IT, Stephen King's IT, and IT 2017

Saw the trailer for the new IT movie, which got me excited. Actually looks pretty good. IT was my first SK book way back in 8/9th grade. Read it a few times. Love it! So I dusted it off and re-read it for the first time in probably 20 years in prep for the movie to come out.

Then, I decided to rent Stephen King's IT. I remember watching it when it came out. What I apparently didn't remember was...

How Incredibly Awful this made-for-tv bag of burning feces was. Wow!! The acting is bad to the point of distraction. It's like the actors were doing this as a hobby. Of course, some of the choices were the problem to begin with. Richard Thomas! Jesus, Mary and Joseph!

Here's hoping the new movie will at least have better acting. I KNOW the gore will be more faithful.

Oh yeah, I revisited the TV mini series on the SyFy channel a couple of years ago and was amazed at how badly it has aged, haha. And yet when that aired back in '90, '91, whenever it was, I thought it was the shizz!

It did have a great cast, gotta give it that much. I don't know who the guy is playing Pennywise in the remake but Tim Curry is still the O.G.

Fat Freddy wrote:

Oh yeah, I revisited the TV mini series on the SyFy channel a couple of years ago and was amazed at how badly it has aged, haha. And yet when that aired back in '90, '91, whenever it was, I thought it was the shizz!

It did have a great cast, gotta give it that much. I don't know who the guy is playing Pennywise in the remake but Tim Curry is still the O.G.

Bill Skarsgård . And you're right. He's going to have some work to do to surpass Tim Curry's Pennywise.

And I haven't seen the mini series in years, but I thought it was really good back then.

And I would like to add that I like they're doing this in two movies. There's just way too much story to cram into one film. That would make a really diced up hurried single film.

Oh, I wondered! Great info. I saw that it was just the kids...so I figured...but didn't know for sure. Yes, that will allow them to get things much better. Take their time.

scottmitchell74 wrote:

Oh, I wondered! Great info. I saw that it was just the kids...so I figured...but didn't know for sure. Yes, that will allow them to get things much better. Take their time.

I'd rather the creators go Peter Jackson and have a 3 hour + opus. That said the trailer looks really good.

As for the book and original made for TV mini series, they both were favorites for me and agree with Tim Curry he is a great actor and Pennywise was a cool part for him. You can't help to be impressed with the original as it was a made for TV affair and had those constraints to deal with.

This is a good comparison between the 2 clowns.

I hate clowns with a passion yet I watched this. Maybe it was therapy but it failed.

Hi. If there's a Welcome thread I've missed it, so as a Stephen King fan and new member I choose to say Hi in this thread. Hi!

You could start a thread in here introducing yourself. Welcome to the HoM.

I came from similar Stephen King fandoms as well .....

The new movie is surprisingly awesome. Seriously didn't see that coming. Plus I've never seen so much creepy practical effects and optical work in a 21st-century movie. And if seeing kids die in gory fashion isn't your thing--stay away.

The miniseries is above average and moving when it comes to the kids' story, but seriously dated and mediocre with the adults. I'm half-on-and-off with it.

Yes. I like the new movie. Pleasantly surprised. Way, way, way better than the mini-series.

Speaking of evil clowns... a "Clownhouse" remake could be cool to see. I already like the original, and it's really creepy! But it could be more over the top scary with some gore that the original lacked.

I revisited the 1990 "IT" mini on Hulu a few weeks back with my 10 year old son ... like I said earlier in this thread, it hasn't aged particularly well but we both enjoyed it anyway. If nothing else it's got a great cast...maybe there aren't a lot of huge names (aside from Tim Curry), but they're dependable TV players like Richard "John-Boy Walton" Thomas, Harry "Night Court" Anderson, the late great John Ritter, Tim Reid, etc.

I had forgotten that "IT" was directed by Tommy Lee Wallace of "Halloween III" fame - maybe that's why I like this so much. "H-III" is just about the only Halloween movie I'm not terminally sick of, dude knows how to set up creepy atmosphere.