.  I do not compare this to the recent remake movies, but I do compare it to the original book which may or may not be fair.  I will say the book is better, but the TV miniseries is severely handicapped in that it was only four hours with commercials and the novel is in the neighborhood of 1300 pages.  Also add that it had to follow the rules of TV in 1990 and it’s even more limited in its scope.  Seeing how it contained large amounts of blood as well as imminent danger and violence on children (which wasn’t done much at all up to that point on TV) it pushed the envelope of what was allowed.  Stephen King himself never thought the novel would play well on TV or be allowed on a major network channel.

 

The miniseries plays out as more of a psychological thriller than the out and out horror it is in the novel.  As a result, the biggest form of horror is the blanket fear that many have: the fear of clowns.  As with The Langoliers, once again we have a pretty good miniseries that is let down at the end by bad special effects.  What IT is revealed to be in the end is a bad interpretation and is only outdone by the really bad effects.  Not that there aren’t good effects in the film.  Two moments I want to point out is when the group defeats Pennywise the first time he is sucked down into a small sewer drain and while the effects are done with a puppet and a dummy, it was filmed well and looked really decent on TV.  The other moment occurs after the group reunites at a Chinese restaurant to have dinner.  When they are presented with fortune cookies, they all begin to change into disturbing images.  One of those images is what looks like a dying baby bird and trust me it’s disturbing.  With a little more relaxed rules to follow as well as a larger budget this would have easily scored around four stars for me.  As it is It is considered one of the best TV horror miniseries ever made.  For me, I’ll give IT three and a half Schwinn cruisers out of five with maybe the half coming from nostalgia alone.