The spider was ridiculous in book and movie both.
zoid,
The sex part was when they were children. They were getting lost on the way back out, away from the spider, and bitching at each other and sniping. If they had continued in this vein, they would have been lost forever, under the tunnels. Its last victory, you could say.
Instead, Beverly let them all have sex with her…it sounds oogy, but I guess it was fairly justified. She knew this was the only way to “bring them back together”, and in the end, it did work. Everyone calmed down and Eddie was able to find the way out.
The first time I read it through, I did see the point of it, but each successive time it’s seemed more and more oogy. Others can add more, but I do think it makes sense where it is, even if perhaps there might have been a different way to do it!
Keeping in mind that I do agree it seems freakier now as an adult, I’m trying to remember what made it seem logical when I read this book – I was 16 when I read it, which is a bit older than the kids in the story, but I did identify more with the world of kids than the world of adults. (Spoilers ahead, fyi)
I guess what I remember is that a big part of the book is that the kids are put into this position of having to fight IT on their own, which in many ways means that they have to deal with things like adults. Many times, it’s pointed out that the actual adults dismiss them as “just kids” who are playing around, and are oblivious to the fact that the kids are making complex plans, dealing with complicated situations, and making adult, life-or-death decisions. They also assume adult-like responsibility for each other, and really, for all the kids in the town, because they realize that the adults aren’t able to do anything to fight IT.
This mirrored an attitude that I perceived from my own parents and teachers – a vague sort of message that kid friendships weren’t the real thing, that everything we did was mostly play, which at the time, seemed extremely insulting and dismissive of the very real, nuanced relationships I shared with my group of friends. I felt quite ready should my set of friends even be in a position where we had to function with maturity in the face of Evil. (This is sort of funny now, I still think we would have done okay with Evil, although clearly we were not so proficient with the maturity when faced with situations like Mom and Dad are Out of Town, and I Know Where They Keep the Spare Car Keys 
)
So, it made sense to me that the kids in IT would create a bond with each other that was adult – just about everything else in their battle with IT involved them acting like responsible adults even when the grown-ups assumed they were acting like kids. And even while their success against IT sprung from their child-like beliefs, like the silver bullet killing the werewolf, the kids themselves are aware that they’re walking this line between childhood and adulthood. The sex scene kind of sealed the deal into adulthood … I would even argue it’s key in how they forget the specifics of what happened to them as they grow up and leave childhood behind, but they are then able to return as adults for the final confrontation because their bond is an adult one, or maybe more accurately, an experience that bridges their childhood and adulthood.
I don’t know, that was just the impression I had. I can certainly see how weird the scene reads for a first-time adult reader, although I still think it’s consistent with the logic of the story, if by “logic” you mean “whatever loose set of rules that SK was playing with at the time.” And, well, yeah, it’s still weird with or without that logic, but I don’t think it’s particularly worse than the other stuff that happened to the kids while they were fighting IT.
First of all, I was also disappointed with the spider. However I do have a theory -
I think the problem was (and this is my shady memory, so if I am wrong, sorry) in the book SK refers to IT as “the most alien thing” and sort of the worst thing you can imagine.
So, that leaves a lot up to interpretation. Spiders are pretty alien looking, so I guess Hollywood went with that.
I never saw the movie. It’s a spider (or “spider-ish thing”) in the book, too. However you slice it, “closest thing your mind will comprehend” or “symbolic” or whatever, it’s still a hell of a disappointment after all that buildup. There’s nothing he could have written that would have felt appropriate, I guess.
It’s not very graphic, as I remember. Each boy, uh, took his turn.
There’s no way on earth they could’ve included in the movie (it was a TV miniseries) or even hinted at it.
You were one of the people I was thinking of in the OP, that didn’t like the spider bit.
I loved the book overall, and I even loved the ending. As for the spider itself I have a pretty bad case of arachnaphobia so it made sense to me. What would have been a better idea for It to be though. The sex scene seems really disturbing to me now even though not much really offends me. When I originally read the book though (around age 15) it didn’t seem quite so strange.
My reaction to kiddie kiddie bang bang was- Well, when has sex ever made the male/female dynamic less complicated. I’m surprised none of the boys beat to death the one that lasted the longest with her. Jealously and all that.
Annanmika’s interpertation actually makes it make sense to me a bit.
I agree!
I laughed.
And I’d second that bit about D&D, a horde of Ilithids would’ve been much scarier.
Moderator comment: I’ve modified the title here, I’m not sure if the spider is a spoiler or not.
Scary? No, I was delighted when Clara Bow finally won Tony Moreno away from his snooty fiancee!
(Wait . . . Stephen King? Crap, Where can I go to discuss Elinor Glyn’s It?)
I dunno - there are plenty of authors who can write a decent ending - Stephen King just isn’t one of them. He should farm out his endings like George Lucas should farm out his dialogue writing.
shudders
Instead of “Nooooooooo!!!” we could have heard, “What’s this happy crappy?”
The gang bang at the end was by far the most disturbing part. If they had been teenagers, it would have worked. But they were only about 11, 12 at the oldest. That was just wrong.
This one of the reasons I think (and yes I know there are people who vehemnetly disagree) that The Blair Witch Project was a great horror movie. What you imagine is always scarier than what you see.
Unless you happened to see something that really was the worst thing you could imagine. Then I suppose just imagining it would have been better than actually seeing it.
I think you’re onto something here - we should start a thread. It can be the next “Princess Jedi Bride.”