Customer Reviews

Stephen King's It

5 star:		(213)
4 star:		(113)
3 star:		(57)
2 star:		(32)
1 star:		(56)

 

 

This movie rules! I'm a huge fan of the book, and I can say that the movie really does it justice. The whole story involves a group of kids, all "losers", drawn together by a supernatural force to confront an ancient evil that takes the form of a malignant clown.

Tim Curry was, I think, born to play Pennywise the Clown. Sadistic, waddling freak with his doughy, grinning white face, red wet lips stetched as wide as his ears. In his clown form, he is able to charm the younger kinds, but he becomes the fears of the older ones, taking them down into his sewer dungeon to feed on them. The kids that finally beat the monster, Big Bill and Haystack and Bev and the rest of the Loser's Club, manage to force It back into It's lair, not dead, but nearly mortally wounded....

Driven by a feeding cycle, It rises again decades later, and the Loser's Club, now forgotten in adulthood, is drawn back together to face the monster one final time. This was originally made-for-television, so the movie is only capable of so much, but I think that fact alone gives the movie special merit. The casting was pretty much dead-on (especially in the case of Pennywise) and the special effects were surprisingly good. Probably the fact that the film makers were incapable of going the hack-and-slash rated-R route helped to improve the suspense and the atmosphere. The book was great, and the movie was great. I would recommend them both. I think that the humble perfection of a classic good versus evil story can sometimes be overlooked. The purity of a tale in which you can easily lose yourself. And that's just what It is. Two big thumbs up from me.

This movie I believe was one of the first mini series I have seen by Stephen King. I watched from start to finish I was so interested in the kids in this film. Two who are played by popular actor's today Seth Green (Young Richie Tozer), and Jonathan Brandis (Young Bill Denbrough). The children band together and call themselves "The Looser's Club" they face being different from their classmates and they also face their parents. But what they must ultmiately face is the monster who kills children called "Pennywise the Clown." Together and only together as a team can they defeat the monster.
In the first half of the film we learn of the Clown (Played by the great Tim Curry) and the history with the town of Derry, Maine. We see the kids meeting for the first time and the fun they all have. But the serious times comes when they band together to stand up for themselves against a few of the classmates namly Henry Bowers who likes to torment the other kids in the school. They then come together to form a circle and defeat the clown/monster. With a promise that if it wasn't dead they would all come back to destroy it.
In the second part of the film we see whats happened to them career wise and love life wise. Its a tad slower, but it is definately funny and has its serious moments as well. The kids all grown up are now played by a great cast: Henry Anderson (Richie Tozer), Dennis Christopher (Eddie Kaspbrak), Richard Masur (Stan Uris), Annette O' Toole (Beverly Marsh), John Ritter (Ben Hascom), Tim Reid (Mike Hanlon), and Richard Thomas as (Bill Denbrough). Again the second part starts off slow. But its fun to see them all come together again. And to try and remember the good and bad times and defeat the "clown."
I was very much interested to see Stephen King use children to believe in this monster to where the adults couldn't. It's also interesting to see this sort of similarity in some of his other where the children are the key. Which I find really grand in a way. This movie did; however, really turn me off of clowns. So it does have its creep factor in the movie. I would definately recommend it! Athough the book does give more great detail and is better, and the book is different in most parts. But for a mini series this was my first love of Stephen King.

Stephen King's It is my favorite novel of all time, and even though this miniseries adaptation of the book is done about as well as it could possibly be done, I can only give it four stars. There are several reasons for this, the two most important being time and money. The novel is an immense work, and no adaptation of three hours can even hope to do it true justice; even ten hours would not suffice for getting at the essence of the story, that essence being not horror at all but childhood. The movie only allows the viewer to take in everything from outside, whereas the painstaking detail, insight, and atmosphere of King's novel make the reader an active participant in events. Thus, a lot of things presented in the movie do not come off overwhelmingly convincingly, and there are more than a few noticeably sudden and seemingly unexplainable transitions even within single scenes alone. The money issue is most evident at the end, as the special effects for the big finale were not very impressive even at the time of the movie's completion. Special effects are not all-powerful, of course, but the B movie-ish visuals unveiled in the movie's climactic moments serve to break the spell of the viewer's suspended disbelief and introduce a touch of camp into a movie that should not really be about the big bad monster in the first place.

