The film spawned a series of comic books, and two crossover sequels. A sequel to the film itself will be relased sometime in 2009.

Sequel

• On June 25th 2008, producer Charles Band announced that he’ll be making the fourth entry, however, he said it will be titled Demonic Toys 2. Synopsis: While on a trip to help an eccentric collector of bizarre oddities, young David and his girlfriend Caitlin are forced to fight for their lives when they find themselves trapped in an ancient Roman castle as the Demonic Toys are brought pack to life by a mysterious ancient puppet who sets them on a course for murder. Only the fulfillment of an ancient evil curse can save them. But will anyone be alive to be saved at the end?. Along with Demonic Toys is Puppet Master: Axis of Evil, Killjoy 3, Bride of the Head of the Family, and Gingerdead Man 3: Saturday Night Cleaver.

Featured Toys

• Baby Oopsy Daisy: The Leader of the toys. A foul mouthed perverted baby doll. In the first film, Baby Oopsy Daisy is Female, but in the sequels the character is now male (though still wears the female dress from the first film in Dollman vs. Demonic Toys). In each film, the baby is given a new voice.
• Jack Attack: A Jack-in-the-Box with razor sharp teeth and a deadly laugh. In the first and second films he can leave his box at any time and has a snake-like form. In the first film at the end of his tail is a Baby Rattle somewhat a pun on the term rattle snake.
• Grizzly: A cute little teddy bear who, when given a taste of blood, starts to mutate and grow. Probably the most vicious out of all the toys.
• Mr. Static: A toy robot that moves slowly and can fire lasers. In the first film it kills Hesse before being shot to bits by Mark, and in Dollman vs. Demonic Toys it kills Judith Gray before being shot up by Brick Bardo.
• Zombietoid: A Blond GIJoe based character who only appears in the second film as a replacement for Grizzly Teddy. He makes a loud scream and his weapon of choice is his machete. He dies by accident when he is shocked to death when his machete gets caught in an electrical socket, and is never heard from again.

Cast

• Tracy Scoggins as Judith Gray
• Bentley Mitchum as Mark Wayne
• Daniel Cerny as “The Kid”
• Michael Russo as Lincoln
• Barry Lynch as Hesse
• Ellen Dunning as Anne
• Peter Schrum as Charneski
• Jeff Weston as Matt Cable
• William Thorne as Fair-Haired Boy
• Richard Speight Jr. as Andy
• Larry Cedar as Peterson
• Jim Mercer as Dr. Michaels
• Pat Crawford Brown as Mrs. Michaels
• Christopher Robin as Skeleton Kid
• Kristine Rose as Miss July

The film is set in New York City, particularly in Manhattan and Queens, with scenes taking place on the New York City Subway and within John F. Kennedy International Airport. Times Square, the Empire State Building, and the Statue of Liberty are also briefly seen.

Quick Change remains the only directorial credit of Bill Murray’s career.

Plot

The movie opens with Grimm (Murray), dressed as a clown, robbing a bank in Midtown Manhattan by ingeniously setting up a hostage situation and slipping away with an enormous sum of money and his accomplices; girlfriend Phyllis (Davis) and best friend Loomis (Quaid). However, whilst the heist itself is comparatively straightforward and easy, the getaway turns into a nightmare; the relatively simple act of getting to the airport to catch a flight out of the city is complicated by the fact that fate, luck and all of New York City appears to be against their escape. Roadworks obscure the roads to the airport, resulting in the three robbers being lost in an unfamiliar part of the city. Then, a con-artist/thief robs the trio of everything they have (except, ironically, the bank money, which they have taped under their clothes). When changing their clothes, they are almost gunned down by the stressed incoming tenant of Grimm’s apartment (Phil Hartman), as members of the fire department responding to a call try to push their hydrant-blocking car out of the way only to make it roll away into a ditch; when the trio eventually manages to flag down a cab, the driver (Shalhoub) is revealed to be hopelessly non-fluent in English. An anal-retentive bus driver (Bosco), a run-in with some mobsters and Phyllis’ increasing desperation to tell Grimm the news that she is pregnant with his child add further complications. And all the while Rotzinger, the world-weary but relentless chief of the New York City Police Department (Robards), is doggedly but fruitlessly attempting to nab the trio. A final confrontation onboard a jumbo jet at the airport allows the robbers to escape, but the chief gets the consolation prize of having a major crime-boss (Smith) dropped in his lap.

Critical reaction

This little-known film features what many critics claim is one of Murray’s finest performances: a jaded man who has just had too much of The Big Apple. The film also features strong performance by the supporting cast, particularly Robards as the cop, who, while almost as burned out as Murray, is still determined to capture the robbers as a swan song to finish his long career.

Memorable Quotes

Rotzinger to Grimm Negotiating for Hostages: “At least give me the women!”

Grimm’s Reply: “Get your own women!”

