Spoilers ahead for It (the novel, the miniseries and the film) Left you fears at home or It will drag you down the storm sewer. You have been warned.
1996 Stephen King’s novel It tapped into one mankind’s most
ancient fears, spooky clowns that promise we’ll float down there.
In 1990, ABC brought them to prime time
with a two part miniseries with a run time of around three hours. But in 2017,
New Line Cinema made a spooky horror film adaptation.
Right off the bat, there’s a structural
difference between the book, the miniseries and the movie. Partly, because it’s
an 1,153 page book which is just way too long to adapt completely. (I’m pretty
sure you can defeat It by hitting him with the book in the head.) High quality lecture and
great weapon against clowns.
For those who don’t know what I’m talking
about, the basic story of It follows
a group of friends, self-deprecatingly as the Losers Club. Coming together to
battle an eternal demon in the form of Pennywise, the dancing clown.
There are two halves to the story: the
first taking place in Derry 1958, the first time the Losers Club faces off with
Pennywise and the second half taking place 27 years later, when, as adults, the
Losers return to fight against It once again. The novel and the miniseries shows
us these two parts but the 2017 movie only shows us part one, where they are only
kids so we will have to wait until part two is released.
The book marks Pennywise’s return to Derry
with a hate crime, two locals start harassing a gay couple and end up shoving
one of them over the side of a bridge where Pennywise is waiting underneath.
The man is found later torn to ribbons and the homophobic locals are accused of
murder, but they will be released of the charges. Derry is a city full of racism,
anti-Semitism, misogyny and homophobia – maybe the killer clown is the least of
their problems.
George Denbrough’s
death back in 1958 may be the most iconic image from the novel; Pennywise
literally rips the 5 year olds arm off from inside a gutter. The 1990
miniseries on the other hand, begins with It killing a little girl in
the present day and Mike Hanlon discovering a picture of Georgie at the scene
(something that really doesn’t happen at all in the book). The miniseries shows
us how Georgie meets Pennywise, but because it was a nationally and broadcasted
ABC Sunday family miniseries some of the goriest scenes were simply omitted. On
the other hand, the 2017 movie was R-rated and trust me on this one, I saw the
miniseries when I was a child and not seen what happened to Georgie was terrifying,
but actually seeing a 5 year old child eaten by a clown? Oh boy, I’m going to
need therapy.
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Georgie: Um... I should get going now.Pennywise: Oh! W-Without your boat? Take it. Take it, Georgie.
|
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| Georgie crawling away from Pennywise |
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| You'll float too (IT movie) |
In the novel, a neighbor hears Georgie’s
screams and recovers Georgie’s corpse. However, in the movie Pennywise drags
Georgie through the storm drain. While in the novel, Georgie is buried; in the
movie, he is just missing that’s why Bill continued to hope to find
his brother. This is why Bill follows “Georgie” to the basement, where he has
his first encounter with It.
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| Georgie's photo winking to Bill (IT miniseries) |
Even though, the scene was a big scare, both in
the novel and in the miniseries Bill believes that he is responsible of Georgie’s
death. Pennywise will use Georgie's appearance to torment Bill.
In addition, the movie doesn’t give a lot
of details of minor characters. One of my favorites is Patrick Hockstetter; he bullies
the Loser’s Club but the interesting thing is that he is a psychopath.
When he was a child he choked to death his little brother with a pillow and he
tortured animals until they die. In the movie, Pennywise murders Patrick
without any further consideration. Meanwhile, in the novel, It will take his
time to kill him. Pennywise will transform himself as a flying leech and will drain
the blood of Patrick’s body.
Well, the clown murdered a psychopath so… Hooray?
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| Missing child: Patrick Hockstetter |
The aesthetic and personality of the characters have remained the same, but some of the fears of the Loser’s Club have
been changed.
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Bill Denbrough
"What happens when another "Georgie" goes missing?"
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Bill is the leader of the Losers Club, he is a kid dealing with speech
impediment.
In most films,
a stuttering character is most often
relegated to the role of comic relief, and rarely fills the role of
hero, but Bill is a marvelous exception. Moreover, he will have to deal with the grief of the death of his little brother.
When he
grows up he became a wildly successful horror author and overcomes his stuttering.
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Ben Hanscom
"Derry is not like any town I've ever been in before" |
Ben has overweight and because of this, he is an easy target for
bulling and a frequent victim of Henry Bowers (who usually referred to him as “Fatboy”
or “Fatfuck”). In the book, much more is made of his intelligence; he is a
smart kid who spends a lot of time reading at the library. He developed an
intense crush on Beverly and we can see how he faces his fears to save her. As
an adult, he loses the weight and becomes a successful architect.
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Richie Tozier
"Clowns... I'm afraid of Clowns" |
Richie aka “Trashmouth” become a real popular radio DJ, famous for his
many characters. His greatest fear in the movie are clowns – probably he had
seen the 1990 Tim Curry’s performance. Yep, nightmare fuel for the rest of your
live.
