# First Reactions to 'It'; Scary as shit **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 27, 2017, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-reactions-to-it-scary-as-shit/794827 "2017-08-27T11:27:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![G0sp3l](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c68b51/32.png) [@G0sp3l](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G0sp3l)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2017, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-reactions-to-it-scary-as-shit/794827/21 "2017-08-28T22:44:45Z")
> [@Poysyn](#): > > In the book, Ben makes it clear that his Mom was fine with him eating lots of salad - she was just so worried she would fail him, if he was eating a lot, she felt like she was providing. > > In the trailer, there is a distinct scene when _I think_ Henry and his gang have Ben (maybe the knife scene), and a car with adults drives by and although they look directly at the boys, they don’t _see_ what is going on…once the car passes, you see the balloon in the backseat. > > That definitely seems like the movie reinforces that the adults are complacent because _It won’t let them see_ the issue. There’s a scene like that in the book, only it’s with Beverly. I think all of the parents love there children, it’s just layered with all kinds of twisted psych stuff. Like Al and Bev, he’s physically abusive for certain, but there’s also scenes where he’s obviously fighting his darker nature. I would love to read some Lit professor’s take on this book. It is easily my favorite King book. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2017, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-reactions-to-it-scary-as-shit/794827/22 "2017-08-29T00:30:06Z")
> [@Poysyn](#): > > That definitely seems like the movie reinforces that the adults are complacent because _It won’t let them see_ the issue. The 1990 miniseries was on TV yesterday and I only caught the end of it (I’ve seen it many times), but they did have a scene that explicitly says this. The adults are in the hotel reminiscing and Beverly remembers when she was a child and being tormented by Henry, her neighbor sees what is happening and ignores it. Mike then recalls how when he gave his class report about the historical Derry tragedies the teacher doesn’t want to hear it. > [@](#): > > Miss Douglas didn’t want to know. > > - It’s a disease, Bev. > > None of them wants to know. > > - It’s too horrible. They act… > > - Like it didn’t happen. > > That was when it hit me. > > There was something > > terribly wrong in Derry. ---
**Author:** ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2017, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-reactions-to-it-scary-as-shit/794827/23 "2017-08-29T16:38:55Z")
> [@G0sp3l](#): > > There’s a scene like that in the book, only it’s with Beverly. > > I think all of the parents love there children, it’s just layered with all kinds of twisted psych stuff. Like Al and Bev, he’s physically abusive for certain, but there’s also scenes where he’s obviously fighting his darker nature. > > I would love to read some Lit professor’s take on this book. It is easily my favorite King book. I do recall that scene, and the one in the miniseries mentioned by **Eyebrows of Doom** - I did like the subtlety of the car with the balloon in the backseat 🙂 I am both looking forward to this, and kind of terrified. I enjoyed the book a lot, but am prone to heebie jeebies ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2017, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-reactions-to-it-scary-as-shit/794827/24 "2017-08-29T17:12:58Z")
_It_ definitely had the makings for being the best Stephen King book of all time. In my opinion he didn’t get there, and for the same reasons that _The Stand_ isn’t all that it could have been, either: lack of a satisfying wrapup and ending. For comparison and contrast, _The Shining_ which does, IMO, occupy the spot as his best book. All three books do that “works on both levels” stuff, where there is a horror story that involves supernatural creepiness and a different more nuanced one that involves more prosaic human conflicts that have a definite creepiness of the sort that we usually avert our eyes from. _Shining_: Jack Torrance and his alcoholism and temper and conflicted unresolved issues going back to his own relationship with his own Dad. Plus the haunted Overlook hotel and Grady whats-his-face and the topiary and the woman in room 217 and so on. Young Danny is haunted by both. Story builds to a climax on both levels (in fact, the two levels _merge_ with Jack becoming the embodiment of the evil hotel’s will as he erupts in a drunken violent killer-parent homicidal rage). Resolves powerfully on both levels. _Stand_: The world is 95% done in by the flu from hell as cooked up in the bio warfare labs, and this sets the stage for old Randall the walking dude and all he stands for to rise up and establish a horrible authoritarian vicious rule. Good gal Abigal represents the opposing force and we’re headed for a showdown between good and evil, the fate of humanity. Then