A Look Back at IT

Yes, I know Halloween is over, but I DVR'd the 1990 television adaptation of Stephen King's IT just before Halloween and only had time to finish it this weekend. I have yet to see the recent re-make, but I remember watching this version on TV when I was a kid when it originally aired. I remember it as terrifying, especially Tim Curry's portrayal of Pennywise. I was surprised how well the 2 part adaptation held up, mostly due to the power of the cast. Except for a few minutes of dated special effects, the movie was as scary as I remember.

IT is scary not because of what necessarily see, but due to the power of fear and how it knows exactly what's inside you that can bring it to life. I read a few reviews of this years film with critics who seemed disappointed to learn the clown was not so much a physical being terrifying the kids in Derry Maine, but a manifestation of the terror they were carrying inside. Each of the kids had their own demons to face, loss, abusive family members and school bully's they were facing. When the fear took over, Pennywise gained power and appeared in their living nightmares.

Cast

Bill: Richard Thomas | Jonathan Brandis

Richie: Harry Anderson |Seth Green

Eddie: Dennis Christopher | Adam Faraizl

Mike: Tim Reid | Marlon Taylor

Stanley: Richard Masur | Ben Heller

Ben: John Ritter | Brandon Crane

Beverly: Annette O'Toole | Emily Perkins

Pennywise: Tim Curry

Henry: Jared Blancard

Jonathan Brandis

Certainly one of the things that made IT so compelling was the cast. The performances, particularly from the young the cast, pull the story together. The coming together of a group of outsiders is a universal story and this group, led by the late Jonathan Brandis, is built on common experiences and pain. One by one, the group comes together, usually after an encounter with school bully Henry. (Jared Blancard). All the young cast is great and while some like Seth Green went on to steady work, others like the appealing Ben Heller, oddly have IT as their only IMDB credit. Ben does seem to be joining his former cast members in a new documentary, Pennywise: The Story of IT, currently in production.

Seth Green, Ben Heller & Adam Faraizl

The movie for me, became slightly less interesting when the focus in part II moved to the adults. Although the adult cast was a great assembly of popular television and film stars, their stories were not nearly as interesting as their younger versions. The exception for me was Tim Reid, an actor I only really knew from repeats of WKRP. His character Mike was the last one to join the group, and the one with the responsibility to tell them all, they needed to all return to Derry.

Jared Blancard

Although all of the adult actors were good, I think they were strongly supported by the back stories their younger versions had revealed. I also think King's core theme of fear is stronger with the stories the kids were given, as the adults had no mystery to really solve, only a mission. I have read the new film version chose to focus on the kids and look forward to comparing how they chose to tell the story.

Harry Anderson

I am also interested in watching the story as an adult, as I was about the same age as the child actors when I first saw the TV version. For me, fear was much more intense when I was a kid, very real and crippling. As an adult, fear is constant, something most adults have learned to accept as part of life, and most of us, have had to find a way to deal with. But... late at night, when sleep is out of reach, it feels very much the same as when we were a kid.

Stanley & Pennywise

Richard Masur at the closing of Part 1

Tim Reid

John Ritter

Dennis Christopher

Dennis above with Farrah Fawcett on stage at the Burt Reynolds dinner theatre in Butterflies are Free. Below in Nine Lives (2002)

Richard Thomas

Below: Thomas and Will Geer in a bloopers video from The Waltons