Stephen King's It (1990)

One of the worst movies I've ever seen

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

An Exercise In Nonsense

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Ommy Lee Wallace has made many lasting contributions to genre filmmaking, first on John Carpenter's Dark Star and Assault on Precinct 13 before appearing as The Shape/Michael Myers in the original Halloween, writing Amityville 2: The Possession, co-writing and directing the original Fright Night Part II and acting and being part of the effects team for The Fog. But this film cements his legacy, with a great build and plenty of scares within the limitations of television. Originally airing from November 18 to 20, 1990, screenwriter Lawrence Cohen turned 1,138 pages of King into a two-part, three-hour TV movie. Wallace - and others - have commented that the first night is near perfect story-wise, but it falls apart on night two.The story concerns The Lucky Seven, or The Losers Club, a group of outcasts who learn that the shapeshifting creature named Pennywise has taking and killing children in their hometown of Derry, Maine. They first battle him in 1960 as teenagers before coming back to battle him again in 1990.This might sound like a broken record when it comes to King movies, George Romero had originally been signed on to direct the project when ABC had planned for an eight-to-ten-hour series that would play over four nights. He left the project due to scheduling conflicts, but he would finally direct a King adaptation, The Dark Half. This is considered one of the most faithful treatments of the author's work.That said, we're here to talk about It, which begins with Georgie Denbrough playing with the paper sailboat that his brother Bill (Becca fave Jonathan Brandis) has made for him. As it sails down the sewer, he encounters Pennywise (Tim Curry, whose work in this movie led to thousands of nightmares of 90's kids), who gnaws his arm off and leaves him to die.The Losers Club comes together when Bill and Eddie Kaspbrak welcome the new kid, overweight Ben Hanscom. They're soon joined by Beverly Marsh (Emily Perkins from the Ginger Snaps series of films), Richie Tozier (Seth Green), Stan Uris and Mike Hanlon. They all have two things in common: they're bullied by Henry Bowers' gang and they're all encountered the evil of Pennywise. They soon learn that every thirty years, the shapeshifter comes back to town to claim the lives of children.When Stan is ambushed by the gang, Pennywise (or It) emerges and kills two of the gang members. Henry is left traumatized and left with white hair. He eventually confesses to all of the murders, although he didn't commit them. Stanley and the rest of the Losers learn how to use their imagination to stop the creature and drive it into the sewers before making a vow to come back to Derry if it ever comes back.Thirty years later, Mike (Tim Reid from TV's WKRP in Cincinnati) is the only member of the Losers Club to stay in Derry. When It returns and begins killing again, he brings everyone back together. Bill (Richard Thomas, Battle Beyond the Stars) is now a famous horror writer married to Audra, a gorgeous British actress (Olivia Hussey, Black Christmas). Ben (John Ritter) is an architect. Beverly (Annette O'Toole) has grown up to be a fashion designer but has transitioned from being abused by her father to being beaten by her husband. Richie (the late, great Harry Anderson) is a comedian. Eddie (Dennis Christopher, Fade to Black) runs a limo service. And Stan is a real estate broker who decides to kill himself rather than come back home to face It.Meanwhile, Henry has escaped from the mental institution with the help of It. His goal? Kill the rest of the Losers. The shapeshifting monster also draws Bill's wife to town.Mike is hospitalized after being stabbed by Henry and the five remaining Losers head to the sewer for a final battle. That's when the movie falls apart, as the monster can never live up to King's words. If you ask nearly anyone, they always bring this up. That's because it's true.All of the Losers but Eddie make it out, with Beverly and Ben reconnecting and Bill saving his wife. But at this point, most people have been scorned by the spider that Pennywise becomes.That's because it's hard to beat just how scary Tim Curry is in this movie. Supposedly, he unnerved the cast so much that many avoided him during the production.The movie eliminates some of the problematic parts of the book for me, such as Beverly taking the virginity of all the male characters in the sewer, but retains Audra becoming a victim who needs to be rescued. Tommy Lee Wallace has noted that he doesn't think that it works dramatically in the movie or novel.

