Stephen King's It 1990
God, I haven't watched this in ages! Oh, it was a mainstay during the childhood. Spike was showing it tonight. It was on and I wasn't really in the mood for anything else. This was a miniseries quite talked about amongst us kids. Pennywise, the horrible clown that loved to torment and kill kids, is the stuff of childhood nightmares. When I would hear of that, it was invite to watch. I couldn't resist.
Kids threatened by a monster clown is something very distinctive and real to those of us who find clowns in general creepy. Take Pennywise and give him the ability to imitate different things (werewolf to haunt Seth Green who wore glasses with tape holding them together as the child version of Harry Anderson, the dead soldier father of Brandon Crane, the plumpy child version of John Ritter) and appear in ways that frighten them unexpectedly (a balloon emerges in the sink of Emily Perkins, the child version of Annette O'Toole, bursting blood; emerging from a floor hole in the gym showers to Adam Faraizl, child version of Dennis Christopher). That is quite a scary thought if you are a kid. That is can show up anywhere, and in any form he ("it") chooses.
It (1990) has a bunch of mistreated, bullied kids. Whether it is the late Jonathan Brandis agonizing about his little brother who was killed by It. Or Emily Perkins enduring an abusive, alcoholic father, who dismisses the blood in her sink while she could hear It giggling. Or Tim Reid reliving how bullying dirtbag Bowers (Jarred Blancard) tried to use a firecracker on him in the form of child Marlon Taylor, after taking his photograph book. Even as a successful architect, John Ritter can't seem to escape his childhood, as he had extra weight, had to live with his mom's sister, and harkens back to how he adored Annette O'Toole when she was in the form of Perkins (who cherished Brandis). Then there was poor Richard Masur who would never answer the promise, slitting his wrists in the bathroom of his home. I would have liked to have seen Masur join up with Ritter, Richard Thomas (the adult form of Brandis), O'Toole (who was sexy as all hell in the 80s/90s), Anderson, and Christopher. But it wasn't to be. Damned eerie scene, too. One of the key scenes that haunted me in my childhood.
This alternates between the past and present. I couldn't help but see Stand By Me often in this. Dreamcatcher couldn't help but do the same, as well as, Christine. Seeing the werewolf from I Was a Teenage Werewolf come at Green in the school janitor room was a scene that always stood out to me as was Pennywise, in the form of a gooey swamp skeleton trying to reach for Crane. The photograph book where Pennywise appears, with a ode to destroy the "loser's club". As a bullied kid, I understood completely how the club felt about Bowers and his brood (Sometimes They Come Back; this also emerges in my mind as I write this), having to deal with their punk-ass shit.
Bowers could also be used as a source of torment for the club. He is a direct human representation of fear and angst. You just want to be left alone, but Pennywise has to much fun tormenting you.
That fucking spider, though. The ending, even to this day, I
remember just hating as a teenager. I was like, “That was It! Really?” Just
rather unfortunate that all this build up to a battle with It turned into wimpy
Christopher (a cursed mama’s boy who finally defied her by rejoining the club
as an adult) defeating him. When the kids faced It, the battle was rather
different. It seemed more fitting. The Stand by Me kids from a small town
facing their fears and forming a combined unit to fight the product of everyone
of their worst nightmares.
I am the eater of
worlds…and children.
The idea that something (an “it”) preyed on our fears is
quite universal in the horror genre. How many films have this ingredient in
them that is pervasive? An evil uses the fears of others as a template to
horrify and obliterate if possible. The weakest of the club (Stanley (Masur, as
an adult; Ben Heller, as a child)) fails to defeat the It that preys upon him.
I can remember that image of a dead Masur in the bathtub, my reaction to it as
a child, and it left a gulp in my throat and chills up and down my body. That
IT, painted in blood on the wall, nearby Stan’s body, and the music that
unnerves: it stakes its claim that It wasn’t beaten.
When it comes to clowns, look no further than this. Curry
was one hell of a Devil in Legend, and he’s the absolute king of scary clowns.
I think Curry is right there with old Fred regarding the creeper of your
nightmares. He even speaks through the body of a senile former pharmacist who
tried to get Christopher to realize as a kid that he wasn’t asthmatic (it was a
placebo that his mom used to keep him under her thumb).
I think the first half is superior to the second half,
mainly because I like the idea of kids encountering evil personified and
defeating it together. As adults, while I like the idea of returning to home
after some absence away, but it seems like something is missing. Pennywise
remains, though, which is cool because Curry is clearly having a ball and quite
ideal as a creeper who hasn’t left.
“I looked into its deadlights…and wanted to be there.”
The head of Masur mocking the adults, followed by “They all
float!” This does offer plenty of effects. And good ones, too. I was quite
surprised to see these good effects. Syfy hasn’t had a movie with such good
effects. The use of a poem to help with Thomas’ stutter against him. The way balloons are
used as well as a kind of device for Pennywise to remind his adversaries of his
presence and a way to jab them. The fortune cookies on the table (the one with
the eye, and that dead little chick…yikes!), even. Lots of good stuff. It
(1990) has the goods. I’m glad I was reminded of what it does have, and not
just the feeling of distaste with the lackluster finish.
I had forgotten Olivia Hussey was in this as Thomas' Brit wife, who mistakenly decides to go oversees to find him...instead finding Pennywise. The dark tunnel where it lurks. Bowers used by Pennywise (who appears to him in the moon of all places) to stab and nearly kill Reid. Christopher insufferably whiny. The reminder of a memory to Thomas about how Stan had seen Pennywise in an old house, his mutilated face wrapped (barely) in bandages, using bird names to ward him off. The “special rocks”. The seemingly spiritual motivation to face it. Reid “went back in” to retrieve the rocks that will need to be used against it from the slingshot.
It is the finer details that really add to the whole of the success of this. Good revisit.
I still say we should have brought a machine gun.
I had forgotten Olivia Hussey was in this as Thomas' Brit wife, who mistakenly decides to go oversees to find him...instead finding Pennywise. The dark tunnel where it lurks. Bowers used by Pennywise (who appears to him in the moon of all places) to stab and nearly kill Reid. Christopher insufferably whiny. The reminder of a memory to Thomas about how Stan had seen Pennywise in an old house, his mutilated face wrapped (barely) in bandages, using bird names to ward him off. The “special rocks”. The seemingly spiritual motivation to face it. Reid “went back in” to retrieve the rocks that will need to be used against it from the slingshot.
It is the finer details that really add to the whole of the success of this. Good revisit.
I still say we should have brought a machine gun.
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