"It" (1990) Review

My favorite author is Stephen King. My favorite book by King is "It" from 1986. I think that "It" is a masterful piece of horror, despite being at over 1,100 pages. Unlike most times, I saw the movie before I read the book, which I just read recently. And, although I agree with most King fans, the book is better, but the 1990 2-part miniseries adaptation is pretty damn good.

The film opens with a little girl being killed by a clown named Pennywise (Tim Curry) and Mike Hanlon (Tim Reid) decides to call up his childhood friends to tell them he suspects "It" has returned. Part 1 goes back-and-forth from the present day to flashbacks to 1960, where the group first encountered "It".

After Georgie, the little brother of Bill Denbrough (Richard Thomas in present day, Jonathan Brandis in 1960) is killed by Pennywise and the clown terrorizes each of his friends at least once, the gang decides to band together and kill It. Part 2 takes place thirty years after they destroyed It and they reunite in their hometown to kill It once and for all.

The grownup cast is Harry Anderson, Dennis Christopher, Richard Masur, Annette O'Toole, Tim Reid, John Ritter and Richard Thomas. They all turn-in decent performances, but the real stars of the film are the child stars and Tim Curry's flawless performance as Pennywise the clown.

Curry has always been a wonderful actor, with great performances in "The Rocky Horror Picture Show", "Legend" and "Annie", but his performance as Pennywise is one of the best performances ever given by an actor. He was the perfect choice for the role, he was sadistic, funny and creepy. I haven't seen a creepier clown since Heath Ledger's performance as The Joker in "The Dark Knight".

Fun fact for you: Curry was selected to play The Joker on two separate occasions. He was Tim Burton's first choice to play the character in 1989's "Batman" and to voice the character in "Batman: The Animated Series", but he was deemed too scary for the part, and the role went to Jack Nicholson and Mark Hamill, respectively.

Being a method actor, Curry would often stay in-character whenever cameras were not rolling, in order to give a realistic performance, which greatly disturbed his colleagues on set. Interestingly, he has only acknowledged his involvement in the film only once, in an interview for Fangoria Magazine in 1990.

It is reported that Curry disliked having so much makeup and prosthetics to play the part, as the memories of "Legend" still remained, a role where he was required to have makeup that required six hours to apply. The child actors are fantastic, too, with Jonathan Brandis being the best performer in the group, which included an unknown Seth Green.

I do want to say, Part 2 is not that great. It lacks the humor, dramatic depth and creepiness that made Part 1 a fantastic film. The performances aren't memorable (Except for Curry), the pacing is slow and the special effects are laughable, especially at the end. The ending is one of the biggest letdowns in television history.

Despite the pacing and special effects, this is still a very good Stephen King adaptation with a brilliant performance by Tim Curry, great supporting work by the child stars, a wonderful script by Lawrence D. Cohen and nice direction by Tommy Lee Wallace. Although Part 2 isn't that great, Part 1 is fantastic. So, I'd say see it, just don't expect Part 2 to be great.