The setting for this story is a familiar one to King fans, the disquietingly different town of Derry, Maine. Something lives underneath the town, a malevolent force that adults cannot and will not believe in, but which seven outcast kids recognize, fear, and steel themselves to conquer back in 1960. Thirty years later, the monster they hoped they had killed as children returns, and the one character who never left Derry realizes this and calls everyone back to fulfill the promise they all made to return and kill the thing if it ever came back. The movie is, in a sense, two movies in one, as the action shifts between the parallel actions of the characters as children and as adults. The main character, Bill Denbrough, is played by Richard Thomas, a casting decision I did not understand at the time and still fail to comprehend completely. Thomas does a good job, but he is still Johnboy Walton to me, and I just have trouble believing a pony-tailed Johnboy is Bill Denbrough. Harry Anderson and John Ritter are two additional big names lending their talent to the film, but the best adult performance is turned in by Annette O'Toole as Beverly Marsh, the group's sole female member. As I have said, though, this story is really about childhood, and the child actors are the true stars. Jonathan Brandis is young Bill Denbrough (and like his adult counterpart, just doesn't quite fit the bill as far as I'm concerned), Seth Green succeeds much more ably in the role of Richie Tozier than his adult counterpart, Brandon Crane (whom Wonder Years fans will immediately recognize as good old Doug Porter) turns in a winning performance, and Emily Perkins shines as young Bev Marsh. Tim Curry, it must be emphasized, was born to play Pennywise the Clown.

The monster in It is a conglomeration of everything each individual is afraid of; he is in a very real sense the ultimate monster because he is everything you were ever afraid of. The seven childhood friends who comprise The Losers' Club represent a cross-section of children everywhere: one stutters, one is a hypochondriac with an overprotective mother, one is the victim of child abuse, one uses comedy to hide his fears and to win acceptance, one is overweight, one is a paragon of logic and duty, and one is a black boy in a white community; all of them are outsiders and are tormented by a bully who ably represents all bullies everywhere. Sadly, the movie does not make it possible for the viewer to really get to know these kids and to relive his/her own childhood alongside them. A big problem with the adult actors is the fact that they oftentimes seem to be over-acting; I understand why this almost has to be so, however. It is merely a sign of the intense emotions they must try to convey in a very limited amount of time and space.

It remains one of King's better film adaptations, despite the problems inherent in its production. No movie can capture the magic of the novel, however. The only unfortunate thing about the movie is the fact that it comes off as primarily a horror movie. Certainly, there is great horror lurking in this film as it progresses, but that is not the original story's essence and primarily for this reason the movie falls short of rating five stars in my opinion.

I'm assuming that you've come here looking for a review on the DVD presentation of the film, right?

THE BAD:

The film originally aired in two parts on ABC, so this film is split over both sides of the disc. I'm not big on the whole flipping thing when it comes to DVDs but it's understandable here.... if only sort of.

The thing that actually gets on my nerves about this DVD is that the disc doesn't tell you what side you're putting on. Looking at the disc, there is no indication of whether you're about to play side A or side B and it's annoying to have to wait until the disc is playing to see whether you're watching the right one. This in itself is just irresponsible on the part of the manufacturers.

THE GOOD:

Picture quality is good and the Dolby Surround sound is good also, if nothing awe inspiring. The film is presented nicely at the least.

The DVD commentary by director Tommy Lee Wallace and actors Henry Thomas, Tim Reid, Dennis Christopher and the late John Ritter is actually a lot of fun. These guys laugh so much and have so much fun remembering their work on "It" that you can't help but crack up everytime someone makes a smart remark. John Ritter especially was a hoot to listen to and listening to this commentary made me a little melancholy to know he died so young.

So there you have it. I happen to like this film, even if I prefer the book much more and the ending for the film was almost pathetic (admit it, that spider was just a big joke). Still, the film has a dynamite first half and great acting by not only the adults but the kids as well. It's genuinely frightening at times and Tim Curry makes for one scary clown.

Not the best presentation in the world but I'd still recommend it, at least for the commentary.

