The miniseries was a who’s who of familiar TV faces, which I’m sure helped sell it as a concept. It also had Seth Green as a young Richie Tozier (preparing for his eventual Buffy role) and the Cigarette Smoking Man in a minor role. I’ve joked to my wife that Richard Masur got a casting call, “good news, a Stephen King miniseries…bad news, only two scenes, and in one of them you’re a head in a refrigerator.”).
Anyway, given no CGI they did a decent job. The cavern scene where they confronted the monster looked like something from Ray Harryhausen, but not terrible given the era.
The other scene I found quite creepy (partially because it was stop-motion and not CGI, which gave it a freaky, jerky quality) was the one in the gang shower with Eddie, when all the nozzles came out from the walls and Pennywise came out of the drain.
Seriously, for sheer creep value (as opposed to jump scares, or “spring-loaded cats,” as we call them), a few scenes from the miniseries IMO actually beat the new movie.
I enjoyed the movie quite a bit and look forward to chapter 2 and I thought the kid actors all did a good job (especially Beverly). I will say I didn’t find the movie all that scary and as others wrote I don’t know why they took almost everything that made Mike’s character special and gave it to Ben. a very bad call. They can course correct in the next movie with a little hand waving.
Oh Spice Weasel, you gotta see the miniseries. Tim Curry is fantastic (but then, he’s fantastic in everything he does). The only real issue is the special effects, but you had to allow for the time and budget, I guess. But I loved the casting, at least the kids.
I haven’t seen the new one yet, but I can’t wait – it’s one of my favorite King books.
(Now I’m seriously going to regret reading this late at night when everyone else is asleep in the house except me and the cat)
Just watched this tonight and the diminishing of Mike’s character was very disappointing. I thought the movie would have also done well to show Mike’s father as he was. Every adult in the movie was either evil or completely neglectful. Keeping Mike’s father in there as a truly present, helpful adult would have balanced that out. Plus, if Ben is the historian, then will it be Ben calling everyone to come back in Part 2 or how will they explain Mike in that role now?
Despite my disappointment with what they did with Mike, I still think it’s possible for him to be the one making the call. In the book, I believe he was the only one who remained in Derry, so he was the only one who remembered anything about what happened. With the others, the whole event gradually faded from their minds, and only the call from Mike reminded them about what had happened, and their promise to do something about it if it returned.
Just saw the movie tonight. Here are some of my thoughts. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I like that they updated it sp that the children’s time period happenned in 1989 and the easter eggs like Batman and Lethal Weapon 2 showing at the duplex. I think that overall the movie captures the spirit of the book (a lot better than the other recent King adaptation that came out last month). I thought the joke about Beverly looking like Molly Ringwald was funny, and now I’m hoping she gets the role for chapter 2
I thought it was terrifying. That headless corpse chasing Ben in the library is the stuff of my nightmares.
I saw one review that said it lost something by being set exclusively in the kid years, so you don’t see how their childhood and parents messed them up as adults. Without that, it’s just a really good horror movie. I agree to some extent, but there’s still plenty to it. And it is a really good horror movie.
Oh, COME ON, PEOPLE!
Which Thread are we using? The other one has more replies, though this one is specifically titled as a “Seen It” thread (though the other Thread has Seen It posts as well).
They still can (and should) have Mike have the roll he had in the book by adding a few lines that he took over the job Ben started when Ben left Derry. That’s what I meant by “hand waving” above.
One thing that occurs to me about the next movie is the fact that it almost certainly will open with Stan’s suicide which is kind of intense or modern audiences I think.
I also wonder if they will change Eddie’s career. In the era of Uber and Lyft audiences would find it hard to believe someone coming rich from a limousine business.
Saw IT yesterday, and really enjoyed the movie. It’s certainly a good sign that R-rated is the way to go for horror movies- I’m very glad that we’re getting a resurgence of movies with that rating.
I was disappointed, though, that the movie left out my favorite line: “This is battery acid you slime.”
It’s been a while since I read the book so I don’t remember this part, but there are no puppies in fridges in the movie. The closest is when Henry almost shoots a cat, but thankfully he’s called off before he can do it and the cat is safe.
I think that was intentional with many of the bikes and cars having a 50s feel and suspect in the sequel they’ll go more into that. Same with Ben’s family.
I was honestly wondering if they’re caught in some weird time warp or something like that.
I think they aged the kids upward from the book. In the beginning of the movie, they were all getting out of high school. They were what, in sixth grade in the book? And Henry, who’s supposed to be a year or two older but in the same grade, well clearly he has his drivers license in the movie.
