It (1990) (TV)

Director:

Tommy Lee Wallace

Writers (WGA):

Stephen King (novel)
Lawrence D. Cohen (teleplay) (part I)

Release Date:

18 November 1990 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Fantasy | Horror | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

The Master of Horror unleashes everything you were ever afraid of.

Plot:

Seven youths have to defeat a demonic creature named Pennywise which dresses in a clown suit and terrorizes a 1960's town in Maine.

Plot Keywords:

Wise Jew | Childhood Friend | Childhood Trauma | Murder | Fortune Cookie

Awards:

Won Primetime Emmy. Another 1 win & 2 nominations

Cast

Harry Anderson	...	Richie Tozier
Dennis Christopher	...	Eddie Kaspbrak
Richard Masur	...	Stanley Uris
Annette O'Toole	...	Beverly Marsh
Tim Reid	...	Mike Hanlon
John Ritter	...	Ben Hanscom
Richard Thomas	...	Bill Denbrough
Tim Curry	...	Pennywise
Jonathan Brandis	...	Bill Denbrough - Age 12
Brandon Crane	...	Ben Hanscom - Age 12
Adam Faraizl	...	Eddie Kaspbrak - Age 12
Seth Green	...	Richie Tozier - Age 12
Ben Heller	...	Stanley Uris - Age 12
Emily Perkins	...	Beverly Marsh - Age 12
Marlon Taylor	...	Mike Hanlon - Age 12

Also Known As:

Stephen King's It (USA) (complete title)

Runtime:

192 min | Argentina:190 min | Australia:168 min (25 fps) | Germany:182 min (25 fps) (2 parts) | Spain:179 min (25 fps) | Sweden:181 min (25 fps)

Country:

USA | Canada

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

USA:TV-14 (TV rating) | Portugal:M/16 | Iceland:16 | USA:Not Rated | Netherlands:12 (DVD rating) | Argentina:13 | South Korea:12 | Australia:M | Canada:PG | Finland:K-16 | Germany:16 | Singapore:PG | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | UK:15

Filming Locations:

Buntzen Lake, Anmore, British Columbia, Canada

Company:

Green/Epstein Productions

Trivia:

Bill is the author of a horror novel titled "The Glowing". This may refer to Stephen King's "The Shining".

Goofs:

Continuity: When Pennywise waves at Ben when he's in the cab, the balloon arrangement changes between shots.

Quotes:

Richie Tozier: Don't talk. You're gonna be fine, Spaghetti-Man.
Eddie Kaspbrak: Richie, please. For the last time, don't call me that. You know how I...

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in Camp Cuddly Pines Powertool Massacre (2005) (V)

Solid adaptation of a great book

This is a very entertaining made for TV mini-series. It does a good job at jamming a book with more than 1000 pages into 2x90 minutes movie running time. The most important parts have been adopted, unnecessary fat was thrown out, little amandments have been made, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. The writers really tried to remain faithful to the novel and even mentioned side characters or story lines in short sentences for those who have read the book. The coolest thing, however, is that director Tommy Lee Wallace somehow managed to transfer that unique spirit of nostalgia, friendship and fear into his movie. Of course, the incredible cast deserves a lot of credit for that, too. Amazingly the child actors of part 1 upstage their adult companion pieces of part 2. The greatest performance of all, however, is given by Tim Curry, who really gives "It" a face, and a very scary one. He makes this movie what it is. In my opinion, it's the role of Curry's career, even outshining his part in "The Rocky Horror Picture Show".

Now for the bad sides of "It": as a made for TV project this movie obviously couldn't get too graphic and violent and that's a bit of a pity. Stephen King's book is awfully graphic and the movie would have been twice as scary if they had shown a bit more gore. Mostly Pennywise just appears and shows his sharp teeth and that gets lame after a while. The other big minus of this film is its ending. It has to be said that the ending in the book is so bizarre it's unlikely it could ever look good on celluloid. Still, those crappy special effects were just disappointing and made me (and everyone else I know) go: "Is that what I've been waiting for the last 3 hours? That is the big climax?"

Bottom line is that for a TV movie with such strict time limits "It" did a very good job at bringing this scary book to life. Nevertheless, I think the story should be retold properly and turned into a mini-series à la "Twin Peaks". The only problem is that it's going to be hard to find someone who can fill Tim Curry's giant clown shoes.