Stephen King's IT: Facing Your Demons

The Losers Club searches for IT

I’ve been a Stephen King fan since I first started reading his work in my younger years. Novels like Salem's Lot and The Shining, and short story collections such as Night Shift, were some of the most frightening horror fiction I have ever read. But King’s stories have never been just about the things that go bump in the night. He has a knack for creating well-rounded and believable characters that you care about, ones who talk and act like everyday people, the kind you’ve known in your own life. That these strange and supernatural things were happening to these types of characters made his stories that much more believable, and much more horrifying. King's best stories are as much about dealing with your own inner demons as they are about dealing with the actual vampires, ghosts and monsters.

There have been many big-screen and television adaptations of King’s work over the years. Some have been successful, such as Carrie and The Dead Zone, and some less so, like The Mangler and Dreamcatcher. One of the most memorable for many fans was the 1990 mini-series version of IT, King’s 1986 novel about a group of kids terrorized by an evil being who often appears as a creepy clown named Pennywise. The epic novel (the book runs about 1,100 pages) is a favorite among long-time King readers. The TV version starred John Ritter, Richard Thomas and Annette O’Toole. The production was somewhat limited by budgetary constraints and the limitations of special effects technology at the time, but it still managed to be one of the scariest TV films ever made. The miniseries is most fondly recalled for Tim Curry’s chilling portrayal of Pennywise; he managed to steal the movie out from under the rest of the cast. That film's success led to a host of other TV versions of King's work, including The Tommyknockers, The Langoliers and The Stand.

Pennywise surfaces in IT

A new big-screen version of the story, entitled IT, has recently been released, directed by Andy Muschietti, the Argentine filmmaker who also helmed the 2013 horror film Mama. The movie is set in Derry, Maine, where Bill Denbrough sends his younger brother Georgie out to play with a new paper sailboat he’s made for him. A creature that looks like a clown startles Georgie, and pulls him down into the sewers. It’s the latest in a long series of disappearances and deaths that have occurred in the town, but no one seems to be doing much about these tragic occurrences. Bill never gives up on finding his brother, and recruits his friends Richie, Eddie and Stan to investigate what really happened. The group, nicknamed “The Losers Club,” gains several new members as the story continues, and our young heroes eventually discover the truth about the  evil that lurks in Derry. The seven friends unite to defeat this monstrous entity, but the task won’t be easy an easy one. This malevolent creature wants to destroy them first. IT knows exactly what scares each of them the most.

The cast of young performers is excellent; standouts include Jaden Lieberher as Will, Finn Wolfhard (from Stranger Things) as Richie and Sophia Lillis as Beverly Marsh, the lone female member of The Losers Club. These talented actors convince you of the strong bond that exists between these friends, as they stand together to face the horrifying entity they know as Pennywise. These talented actors generate some moments of real emotion and pathos amid all the scary moments. The group will need all of their strength, as Pennywise plans to use their own worst fears against them. Speaking of the creepy clown, let’s talk about the actor who plays him: Bill Skarsgard takes the horror to a whole new level, in a truly terrifying performance. Combining his sinuous body movements with off-kilter facial expressions, some very effective makeup and costuming, and capped off with an eerie voice, he is the embodiment of evil that King originally wrote about. You won’t soon forget him, or this frightening film, which has a truly eerie atmosphere thanks to the solid direction by Muschietti. It's one of the best King adaptations in recent years.

King stories like IT and The Body (the basis for the film Stand by Me) were certainly part of the inspiration for last year’s hit Netflix series Stranger Things, so its nice to see things come full circle with this excellent new version of one of his best novels. The movie is not quite the letter of the book (nor should it be, as novels and films are two separate entities) but it stands on its own as a solid adaptation, which captures the authentic feeling of King’s book. The novel’s first half was set in the 1950s, but the film moves the action forward to the late 1980s. A sequel, which will be set in the present day, covering the second half of the book, is already planned. It’ll be interesting to see who gets cast as the adult versions of the characters, and how they will fare when they unite once again to face the terror of IT. Here’s a link to the trailer for the current film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKJmEC5ieOk.

If you enjoyed this review of the film version of IT, I'm also writing about music and movies for the excellent arts and entertainment website Culture Sonar. The site can be found at www.culturesonar.com. I recently covered the John Logan created horror TV series Penny Dreadful. Here's a link to that piece: http://www.culturesonar.com/penny-dreadful/. You can also find my other articles by using the search function at the top right hand corner of the page. Thanks for reading!