One thing that will become a normal thing here in the never-ending catacombs, once it becomes a normal thing, is that we love Stephen King. We don't love all of Stephen King's books, nor all of his stories, but he has a fair run of greatness. IT is the cream of the crop as horror goes. Yes, the book has many flaws: It's way too long, there are many details we didn't need and the way the kids escape the sewers the first time... Yeah, there were problems with it. It did, however, bring you into a world of nothing but that world. The story of the kids, how they dealt with the clown when they saw him in his various forms, and how they dealt with their terrible parents (for the most part). RED BALLOON SPOILERS
Today, we said goodbye to Pennywise himself. Tim Curry sadly passed away. The man was a treasure and a marvel of the cinema and he will be forever missed. It was sad how he had to spend his latter years, but he made his mark in entertainment. This movie is said to be his greatest performance. The way he brought the clown to life, how he laughed, how he put on an evil face, all of it just screamed into children's nightmares all across the globe. This man scared an entire generation from clowns. IT is still hated throughout the professional world of clowns, because it very much caused their uncanny qualities to become nightmare inducing. The fear of clowns is now very common.
What sets this movie apart from other classics, is that it is not even a movie. It's a two part miniseries made for cable television. This gave it some breathing room in terms of length and how much it could fit from book to screen. This worked in its favor, because it incorporated many scenes that translated very, very well. The actors are another plus in this film's favor, as Richard Thomas, John Ritter, Harry Anderson, Annette O'Toole, Dennis Christopher, the list goes on. They all do very well, even if a few scenes weren't so well pulled off, like some of O'Toole's crying scenes.
The children, though, like Seth Green and Jonathon Brandis, really gave amazing performances as the leading kids. None of them really give anything terrible, especially when it comes to being scared. The way they react to the horrific images they come across really brings out the situations in a grim light. The clown takes on the forms of whatever they fear, and it can alter reality in very strange ways.
IT is not actually a clown, as you can surmise, but it is an ancient entity that feeds on children's fear as well as their meat. The kids all saw the film I was a Teenage Werewolf, and so it took the form of a werewolf for Richie Tozier. Obviously, a lot of these scenes happen out of sequence with the book. It was a 3 hour movie, that's not going to cover 1148 pages hardback. The movie was a bit lower budget, so they had to stick with the clown for most of it. Although, there are some great scares with other means, like Beverly Marsh trying to visit her father, only to find out he's already dead and the realization of what's happening just comes in such sharp scares.
The way Pennywise screws with all of them throughout the film really shows how menacing he can be. The way he scares them and tries to get them alone is diabolical, especially when they're confronting him in the sewers. Would I liked to have seen the house of Niebolt Street? Yes, but this film was limited on its locations, and the sewers they had were very, very atmospheric the deeper they went into them. That scene when he tries to take Stan, but Eddie intervenes was actually very well done. The makeup effects in this movie cannot be understated. Even the stop-motion effects pulled it off because the way he moved into the pipe was so unsettling. Sure, it was cheap, and I love it.
It was made for television, so there couldn't be any real expensive blood or hard cursing. It was still terrifying. The effects when Georgie winks at Bill through the picture or how the balloon appears and moves around, all of it was gum and glue effects with very, VERY little in the ways of real special effects. Practical effects, when pulled off, can really heighten a movie. This movie can boast... most of the practical effects mastery.
Among its many flaws, this property can never seem to EVER get the spider right. Even Stephen King is disappointed with how he wrote the spider in the book. That was one of the bigger poblems with it. After a while, you need to throw off the tarp and we need to see what it is. It's not always the case, but King did his best because he wanted to really give it that cerebral feel. The 1990 miniseries gave us a clunky, misshapen, stop-motion monstrocity. The original creation they had could not get the physics down, and it wouldn't function. They had to remake it and even the director, Tommy Lee Wallace, would admit that he really did not like how that turned out.
If you listen to the audio commentary, like this nerd, you can hear a lot of very good stories from both the cast and the director. They apparently had a lot of fun in its creation, even if it was ridiculously hectic. The kids got into some trouble, and Tim Curry kind of did his own thing because he wasn't especially proud of his part in the film. Despite his apparent talent and greatness, he really didn't think he was doing very well with this film and he distanced himself from the rest. Later, even he admitted that he did not like the spider because it was "unconvincing and not very scary."
Tim Curry's death gave me the excuse to gush about this old childhood favorite. Even when it is 3 hours long, I still watch it on numerous occasions. This is a miniseries that is going deep into the catacombs, with all of the greats. All of the greats shall be put in the catacombs, and so will the duds. The duds have another part, though, and that is not where IT will be going. IT Chapter 2 from 2019, however...
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