It - is a 1990 Emmy-winning horror film based on the Stephen King novel of the same name.
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.
