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Poster (c) Warner Bros.
I don’t boast that I know the Stephen King filmography, but I think that It is one of the only ones that was made first, and only, into a TV-movie. Divided into two parts for TV (and on the DVD, the first part is on one side, the second on the other, and I happened to watch the second part first [I just thought they had mutilated the book, because the book often switches from past to present]), the first part is more objective, giving us information about the characters and their past, while part two is extremely fast paced.
Actually, it kind of seems like it’s two separate movies, but one can’t exist without the other (kind of like the first two Terminator movies). They seem completely separate (mainly because there’s a different set of actors for 1960 and 1990). The first half has six successful people receiving phone calls from Mike Hanlon (Tim Reid), a friend from their childhood in Derry, Maine. From a series of flashbacks, we find out that seven friends are terrorized as pre-teens from something dressed up like a giant clown named Pennywise (Tim Curry, with a great performance). As adults, they come back and face it again.
Although the scenes in the book were creepier, they were made visible very well in the movie. Some of the images were pretty haunting, albeit it exactly like the book. I did like the way that Pennywise looked, very menacing. He was exactly like King’s very thorough descriptions. However, I thought that the characters didn’t look right as adults and were too old. If you look closely, you can see Seth Green as the young Richie Tozier. Overall, it looks better than I imagined, it’s not as confusing or LONG as the book, but the scenes that were scary in the book weren’t as scary.
Not Rated
Review Date: July 10, 2003