I first saw "IT" when I was nine years old. My best friend was having a sleep over with four girls sleeping over and the other five were going to walk home around eight o'clock. When I showed up with "IT" they stayed until nine o'clock and were too scared to walk back to their houses in the dark. As for me, I was afraid too, but when I turned twelve I saw the book and immediately bought "IT", read "IT", loved the book. I agree with many people that saw "IT" and have also read the book; the movie is BAD compared to the book, though the movie is good in a way because some parts of the book are hard to follow and the movie is easy to go with (with the exception of the cheesy spider at the end). One of my friends adores clowns and I can't sleep over at her house anymore because you can see dozens of clown faces in the darkness, dozens of glaring smiles and fluffy hair of red or orange... I CAN'T stay over there after reading and watching "IT"!

STEPHEN KING'S IT is arguably the best of the TV films based on a Stephen King work. While devoid of countless details from the novel that would have made the plot more understandable to those viewers who don't actually READ King, the movie is nonetheless engaging and downright SCARY!

One reason STEPHEN KING'S IT rises above standard TV-movie fare is the excellent cast. John Ritter, Annette O'Toole, Richard Thomas, Tim Reid, and Harry Anderson deliver stellar performances in their roles of adult versions of the story's protagonists, and Jonathan Brandis (later the teen-heartthrob co-star of TV's SEAQUEST DSV), Seth Green, and Emily Perkins do an excellent job of evoking childhood crisis and trauma in the flashback segments. But it is Tim Curry (yes, THE Tim Curry of ROCKY HORROR fame), as antagonist Pennywise the Clown, who really chews the scenery and steals the show. If Curry's marvelously malevolent merry-andrew doesn't make you develop coulrophobia (fear of clowns), he will at least haunt your nightmares for a night or two after your first viewing.

Another reason this flick rates so highly is that it is, simply put, a ripping good horror story. King is a master at realistically recreating the wondrous ambiance of youth and childhood, and in spite of the minor shortcomings in the film's recreation of King's plot, the atmosphere of the novel is perfectly translated to the screen. Besides that, King is also keenly aware that the things that scared us when we were kids are probably still lurking deep down in our grown-up psyche, just waiting to find a little mental crack to jump out of and give us a case of goose bumps and chills. The film version of STEPHEN KING'S IT finds that same little crack...then pries it wide open!

The long-awaited DVD version of STEPHEN KING'S IT is sparse on frills, but it does have an excellent feature commentary with stars John Ritter, Richard Thomas, Tim Reid, Dennis Christopher, and director Tommy Lee Wallace. Of course, the picture quality is beautifully crystal clear, especially when compared to the VHS version, but purists should consider a few caveats before purchasing. First, the picture has been cropped a bit to simulate theatrical widescreen format. In comparison to the VHS version, which offers the original 1.33:1 aspect ratio, there are small slivers of image missing from both the top and bottom. (To be fair, it should also be noted that the picture on VHS appears to be scrunched a bit horizontally to fit it into the TV "square," so it really doesn't seem as if all that much has been removed to create the faux widescreen on DVD.) Also, gone are the "To be continued" message and the second set of credits, both of which originally appeared between the first half and second half of the original two-part movie (these were included on the VHS).

So the new DVD version of this excellent movie should, for the most part, please King fans and general horror fans alike. For the movie alone, STEPHEN KING'S IT would easily rate 5 stars. But taking into account the adulterated aspect ratio and the slightly altered transition from Part 1 to Part 2, this DVD gets an overall rating of 4 stars.

The problem with taking Stephen King out of the pages and translating him to the screen is that so much detail is often lost, costing the viewer the feel that was drawn from the actual novel. That all changes with "It"! Amazingly enough, a TV mini-series captured the best two facets of the novel: the evil of Pennywise the Clown (won't give away too much here), and the ability of a group of children, who dub themselves "The Loser's Club", to bond together in friendship with the common purpose of ending a killing machine that's been feasting upon their little Maine town for ages & ages.

The best part of this movie was Tim Curry, hands down. He played Pennywise in a campy fashion, but when Pennywise needed to be evil and ghastly....oh, brother, was Curry right on the money. Puts shivers down your spine. This is one that my children avoid at all costs because the nightmares aren't worth it to them.... but YOU'LL love it! Excellent horror story......well presented.

This book, this film, is a masterpiece.