I never saw this on TV as the two part mini series back in the day, I always saw it as just one big movie on a vhs tape, so that's what I've always just thought of it as. This picture has unfortunately been getting a lot of fresh hate recently because of the uh, 're-imagining,' but that's not really fair to compare two movies that are almost thirty years apart like that. That new film did have some strengths that this doesn't but the door swings both ways and I'll tell you one thing, for all its flash that movie sure didn't have the heart and depth that this patchy old 'uncool' mini-series from way back in 1990 did. Maybe I feel that way because like the majority of its fans, I grew up watching "IT" and have a strong nostalgic connection to and a big soft spot for it, so frigging what, the rose-tinted glasses will only take you so far you know! It is big nostalgia trip for me, just hearing the opening music theme alone makes me recall how I felt seeing it as a kid, nostalgia is built into the fabric of the story, which is mostly about adults remembering their friends and childhood. I do love It but I can admit that this movie would have probably been largely forgotten were it not for the brilliance of Tim Curry as Pennywise the Dancing Clown. The new guy was decent in a completely different way but he had to hop around like a mad frog and rush at the camera to make himself halfway scary, whereas Curry could chill you with a mere look and you never forget those eyes. Just the idea of him attacking is scary enough. He cuts such a fantastic iconic figure of horror pop culture as that clown. He looks and acts so silly but there's a definite sinister quality that's always there as well. He could easily make you laugh or scream, and the performance is one that sticks with you for life! The scene of young Georgie's death is one of the all time great moments in all of horrordom to me. It's so fantastically done, the bright whiteness of Pennywise's face against the pitch black of the drain with the water running down it, and the slyness in his eyes as he appears kindly and harmless enough to entice a happy-go-lucky little boy with offerings of balloons to get close enough to join him and die... That excellent scene is why you're afraid of clowns! The rest of it doesn't totally stand up to the bar that Curry sets though, and it's him and the child actors and their chemistry together as well as they're whole first part of the film that is what's best about it. Occasionally the dialogue can be so horribly corny, especially in the second part with the adults, things go into melodrama territory a lot. The ending is a letdown yes, but it's not like Stephen King himself didn't manage to screw up the ending of the book, if memory serves me right.. The ending in this though really doesn't pay off what is an effective buildup, that spider is way too goofy and ill-fitting with its googly crossed eyes and little T-Rex arms.. And it's so weirdly blunt how after wounding it with a silver piece from a slingshot, which makes no sense as it's meant to be a living creature and shouldn't be effected by the childhood mumbo-jumbo, they all just basically go "let's get him!" and run over and tip it like a cow and beat it to death with their bare hands! The real reason things fall a bit flat is because you've spent the better part of the three hours watching the creepy magic of Tim Curry in all his righteous clown glory, and then it ends with this ponderous silly puppet that comes out of nowhere! I do like the closing sequence though where Bill takes his wife Audra on a rather hazardous bike ride to try and wake her from the coma that the dreaded dead lights left her in, I found it poignant. A little light at the end of the tunnel as it were. I had a new appreciation for this the last time I watched if, I think it has way more good points and qualities than it's given credit for, IT was above average for its day, it's kind of all over the place but it's still a very enjoyable, entertaining, and engrossing viewing experience that has its dumb sillier elements but it also has it's legit scary ones too, as well as, hammy and annoying as some of them can frequently be, characters you can actually tell apart and do actually care about, and faults and all it will always be a classic to me. "See you in your dreams!"