Bank Guard: “So I says to him, ‘Are you gonna behave?’ And from out of nowhere comes this knife. I think it was a bowie knife, and I hate knives….Then I said, ‘It’s all over, Chuckles,’ and wrassled him to the floor, but he got some gal in his sights and I had to let up. That’s when he coldcocked me.”

Chief Rotzinger: “Robbers plural?”

Bank Guard:“They all cold-cocked me!”
Street Barker: “Nude women! Nude women!”

[Grimm dressed as a clown walks by]

Street Barker: “Clowns Welcome! Clowns welcome!”

Bus driver: “I don’t have time for this!”

Production

The miniseries was filmed in New Westminster, British Columbia, which stood in for the town of Derry. An actual former movie house in New Westminster, the Paramount, appeared in several scenes in the miniseries, including an establishing scene where the young Losers go to a Saturday matinee and a later scene where the adult Richie drives by the theatre and sees a disturbing message from “It” on the marquee. In reality, the New Westminster Paramount stopped showing movies in 1983 and now functions as a strip club.

As part of the casting process, Rozz Williams of gothic rock band Christian Death auditioned for the part of Pennywise, going so far as to arrive at the audition in a costume he made himself. However, Wallace ultimately decided that Tim Curry’s audition was of a higher quality. Footage of Williams’ audition, in which he recites Pennywise’s dialogue from one of the more sexually explicit scenes in the book, has circulated widely amongst Christian Death fans, and has given rise to (false) rumours of an “alternate version” of the film with Rozz in the Pennywise role and most of the excised content of the book restored.

The other notable casting decision was to hire performers predominantly known as comic actors — Harry Anderson, John Ritter and Tim Reid – in dramatic roles.

Deaths

• Laurie Ann Winterbarger: At the very beginning of the film, In the form of the clown, Laurie Ann was killed by It in her backyard. The actual cause of death is unknown. Her mother finds her under the washing line in the backyard. She is the first person to die in the film.
• Georgie Denbrough: In the form of the clown, his arm was ripped off when trying to reach for the wax paper sailboat that went into sewer drain; he bled to death.
• Stanley ‘Stan’ Uris: Committed suicide in the bathtub, after being haunted by his past memory of It. On the bathroom wall ‘It’ is written in blood.
• Henry Bowers: Killed by Mike Hanlon after attempting to kill him, nearly succeeding.
• Patrick Hocksetter/Belch Huggins: Belch is pulled into a pipe in the sewers, frightening Henry so immensely that his entire head of hair turns white. Patrick is picked off while off on his own, but the actual scene of his death is not shown. It’s form was not seen, only the deadlights.
• Eddie Kaspbrak: Attempts to blast It’s true physical form (a giant spider) with his inhaler as he did as a child. However, It is unaffected, and picks him up and drops him to the ground, fatally wounding him.
• Velma Daniels: Her body is found near the canal, severely mutilated.
• Koontz: In the form of the clown with the head of a Rottweiler, Koontz is mauled to death offscreen.
• Pennywise/It: Dies after being dismembered by the Losers at the end of the movie.

Reaction and possible remake

Radio Times magazine in 2004 held a survey for the scariest program aired on television, in which It came first. The X-Files came second. Others on the top ten list included Twin Peaks, Ghostwatch and Tales of the Unexpected. The Sci Fi channel announced a 4 hour remake of the film which will be made sometime in 2008.

The main criticism of the film is that it is vastly different from the book, for reasons including the task of preserving King’s book while keeping the running time at a reasonable level, altering it to be sanitized for television, as well as budgetary limitations.

However, the film has received praise amongst fans for Curry’s role as Pennywise. Fans feel that his role was both scary and quite comical.

Plot

The movie begins with a boy named Michael (Jamal Grimes), a kid who has the heart for a girl named Jada (Vera Yell), but is always rejected because Jada is stuck with a badass gangster, Lorenzo (William L. Johnson), and if Michael comes close to her, he gets beat up by both Lorenzo and his homeboys, T-Bone (Corey Hampton) and Baby Boy (Rani Goulant). But Michael, is secretly involved in black magic, and tries to bring a doll that he keeps called Killjoy to life. But the spell doesn’t work quickly, as Michael is accidentally shot by Lorenzo when they were joking around with him.

A year later, Jada is now going out with a guy named Jamal (Lee Marks), who is just as nice as Michael is. Meanwhile, Lorenzo is now going out with a girl named Kahara (Napiera Groves), who is very different than Jada. When Lorenzo leaves to go do her, T-Bone and Baby Boy go to get some ice-cream to get munchies, when the ice-cream man, who’s dressed up like a clown (Angel Vargas) really sells drugs. Baby Boy and T-Bone hop in the truck, when suddenly, the ice-cream truck teleports them to some abandoned building, faraway from where they live. They split up to find a way out, when Baby Boy gets rammed into the wall by the ice-cream truck.