First, it works on the fears and frights all children have, but those fears and frights are all dressed up as something they like, as a clown, so friendly-looking, so attractive, and yet IT is a fiend. Here King multiplies those fears so much, due to the fact that there are SEVEN children, six boys and one girl, that we get lost in the real labyrinth this book builds.

Second, it analyzes those children in so many details, and it takes them thirty years later, unrealized for most of them, successful but totally unrealized, just empty shells, filled with oblivion and the impossibility to really be full and happy. That is the worst thing fear produces in a man or a woman, the impossibility to be happy and to fulfill his or her perspective, plan, project or future. He or she can maybe reach a certain level of fame, or art, or quality, but he or she cannot enjoy the happiness any man or woman should endeavour and deserve to get. IT is the anchor that forces us not to go all the way to the rising sun.

Third, intelligence, conquering energy and strength is in children because they believe the world is not what they want it to be, they believe the world is what it wants to be, IT wants it to be, that is to say a long perspective of suffering and terror, interspierced with some moments of light and life and communion. This communion is the power of humanity. And grown-ups never get to that level of unity because they are afraid of the others, of their neighbors, of death, of suspicion, of what other people may think of them.

Fourth, King invests the monster once again in the ground, underground. The monster is some kind of supernatural spider that needs to capture as many preys as possible every thirty years to be able to hibernate and live happily in its lair for the next thirty years. But then it has to come out again to feed and to replenish its cupboard with fresh meat and flesh.

The most interesting aspect of this book or this film is the distance in time between the children and the grown-ups they become. The distance enables us to measure time and change, and yet to recognize that change is only on the surface whereas the depth of humanity, the depth of society, the depth of human nature remains the same. Yet a simple thing, like a bicycle, is able to bring infancy and childhood back and to enlighten the present with the past, to refill our heads with memories, and memories are the fodder of our minds, the force that is driving us to the sun and success. We can only get somewhere if we can solve the problems of our past, if we can get over the blocking stones of our engines, if we can put aside the narrow blinders education has put on our eyes and if we finally can see the whole picture all around and not be reduced to the tunnel vision most of us only have.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, Paris Universities II and IX

I don't know about the rest of you, but I am getting sick of DVD reviews that just give a summary of the movie. If I wanted that I would go to imdb.com or some other site. People need to have a review of the DVD. It seems like almost all the reviews about this movie are just a summary, and not talking about the DVD itself. First of all the product information listed above says this DVD is 193 minutes but on the back of the DVD case it says 187 minutes. I am not sure if this is an error or if there really are six minutes of footage cut out. There is some footage cut out from the original version which I will discuss a little later. First off this DVD is presented in the aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The back of the DVD says "WIDESCREEN VERSION Presented in a "matted" widescreen format preserving a theatrical aspect ratio. Enhanced for widescreen TVs." Okay, this doesn't make any sense. The original aspect ratio of the movie is 1.33:1 because it was shot for TV. Saying that its preserving a theatrical aspect ratio means nothing. What exactly is being preserved? Nothing is being preserved. You are actually losing information on the top and bottom of the screen just so it will fit on your widescreen TV. The result is that the picture is longer, you are losing information, and they have to zoom in on the picture a little bit so it fills the screen, which results in slight grainyness, but isn't really that noticeable. I don't understand why some people only care about if their TV screen is filled with picture. If the movie was originally shot in widescreen, that's how the DVD should be. If it was originally shot in 1.33:1 (as is the case with "It") that is how it should be. They should've at least made both versions available.
Now here comes the part that realy pisses me off. After part 1 of the DVD is done, you have to flip it over to watch part 2. This is okay since the movie was originally presented in two parts. It's basically two separate movies. But the thing that drives me crazy is that they cut out the ending of part 1 so that it would flow better into part 2. The original ending of part 1 shows Stan's wife screaming and then cuts to the wall in the bathroom where the word "It" has been written in blood. You can still hear her screaming and the camera slowly moves in on the blood while "to be continued" appears on the screen and you can hear laughing from the clown. Then the credits roll. On the DVD the part with the word "It" written in blood as the last shot and the clown laughing is missing, as are the end credits. Instead, they show the word "It" written in blood for a few seconds, then cut to the woman screaming for about one second then it just fades out really quickly and the DVD menu screen pops up. After the woman screams it's supposed to cut back to the word "It" and the clown laughing. The ending on the DVD is horrible. A close up of her screaming for a second then the video and audio fades out all of a sudden...Terrible. I prefer the original ending where it shows the word "It" written in blood. It was a perfect ending for part 1. Also this DVD doesn't have the opening credits of part 2. The argument that they wanted to converge both parts to make it flow like one movie isn't a good argument since you have to turn it over half way through anyway. I bet they decided to make you turn it over because they knew if they just put part 1 and part 2 together it wouldn't flow correctly. I don't understand how a DVD like this can be released. What is the logic in taking out the ending of part 1, the end credits of part 1, the opening credits of part 2, and then making you flip it over? I would have no problem with flipping it over if they showed both parts in their original entirety. The VHS and Laserdisc versions of "It" are just like the original, so why not the DVD too? Warner Bros. releases the worst DVDs in my opinion. Their cases are cardboard and their movies have almost no special features. The only special feature on here is the commentary by the director (Tommy Lee Wallace) and a few of the actors (recorded separately and then fused together to make it appear as if they were there at the same time). I found the director's commentary to be very interesting and I learned a lot. He was really fun to listen to and tells you how he did certain things in the movie. The actors' commentary was horrible. They don't really ever talk about the movie. They just talk about random things and crack jokes every fifteen seconds. I was highly disappointed when they spoke. They provide no insight. The director was the only good part about the commentary. I would have given this DVD two stars but since I love the movie (the original version) I decided to give it an extra star. My recommendation is that if you love this movie, rent the DVD to listen to the commentary but buy the VHS or laserdisc version.