"It" is a two part movie adaptation of a Stephen King story that, in my opinion leaves many unanswered questions. It is the story of an evil force which appears every thirty years in the small town of Derry, Maine to terrorize and murder little children. The evil takes the form of a sinister clown, Pennywise (Tim Curry) who can get inside the heads of his victims.The story opens with the principals now enjoying the good life,, Bill Denbrough (Richard Thomas), Richie Taylor (Harry Anderson), Stan Uris (Richard Masur), Beverly March (Annette O'Toole), Eddie Kasprat (Dennis Christopher) and Ben Hanscom (John Ritter) being summoned by Mike Hanlon (Tim Reid) to return to Derry as "It" has returned and the murders have resumed. The rest of this first part is told in flashbacks to each of the "gang of seven's" childhood thirty years before and their then experiences with Pennywise.The second part of the story picks up with each of the gang's arrival in Derry except for Stan who's fear has got the better of him. The remaining members decide that they must put an end to the evil. They had discovered as children that the evil spirit was hiding in an old sewage plant and thought that they had destroyed Pennywise. Not so. At that time they promised each other to return if the evil ever returned. It did.They gang returns to the underground sewage plant to destroy the evil. Apparently the evil spirit must take on a living form every so often in order to survive. They encounter the living monster and.................As I said earlier, there are many unanswered questions. For example, where did this evil spirit come from? Why does it only manifest itself every thirty years? How could a monster so horrible be dispatched with only an asthma spray and two silver nuggets? And the final climatic slaying of the monster? Come on. And the living monster at the climax? Where did that come from?In spite of the drawbacks, there are some genuinely scary moments. In particular, the luring of the young children by Pennywise. To this end, Tim Curry as Pennywise gives a terrifying performance. The principals, (the 80s all-stars), particular Reid and Thomas, stand out. The younger cast of Seth Green (Richie), Adam Faraizi (Eddie), Ben Heller (Stan), Emily Perkins (Beverly), Marlon Taylor (Mike), Brendon Crane (Ben) and Jonathan Brandis (Bill) handle their roles well. Also of note is Jarred Blancard as the bully Henry Bowers who grows up to be Michael Cole. Olivia Hussey has a nice bit as Audra Denbrough as well.

Just recently saw the new film adaptation of Stephan King's "It" but before I can write an review on that, I think it would be necessary to review this one first. The one that is pretty much overshadowed now by its remake's success, the mini-series from the 90s that gets a-lot of mixed reviews as years followed, even now with the new one being released, some say it was good, some say it bad, me however, I'm in between about the film, as I do got a-lot of credits to give this movie for, I do however, have a-lot of complaints about it.Basically the plot is that in this small Maine called "Derry" have a history of missing children, one of which is the younger brother of one of our main characters, Bill Denbrough, Georgie who was proved to be dead, and soon the actual abductor/killer of these kids, who is a being that can turns into certain things that often feared children, especially a clown that is often turned into named "Pennywise", and then started to threaten Bill by revealing he's next, along-side other children such as a obese nerd Ben Hanscom, asthmatic Eddie Kaspbrak, Jewish Boy Scout Stanley Uris, loner Beverly Marsh, Comic Richie Tozier, and African-American Mike Hanlon, and soon these kids would come together and fight this unknown being and once they thought it was dead, they all later moved-out of the town as Adults to moved-on with Life, except for one who believes in a possibility of it's returning. Years later, strange things started happening again in which children are back disappearing which leads to a proved factor that it wasn't dead after-all and that these kids (Now Adults) must back together and fight it again, this time tries to really kill it.The movie good stuff is from the kids' characters which lead to one of the bad things to mention about this movie with them as Adults, now each kid have a almost the exact good quality about them, being interesting to watch, and having such great scenes. Although I do have couple of complaints about this. One is the female lead, Beverly, now its not a issue of the fact she's ain't a redhead in this film like she was in both the book and the remake, but the downfall is that she not like her Tomboyish character shown in the book, which is a-bit of a downfall look at this. It more sense that she's a tomboy because she the only female character of the group of kids and she not portray as one, although her abusive father was shown in this film and their relationship was well-done I guess. The second complaint is this one scene with Eddie in which he encountered Pennywise in the shower room, now the problem with this is that the scene just ends, as it just went back to the current time, like what the hell, are we supposed to use our Imagination or what, like this was no excuse what-so-ever. Now the one character that really do the best out of all of these characters was Pennywise himself. Tim Curry who plays him, did a great job, now the newer one is more superior than this one, but still seeing his scenes in this film, in both the first half and the second are absolutely great and a-bit amusing to watch. The second is kinda like just a downhill of the film, with the adults just boring and a-bit uninteresting to watch, and despite we do have Curry there, he can't even saved the film. Now I'm not going to complain about the bare use of Gore, as this was a made-for-TV film, so I'm just going to let this slid. The scares in this film, looking at it now I still kinda see how its creepy, but I don't really feel scare about seeing this so, it would make sense as it just a made-for-TV movie.Over-all this film was just mediocre, I kinda don't understand why they didn't even do the idea that the people behind the remake are doing by cutting it into two parts, one being the kids, and the other being the adults, all in theatrical, but oh-well. If you haven't see this film which is understandable, I suggest checking-out the first part, and as watching the second part just goes to where Pennywise is shown, now that what is worth seeing in that half.