Meanwhile, T-Bone finds some pot lying on the ground and starts to smoke it, when suddenly, the pot starts to burn him, and his body teleports back to his hide-out, along with Baby Boy. Meanwhile, Lorenzo, after doing Kahara, hears something outside her apartment building, and goes outside to check. He finds the ice-cream truck and opens the door, and the ice-cream man pulls him in, and lands at the abandoned building. After finding the ice-cream man, he shoots him to death, but the ice-cream man sucks up the bullets (a spoof of The Mask) and shoots the bullets out of his mouth, killing Lorenzo.

Meanwhile, one of Jada’s friends, Monique (D. Austin), calls Jada, telling her that some guy (Arthur Burghardt) came in to her room and needs them to come over. The homeless man tells them about how Lorenzo killed Michael, and explains that Michael’s spirit was taken over by the Ice Cream Man, who’s real name’s Killjoy, the doll Michael has, and tells them how Killjoy killed Lorenzo, Baby Boy, and T-Bone. Then he tells them that Killjoy can be killed by Jada, because the love of a young woman can destroy the evil in the heart. Before leaving, he tells them that they have to kill the doll, and the ice cream truck is outside.

They go outside to check it out. Still not believing what the homeless man said, they go inside the ice-cream truck to check it out, and they’re teleported to the abandoned building, where they’re confronted by T-Bone, Baby Boy, and Lorenzo, indicating that Killjoy took their souls and kept them. The trio start fighting the accomplices until they killed them. Then Killjoy comes out and knocks Jamal and Monique out. Then Killjoy turns into Michael. Michael tells Jada that he did it for her. Jada, who desperately wants to stop Michael from doing this, stabs Michael to death, and Michael fades away.

Jamal, Jada, and Monique are about to leave when Killjoy, Lorenzo, T-Bone, and Baby Boy appear behind them. Jada then remembers that they have to kill the doll. The trio run back into the ice-cream truck, where they are teleported to Michael’s house, where the doll lies on the floor. The doll turns into Michael, but Jada continues to stab it. The earth starts to shake, and Baby Boy, T-Bone, and Lorenzo’s souls are sucked into a portal. The trio then watch as Killjoy finishes off Michael, and the trio are sent back to Jada’s room, where the homeless man thanks them, and vanishes, indicating he’s an angel from the heavens.

The trio decide to go out and eat, when they are confronted by Ray Jackson (Carl Washington), and Tamara (Dionne Rochelle), who are in Jada’s English class. Ray says that he got into the club free because his brother owns the place, and his name is…….Killjoy! The trio then see that Ray turns into Killjoy, and Tamara turns into Lorenzo. Killjoy starts laughing maniacally at the trio, with Jada screaming “NO!”, until Jada wakes up in bed, along with Jamal, indicating that the entire experience was a dream. Jamal goes under the covers to give Jada the lick, and rises from the covers as Killjoy. The film ends with a shot of Jada screaming.

Sequel

• On June 25, 2008, producer Charles Band would be making the third entry in the Killjoy series. Along with Killjoy is Puppet Master: Axis of Evil, Demonic Toys 2, Bride of the Head of the Family, and Gingerdead Man 3: Saturday Night Cleaver.

Cast

• Angel Vargas as Killjoy
• Vera Yell as Jada
• Lee Marks as Jamal
• D Austin as Monique
• Jamal Grimes as Michael
• Corey Hampton as T-Bone
• Rani Goulant as Baby Boy
• Napiera Groves as Kahara
• Arthur Burghardt as Homeless Man
• William L. Johnson as Lorenzo
• Penny Ford as Singer
• Carl Washington as Ray Jackson
• Dionne Rochelle as Tamara

Location

The movie was filmed in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada at the Walker Theatre in downtown Winnipeg. In one scene near the end of the film, taking place on the rooftop, the Richardson building and the TD bank towers at Portage and Main can be seen.

Cast

• Christopher Plummer    …     Mr. Caruthers
• Margot Kidder    …     Ms. Ellen Gibby
• Sarah Lassez    …     Kate Williams
• James Duval    …     George Reese
• Tatyana Ali    …     Monica
• Melissa Galianos    …     Cheryl ‘Walnut’ Webber
• J.P. Grimard    …     Marty Timmerman

The movie is a dark comedy about a birthday-party clown (Goldthwait) in the grip of depression and alcoholism. Different communities of clowns, mimes and other performers are depicted as clannish, rivalling subcultures obsessed with precedence and status. This was Goldthwait’s bitter satire of the dysfunctional standup comedy circuit he knew as a performer.

Critical and audience reaction to the movie was decidedly mixed: Leonard Maltin gave it his lowest rating, while the Boston Globe called it “the Citizen Kane of alcoholic clown movies.”

In an interview with Conan O’Brien, Goldthwait revealed that no less than Martin Scorsese had defended the movie from detractors. When a film critic derided the movie in order to make a point about good and bad movies, Scorsese revealed, “I liked Shakes the Clown.”