Abigail wanders off into the desert and out of the plotline, the good folk of Boulder build an unremarkable prosaic little republic, and the conflict with the Evil Las Vegas folks is reconciled with a nuke gone awry, WTF? _It_: Horrible hauntings in Derry featuring murderous silver-eyed clowns and dead walking corpses and werewolves and stuff are echoed by the neglect and violent bullying and child molestation and hateful violence that is hidden in plain sight and ignored by the adults. Some ancient evil is in the sewers, the underbelly of the town, and coming to a head. All this is being told via flashback as the now-adult kids are being called back because it is unfinished business, the evil is back. All this complexity oozes in a most satisfying creepy way towards a final showdown but the prosaic everyday-horror stuff gets thrown under the proverbial bus and all we get is a confrontation with a badass spider?!? ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2017, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-reactions-to-it-scary-as-shit/794827/25 "2017-08-29T17:36:49Z")
I was hoping the ending wouldn’t involve the spider but I think I saw a brief flash of it in one of the trailers(?) If there was ever a time to diverge from the original, that would be it. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2017, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-reactions-to-it-scary-as-shit/794827/26 "2017-08-29T19:17:31Z")
It’s not really a spider, you know. It’s a Lovecraftian horror from beyond space and time that human minds interpret as a spider, less they go insane. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2017, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-reactions-to-it-scary-as-shit/794827/27 "2017-08-29T19:26:19Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > I was hoping the ending wouldn’t involve the spider but I think I saw a brief flash of it in one of the trailers(?) If there was ever a time to diverge from the original, that would be it. A thousand times yes. I was deliciously creeped out by the rest of it, but the end?? What a letdown. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2017, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-reactions-to-it-scary-as-shit/794827/28 "2017-08-29T20:45:35Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > _It_ definitely had the makings for being the best Stephen King book of all time. In my opinion he didn’t get there, and for the same reasons that _The Stand_ isn’t all that it could have been, either: lack of a satisfying wrapup and ending. For comparison and contrast, _The Shining_ which does, IMO, occupy the spot as his best book… IMHO _The Dead Zone_ and _Misery_ are both excellent King books with very satisfying endings. ---
**Author:** ![G0sp3l](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c68b51/32.png) [@G0sp3l](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G0sp3l)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2017, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-reactions-to-it-scary-as-shit/794827/29 "2017-08-29T20:48:25Z")
I hated the spider ending in the book, but I cut SK some slack because there’s really no way to effectively portray a mind-shattering entity. Be happy we got Azathoth and not some alien kids with a kill-jar. 😃☹ ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2017, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-reactions-to-it-scary-as-shit/794827/30 "2017-08-29T21:04:23Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > IMHO _The Dead Zone_ and _Misery_ are both excellent King books with very satisfying endings. Yeah, especially _Misery_. It was a most satisfying read coming immediately after the disappointment of the ending of _It_. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2017, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-reactions-to-it-scary-as-shit/794827/31 "2017-08-29T21:16:07Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > It’s not really a spider, you know. It’s a Lovecraftian horror from beyond space and time that human minds interpret as a spider, less they go insane. My issue was not with the spider _per se_ but that SK punted on the way that the horror story had been working on two levels. In _The Shining_, when Jack Torrance goes after Danny with the roque mallet, it is both the evil hotel trying to kill-and-harvest Danny and his “shine” and ALSO the worst-nightmare scenario coming true of Daddy has gone off the deep end and is trying to kill me. But in _It_, what had been a multi-level complicated horror story about smalltown life and parents and bullying and stuff as well as a Lovecraftian horror in the sewers, deteriorates into a one-dimensional comic-book that is only about the latter. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2017, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-reactions-to-it-scary-as-shit/794827/32 "2017-08-29T21:43:08Z")
Of course, the Lovecraftian horror is also the puppet master behind all that other stuff. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-reactions-to-it-scary-as-shit/794827.md?page=1)