Review of "IT"

Review of IT—The First Chapter (Movie) & Comparison to the 1990 Mini-Series

By: Stephen King

For book worms, there is always that fear that the screen adaptation will not be as good as the book, and from past adaptations it is justifiable.  The first adaptation of IT was pretty good, but the second screen adaptation of IT was fantastic.  Like most adaptations it was not perfect, but no adaptation ever is.

In case you have never read the original novel or have seen the 1990 made for television movie, the plot centers around 7 outcasts that become friends in a small town while they face an entity that haunts their town of Derry, Maine.  The entity feeds on the fear of the residents, especially the town’s children by taking on whatever form they’re afraid of, and returns every 27 years to do this.  These friends: Bill Denbrough, Ben Hanscom, Mike Hanlon, Richie Tozier, Eddie Kaspbrack, Beverly March, and Stan Uris face the monster as children after Bill’s younger brother Georgie is murdered by the entity known as Pennywise the clown.  Then when IT returns right on schedule, 27 years later, The Loser’s Club must return to face the monster once again.  But only as adults with the burden of being the only adults from there town that remember IT.

To be fair, the original 1990 television miniseries had limitations that this movie did not.  The miniseries was made for ABC, a cable network owned by Disney, so it had to appropriate for cable T.V.  Less blood, no cursing except maybe words like damn and “son of a bitch”, and the horror had to be a little tamer.  Also, the technology back then was not as good as it is today. We just started getting computers and the internet at the time, so the technology used for movie making was still growing.

 This new take on IT is R rated, we have better technology for the creepy effects, and the child actors are so much better.  This version is, in my opinion, a lot closer to the book than the miniseries, despite my love for that, and is probably how the screen adaptation should have been done. 

The child actors felt so much more natural and real in their performances, and even the fear, which is tricky to act out, due to the risk of being done overtop, felt very realistic.  Now, it also possibly could be that the actors had more acting experiences.

Sorry Seth Green, but the actor, Finn Wolfhard, from Stranger Things had a more appealing performance.

I enjoyed the update of the timeline. They have updated the setting of when the kid’s childhood occurs to the 1980s, so they could follow the timeline to today.  It made the childhood bit more relatable, though I personally did not grow up in the 80s. I am not a fan of using the F word or using curse words…. much, but I think them cursing was one of the small things that made the performance feel more real and it made Richie’s wit funnier.  The humor came off as normal for this kid and felt like Richie was not just an actor playing a part. I also enjoyed Jack Dylan Grazer as Eddie Kaspbrack more so than the 1990 one.  In the 1990 version, the child actor felt as if he was trying too hard show he had anxiety and was a hypochondriac, but in this recent movie it felt more natural.  I could see this version of Eddie as someone I have seen in my elementary school. 

Bill Denbrough is the leader of the Loser’s gang and is the most important of the children.  He is the one who suffers the most, because his brother Georgie’s death by Pennywise is what starts the conflict of the plot.  Bill leads his friends to fight Pennywise and is grieving at the same time. The story centers around Bill’s grief and his inner strength to lead his friends into battle against IT putting a burden on the character’s shoulders. This is such a challenging role to play and done brilliantly by Jaeden Lieberher.   Lieberher portrays this perfectly with subtle and not over the top emotions that reflects his fear and grief.  We get a little more of how it’s not just about getting revenge, but about fixing what he blames himself for. 

Pennywise was played masterfully by Tim Curry in the miniseries, and has become iconic, so Bill Skarsgard has some big floppy shoes to fill. How does it do it differently?  Well first, the look is different.  He still has the tufts of hair and big orange puff balls, but the suit is silver like how its described in books.  In the mini-series, it was more colorful.  They go for orange hair rather than the red Curry had. Pennywise’s teeth in this one are bunny like teeth.  As amazing as Curry was Skarsgard is creepier than Tim’s version.  He is more flexible in his movements and he is more in the kid’s faces.  Curry’s version just seemed bored with his job as a demon of “fear”, while Skarsgard’s version is more frustrated to the point of angry.  On a side note, his hair the way its pointed reminds me of Jack Nicholason, who played Jack Torrance in Stanley Kubrick’s interpretation of The Shining.

There were a few differences from the book such as Mike’s role as the exposition guy, being given to adorable Ben, and Mike was the one with the gun.  For some that could be argued as giving a bad impression; the one black character being the one to carry the gun.  At the same time, Ben does spend a lot of time at the library in the story.  It is described as his favorite place and it is where he goes before he meets the losers.  This movie also didn’t spend as much time at the dam, which was a bit disappointing, because quite few scenes showing the Loser’s friendship happen there.  The quarry was actually a water and not a rock, quarry and rock fight was not as big.  The movie draws more attention to the fact that Beverly Marsh is the only girl in the group. As I noted before, we definitely get more blood in this one. 

In the scene where Beverly hears the voices in the bathroom sink she is sprayed by bucks of blood, and the bathroom is practically red.  Her dad’s sexual abused is included too in this movie (An aspect left out of the mini-series for obvious reasons.), and when her father caresses her red curls she chops it all off in the bathroom sink.  Upon hearing the voices of the dead kids, she takes the tape measure and slides it down the sink; it is soaked in blood and her hair, along with the blood, destroys the place covering her too.  The hair even wraps around her face.  It is a gruesome scene and very memorable that could be on future top ten horror movie scenes that disturbed and grossed the viewers out.

The differences did not take away from the story and this adaptation is done really well.  I look forward to when it comes out on DVD, and they better continue with chapter two, so as not to leave us hanging.  I look forward to finding out who will play the adult versions of the kids.  Of course, there were a few big names that fans suggested, but I think it is better they stick with relatively unknowns, so as to put less expectations on the role and actor.  Also, there could a risk “oh it’s just that actor playing another role” and take away from the character.