Stephen King’s IT

B and Cult Movies rating: 3.5 stars
Year of Release: 1990
M ovie Certification: 15
Running Time: 192mins
Genre: Horror
Starring: Tim Curry, Richard Thomas, Tim Reid
Director: Tommy Lee Wallace

Stephen King’s IT is film based on the best selling horror novel from the master of horror himself, Stephen King. The now cult film was made for TV but because of King’s status and the best selling novel it became a big hit and was released on VHS, then DVD.

The story focuses on a group of young friends who after taunts from other children call themselves ‘the losers club’. After several unsolved murders in their town, the group become aware that there is an unnatural and particularly evil presence around. This presence shows itself as ‘Pennywise the clown’. The group of friends are forced to fight ‘It’ and are called back 30 years later as adults to do the same.

Pennywise, played by Tim Curry, is a particularly disturbing cult character who creates an unsettling atmosphere whenever he appears. Although a lot has been said negatively about the film, most people would say that Tim Curry plays a brilliant Pennywise. There are several scenes that will send a chill down your spine. Each of the movies other characters differ quite a lot which gives the film and storyline a lot of depth, something Stephen King seems to be good at doing. Another factor of the film that keeps the viewer glued is that the characters come back 30 years later so it is interesting to view their chosen paths when they are adults. This helps strengthen the storyline and breaks it up a little as IT is quite a long cult film.

It’s hard to find fault with the chilling concept or the plot of the film. However, a lot of criticism has been made with comparision to the book and probably quite rightly so. The film was made for TV so I’d imagine the director would of been on quite a tight budget. The film itself was long, but if the full original storyline was used I think the film would have ran for around 6 hours (its a really big book), but who knows maybe it would have been worth it. You can’t help but notice the poor cinematography when comparing to other movies , something that is usually expected for a TV film.

The story itself is always the main focus of Stephen King films as they seem to grip the viewer with a mixture of great characters and horrific events. IT is no different this way. A film like IT is actually quite difficult to review as you almost feel you are reviewing a book more than a film, probably something else that tells us about Kings great story telling abilitys. When comparing the film to another Stephen King film such as, The Shawshank Redemption, then the only part that is really relevant is the depth of the story itself. ‘The Stand’, another King film is a more relevant comparisson as he uses supernatural characters, and again, this is another long film.

Most people who enjoy watching horror movies would like IT. However, if you’ve read the book before you may find too many holes in it overall……..All in all, I liked it.