It (1990)
Stephen King’s track record in Hollywood if nothing else is one of great consistency when it comes to getting his stories optioned and made into theatrical films, so much so that a number of these films have even entered into the cycle of having remakes done with one of the more recent ones being a redo of this 1990 production, adapted from a 1000+ page book by King that as a result of its length became the first of the King projects to be produced as a 2 part Made For TV movie, a pattern that continued onward for a number of years with some of them good (The Stand) and others not so good (the TV remake of The Shining which was little more than’s King’s misguided attempt to do a “faithful” version of that story in order to stick it to Stanley Kubrick and wound up making a extremely boring and overlong film instead). But this original film (despite skirting the restrictions of TV productions which have been relaxed since then) became an instant classic in many ways due to one ingenious piece of casting, that of Tim Curry taking on the role of the villainous Pennywise The Dancing Clown, a role that is billed as being a “special appearance” (which would indicate a mere cameo) but in reality wound up being considered the whole damn show, mocking not only his victims but also the various actors it seems who are playing their roles so damn serious. Pennywise it appears is some kind of a multi dimensional creature who only appears in Curry’s clown form to the eyes of mortal humans, but is also a Lovecraftian type nether god who can not only materialize in the form of hallucinations, but can either physically attack people or even possess certain ones to carry out his dirty work in more conventional fashion. The story centers around the clown’s series of attacks on children in a small Maine town (where he appears to be based and also holds most of the townspeople there under some kind of a spell) in the late 1950s (although it’s hinted that he’s haunted the area for centuries), brutally killing and disfiguring them after using his goofy clown persona to gain their trust (or at least their interest). Eventually he centers in on seven kids (all of whom are misfits in their own way), using their worst fears and insecurities to climb into their heads and taunt them mercilessly while promising that he’ll drive them all crazy before he kills them (a tactic not unlike those used by Freddy Krueger with a boiler room scene here that’s eerily similar to those in the Elm Street series). But the kids know that something’s up as they figure out that once they band together as a combined unit, they possess a certain kind of power that Pennywise fears intensely (another old trait of King’s where many times his heroes’ essential “goodness” is the only real basis for them defeating extremely powerful and evil villains), so much so that he ratchets up the mind games in an attempt to cause them to lose their minds (at least in the eyes of everybody else) but unlike his other little victims (who all appeared to have been taken by swooping down to snatch and grab), these seven kids get treated to the psychological attacks almost exclusively before they finally go down into the sewer together as one and “defeat” the evil clown (or so it would appear) and afterwards make a pact that if Pennywise ever reappears, they will all return as adults if need be and take him on again. Flash forward 30 years and the one member of the group (Tim Reid) still living in the town as the local librarian notices that the child murders are starting again. Reid (for whom as a child being black in a mostly white town qualified him as a misfit) proceeds to contact all of the others to inform them of Pennywise’s return and their solemn vow to come back and finish him once and for all. The fascinating thing here is that not only are the other six adult members of the group all fantastically rich and successful (and in some cases even famous which is rare for the alumni of one small town), but they’ve also mostly forgotten about the events of their childhood and the twisted clown creature that they defeated, only to have the memories come rushing back once they receive that fateful phone call. They include Richard Thomas as Stuttering Bill Denbrough, now a famous author (clearly modeled after King) whose impeccable stutter as a boy (played by Jonathan Brandis, once majorly famous as a child actor whose suicide death by hanging at 27 received little to no media attention) caused him to be labeled an outcast, Harry Anderson as Richie Tozier, so obnoxious with his unfunny jokes and taped up glasses as a kid (played by Seth Green) who grew up to be a popular stand up comic guest hosting The Tonight Show(!), Dennis Christopher as Eddie Kasprak, a physically weak kid suffering from asthma as a boy (making him an easy target for bullies) who now runs his own successful limousine business but yet still lives with his mother(!), Richard Masur as Stanley Uris, considered a misfit on account of being Jewish (and who was probably victimized worse mentally by Pennywise out of the whole lot of them) who now lives a staid lifestyle with his rather plain wife, Annette O’Toole as Beverly Marsh (the only girl of the group), who grew up poor and shunned by the other girls from families with money who is now a famous fashion designer with an abusive boyfriend and John Ritter as Ben Hanscom, picked on and bullied as a boy for being fat but whom now is a physically fit architect who has obtained near rock star status in his field (even appearing on the cover of Time!). Of course, when that phone call from Reid’s Mike Hanlon comes summoning them all back to their hometown, the expectation is that they are to drop everything immediately and come back to face Pennywise once again only now as adults (a revelation so terrifying that one of them can’t even handle the thought and immediately commits suicide instead). As each of them return, Pennywise hits them one by one with custom made hallucinations, mocking them and giving a warning to leave now, but this still underscores the curious fact that even though Pennywise appears to be psychically linked to each of them (as they are to each other), in his physical clown form he seems unable to do anything to these seven besides mess with their minds and talk shit all while appearing to be able to kill just about anyone and anything else seemingly at will (at least as long as he’s just a clown) which leads to them heading down into the sewers and facing Pennywise in his true form (where physical damage IS on the table) in order to kill him. Another one of Stephen King’s most annoying story tropes (one that he’s used several times) is the idea that in wherever the story takes place the so called “town bad boy” (think 50s style white trash juvenile delinquent) is the epitome of pure evil in human form and here it’s no different with a leather jacketed thug and his crew terrorizing our main characters as kids and possibly also carrying out Pennywise’s bidding as well. For a 3+ hour movie (without commercials where it was 4 hours over two nights), things get a little unwieldy at times, but at least director Tommy Lee Wallace keeps the pacing on point as each main character is introduced in the first half as a kid before being reintroduced as an adult being played by a fairly big name actor (usually TV stars), but as big a name in the television realm that is held by guys like John Ritter, Harry Anderson, and Richard (John-Boy) Thomas, in the end this is really an amazing one man show by Tim Curry, giving a performance that was so iconic that even after the release of the remake (where he was played by a different actor), in many places it was still images of Curry as Pennywise that was used in internet memes and other forms of social media to promote the new film. Certainly the most appealing factor of the other actors in their roles is the realization that in order to defeat Pennywise (besides stifling their fear of him), they must rediscover that side of them that had once made them young, to realize that being a kid again and using the power of imagination (including using rocks, slingshots and even asthma medication as weapons) are actually tangible elements that can be utilized against Pennywise potentially to kill him (which is why he obviously fears them in spite of his taunting as they were somehow chosen by a higher power as the only ones meant to destroy him) which along with Curry’s powerhouse performance makes this an enduring classic to this day…
8/10