Finally, the official kick-off for October's horror marathon! Here, have a balloon to celebrate. They
floooooooooooooooat...they ALL float down here!
-
It (1990): 7.5/10
A ratings smash for ABC when it was originally broadcast (in two parts) in the fall of 1990,
It (adapted from the sprawling Stephen King doorstop of a horror novel by
Carrie screenwriter Lawrence D. Cohen) is about a ravenous, evil force in the small town of Derry, Maine that awakens once every thirty years to feed upon the fears and bodies of young children, and the "Loser's Club" of seven kids who gradually come together to face the nebulous, shape-shifting "It" (most often portrayed as a deceivingly jovial clown called Pennywise, played with sneering, theatrical relish by an excellent Tim Curry) in the year of 1960. Decades later, all of them are called back to their hometown when a new rash of child deaths indicates at Pennywise is up to his old tricks. Directed by John Carpenter alumnus Tommy Lee Wallace (who previously made the bizarre
Halloween III: Season Of The Witch),
It suffers in comparison to King's novel, which was dense in subtext and rich with subplots that are mostly pruned away in this Cliff's Notes adaptation (not to mention the standards & practices of early-90's network television, which literally defangs the nastiest of King's brand of EC comics grue), but it's certainly a well-made, expertly-cast film, with a nice interweaving of the narratives of the kids (including the late Jonathan Brandis as "Stuttering" Bill Denborough, a young Seth Green as Ritchie Tozier, and a pre-
Ginger Snaps Emily Perkins as Beverly Marsh) and adults (including the late John Ritter,
Night Court's Harry Anderson and Annette O'Toole) and adequate production values for the period. It's really Curry's show, though...his Pennywise is creepy, darkly funny and overall one of the most memorable villains in the Stephen King cinematic library. The second half suffers from a weak climax (with weak F/X), but overall this holds up better than you'd think.