Revisiting It

I hadn't watched It since it first aired on television in 1990, back when I was still in high school. I remember the buzz surrounding the Stephen King adaptation, as well as the creepy photo on the cover of the week's TV listings, with Tim Curry in full makeup as Pennywise the carnivorous clown who lures children into the sewers where he promises they'll float just like his balloons. Of course he's more than just a clown, but honestly the clown manifestation alone was terrifying. I remember one of my college friends did a painting based off that same photo of Curry as Pennywise and it took on new life in oil.

Upon watching it again on DVD this week, these are my thoughts:

• 1990 feels like ten years ago to me, but of course it's closer to twenty. The quality of television movies has definitely improved, as well as how much can be shown on network television. There's quite a lot of blood, a little too fake looking, but probably a big deal in 1990. The majority of the killings and maimings happen off screen, handled in dialogue or by the reactions of other characters. By horror movie standards, especially in the age of gore-porn like Hostel, it all seems very tame.

• The lack of graphic violence doesn't hurt the miniseries. King's strength has always been his characters, people so fully developed that you're invested in each and every one's well being. This is what I've always admired in both his novels and their adaptations. The miniseries was broken in to two parts. In the first, we meet our protagonists as adults, and through flashbacks to their childhood learn how they became friends and first faced this monster clown 30 years prior. The child actors, which include the late Jonathan Brandis, Juno's Emily Perkins, and a gawky pre-Oz Seth Green, are the true strength of the film. The story of seven “losers” who find strength in their friendship to stand up to a trio of bullies, their own fears and inadequacies, and of course Pennywise, is on par with Stand By Me. I think King's characters are so good because he draws so much from his own life, that they're all amalgams of himself and people he's known. The childhood adventures ring true because, apart from the supernatural elements, they're probably similar to adventures he had growing up. The Brandis character grows up to be a novelist writing horror stories with titles such as “The Glowing”, and is pretty clearly based on King to some degree.

• Just as I remembered, the second half isn't as strong. Tim Reid plays a librarian, the only character to remain in their hometown of Derry after they supposedly defeat Pennywise and grow up. When murders and disappearances begin again and Reid's character finds a photo of Brandis' character's younger brother, a victim of Pennywise, he calls all of his old friends to return home. Life and time had made them all forget and block out the memories, and as they come together they begin remembering. I've become so used to good flashback techniques from shows like Lost, that it's pretty laughable how many visual anvils are used to connect the adult actors with their childhood counterparts. One guy grabs his ear, the camera blurs, and then there's a kid grabbing his ear in the same gesture. Things are spelled out that the audience probably would be smart enough to figure out. Early on in the film, with very little evidence to support the theory, one of the kids spells out just what the clown might really be. The adults often repeat things we've just seen in flashbacks, and in general it's scarier when children face off against clowns. Harry Anderson is very convincing as an adult version of Seth Green, and both Annette O'Toole and John Ritter give decent performances as well. Reid and those three were the strongest of the adult cast. At one point Ritter's character has a bit of dialogue about his childhood obesity, how one day a coach made him so mad that it sparked him to just start running, and eventually lose the weight and make the track team. It took on new meaning when he speaks about running until his heart felt like it was going to burst in his chest, eerie and sad given how the actor eventually perished.

• It doesn't have the cast and epic scope of The Stand, which is definitely the best television adaptation of any of King's novels. Pretty much every TV version of his stuff has gotten progressively worse since The Stand. Still, a few familiar faces pop up in It, from William B. Davis as a creepy principal, to veteran voice and character actor Garry Chalk as a gruff coach. I could swear I even saw Greg Kinnear as a gas station attendant, but that role appears to be credited to someone named Boyd Norman.

• I need to read the novel. I read the extended version of The Stand a few years after I saw the miniseries, and rented it again after reading the book. Spread over three nights, they managed to hit all the important points in the book and capture the essence of the story. There's a lot of great stuff they cut out for time, and a lot more development of the characters, but nothing that really detracts. With It, when Pennywise's true(?) form is revealed, it's slightly anticlimactic, especially given some of the anvil hints early on. There's some stop motion involved and for 1990, the effects weren't bad, but I have a feeling the book fills in a lot more gaps about how this thing came to be in Derry, why it rose up to feed every 30 years, and just what made these kids special enough to resist it. I got the sense that they had power in the bond of their friendship and that Pennywise was threatened, even a little afraid of what they could do if he didn't separate their group. I'm sure the novel delves even deeper into the origins of It's power and the nature of the power of the seven children.

• It needs to be remade, with a budget, possibly as a theatrical release. I found various rumors of another television miniseries, possibly on Cable, but I think to do it real justice it needs to be a full production. I can't imagine anyone playing the clown other than Curry any more than I could imagine someone other than Robert Englund playing Freddy Kreuger. My only concern would be the new film sacrificing some of the genuine emotion and sensibilities evoked by the original young cast, that that couldn't be recaptured. The television remake of The Shining may have followed the novel far more closely than the original, but the original is clearly the better movie, just solid acting and filmmaking that exceeds the source material through its edits.

• If I don't have nightmares about clowns with razor sharp teeth this week, it will be a miracle.