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| A catchphrase to make Richie shut up |
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Mike Hanlon
"My grandfather thinks this town is cursed" |
Mike is very interested in the history of Derry and he will run the Derry
public library as an adult in both the book and the miniseries. The 2017 movie has
changed Mike’s story so Ben will be the one investigating the past of Derry. The
book spends a great deal more time outlining his research through several
interlude chapters that cover other incidents It has been responsible for over
the years. Like the old iron works exploding during an Easter egg hunt. In the
movie, there is a scene where Ben faces a headless dead child. In the movie, Mike
freaks out when It shows him a bunch of people being burned. This is related
with the death of Mike’s parents- no doubt why this is his greatest nightmare. However, in the novel, Mike is afraid of a
giant bird. Okay, it’s a giant bird but I’m pretty sure nowadays even a small
child won’t be scared of it. Also, Mike parents are alive in the novel and he
has a happy life – guess that It became more dreadful after 27 years.
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| Help us Mike |
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Eddie Kaspbrak
"A clown. Yeah. I saw him too." |
Eddie is a hypochondriac child with an overbearing mother. As an adult he
runs a limo service in New York. In the novel, Eddie marries a woman who is
exactly like his mom, but in the miniseries, Eddie is still living with his mom.
This is actually a clever movement from the ABC to avoid the explanation of
Eddie’s Oedipus complex. Pennywise will scare Eddie as a leper or a homeless man offering a blowjob under the porch of the house on Neibolt Street.
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Stanley Uris
"The monsters sees you as weaker" |
Stan
become a successful accountant in Atlanta who, upon
hearing It’s return, goes straight upstairs, to slit his wrist in the bath tub.
The book delves much deeper into Stan and his wife’s back-story. Plus, he
brutally chops himself up in the book, while the miniseries only shows a few
drops of blood. In the novel, Stan sees death children at the water deposit. In
the movie, his fear is a weird painting of a woman playing the flute – yeah,
this is bizarre. In my opinion, this representation of Stan’s fears might have
been change, because nowadays fears are more complex than the ones of 1996.
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Bev Marsh
"It always feels like It's watching us" |
Beverly is the only lady member of the Losers Club. She is the daughter of
an overbearing and abusive man that has been sexually abusing of her. When she
grows up she becomes a fashion designer and she is married to an alcoholic and
abusive man. The worst thing about Beverly is her fear, because she has to face
it every day. In the miniseries, they leave a subtle message of what is going
on Beverly’s environment. The movie, shows us the horrors of human nature and
how some of these fears can be both psychological and physical.
Each character back-stories are basically
the same, but in the book they are more bloodier, more violent, and more
upsetting.
There are really weird parts from the books
that have been omitted both in the miniseries and the movie.
The miniseries and the movie portrays the
kids as close as 12 years old can be. They are just good friends. The
miniseries and the movie skips the part where Beverly checks her breasts each morning
to see if they got bigger overnight (this shows how Beverly is concerned about
her body), and the part where her father becomes very creepily interested in
checking her hymen.
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| Yep, there is a list of creepy and weird things |
When they defeat Pennywise as kids, they
talk about how they could ever possibly keep it together after the trauma. Here
is when 12-year-old Beverly realizes that their love for each other is the
answer. So, right there in the dark tunnels she has sex with each of the guys in
the Losers Club one after another. Stephen King’s prose in this section is
extremely detailed. Luckily,
the movie only shows the next scene where they cut their hands and swear a
blood oath to return if Pennywise comes back.
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| Blood oath (IT 2017) |
In the novel, Bill and Richie make a ritual
in which they ended travelling through time and they discovered It’s origins.
However, this is not part of the movie neither of the miniseries. It is said
that It’s origins will be explained in It
part 2.
Moreover, Bill discovers how to defeat It because a cosmic turtle teaches him the Ritual of Chüd - a psychic battle in which the two forces dueled with their wits.
I truly recommend you to read the book,
watch the miniseries, and watch the movie. It is a classic horror book and film.
The fear that the clown produced had provoked many people to have an irrational
fear to clowns (in which I have to include myself), but I truly loved how the
book portrays the idea of childhood trauma, how Stephen King gave those kids grownup
issues to deal with and ultimately handling themselves better than the adults
around them. Moreover, in the miniseries we can see the astonishing Tim Curry’s
performance and how he portraits this monster that works as a metaphor for unsolved
childhood issues.
27 years later, Bill Skarsgård had brought
a clean performance of It giving the clown this creepier and gorier look. The
shots and the special effects are perfectly balanced creating an eerie
atmosphere that will make you jump out the couch.
Until IT part 2 is released, how about
spending a spooky night and reviving the terrifying circus nightmare your inner
child remembers?
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| Are you waiting IT part 2? |
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