'It' is a wonderful novel; one of King's best, and a real horror classic. It contains more depth and ingenuiety than most of his more recent (though still effective) horror offerings like 'Bag of Bones' and 'Black House', and a far more palpable sense of tension and mounting terror.

As a movie - or, rather, a TV Miniseries, because there's a big difference - "It" also works well, up to a point. Retelling the tale of seven childhood friends who rid their hometown of Derry from an unspeakable child-killing monster, the friends must reassemble as adults to finally end the cycle of violence that began well before they were born.

'TV Miniseries' is perhaps an unfair title, here, though, because it conjures up images of low-budget high-histrionic situations, invariably starring Joan Collins or that man that used to be in 'Knots Landing'. This is a TV Movie of a very different nature, and I also believe that, since it remains hugely faithful to the novel (aside from some obvious omissions that, even now, you couldn't get past the censors), the TV Movie format with its more generous time restrictions works better here than a cinematic release would have.

The use of the flashback is a clever and sympathetic way of illustrating most of the childhood portion of the story, and Tommy Lee Wallace coaxes some really excellent performances out of child actors Jonathan Brandis (Bill Denbrough), Brandon Crane (Ben Hanscom) and particularly Emily Perkins as Beverly Marsh (who, fact fans, went on to be very good as Briget in those otherwise awful 'Ginger Snaps' movies). This trend of great performances continues when the adult cast is called into play, with Annette O' Toole, John Ritter and Tim Reid doing some great things with, it must be said, some pretty clunky dialogue. Lee Wallace's direction, too, is polished and fine, and - while there are some portions like the rock fight and the scenes with the adult Henry Bowers and Audra Denborough that feel very much like a TV Miniseries - the whole atmosphere is one of professional polish and excerllence.

Tim Curry shines as Pennywise the Dancing Clown. Sure, he's been typecast in pretty much everything as Camp Baddie since 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show', but here, he's wonderful. Truly terrifying and totally immersed in his role, he brings a real sense of malevolence and life to a part that, in the hands of a lesser actor, could very easily have descended into schlock and parody. The opening scenes with Georgie Denborough and the library sequence with adult Richie Tozier still make the hair on my arms stand up today.

The ending is something of a let-down, but it is pretty much a direct lift from the novel, so for that alone, it must be praised.

Overall, an excellent production, and, outside of 'The Shining' and 'Carrie', a strong contender for the best King adaptation ever, 'It' is very deserving of a place in your horror movie collection. It is creepy, it is effective and it's very, very well-done.

Read the novel first though!

Recommended.