It (also known as Stephen King's IT is a 1990 ABC two-part psychological horror drama miniseries directed by Tommy Lee Wallace and adapted by Lawrence D. Cohen from Stephen King's 1986 novel of the same name. The story revolves around a predatory monster that can transform itself into its prey's worst fears to devour them, allowing it to exploit the phobias of its victims. It mostly takes the humanoid form of Pennywise, an evil clown. The protagonists are The Lucky Seven, or The Losers Club, a group of outcast kids who discover Pennywise and vow to kill him by any means necessary. The series takes place over two different time periods, the first when the Losers first confront Pennywise as children in 1960, and the second when they return as adults in 1990 to defeat him a second time after he resurfaces.
Cast members included Tim Curry (Pennywise), Richard Thomas, Annette O'Toole, John Ritter, Harry Anderson, Jonathan Brandis, Tim Reid, Dennis Christopher, and others. Produced by Green/Epstein Productions, It was filmed over a period of three months in Vancouver, British Columbia, in mid-1990 with a budget of $12 million, double the usual television budget. The miniseries was first broadcast during the November sweeps month. Despite the risk factors, mixed pre-airing critical reviews, and coverage of President George H. W. Bush's foreign trips cutting into the program, It was ABC's biggest success of 1990; the miniseries pulled through with a total of 30 million viewers for its two parts.
It was nominated for two Emmy Awards, one Eddie Award, one Youth in Film award, and a best miniseries recognition from the People's Choice Awards; it won two of the nominations, an Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for Richard Bellis' score and an Eddie Award for the miniseries' editing.
While divided critical perspectives towards It have continued in later years, the miniseries has become most known for Curry's version of Pennywise, considered by several publications to be one of the scariest clown characters in film and television. It has also spawned an Indiegogo-funded documentary film about the miniseries' production, titled Pennywise: The Story of It (2020); and an alternate history sequel short named Georgie, also by the producers of the documentary.
Plot During a heavy rainstorm in Derry, Maine, in the spring of 1960, George Denbrough plays in the streets with a paper sailboat made by his stuttering older brother, Bill. It falls into a storm drain, where Georgie encounters Pennywise the Dancing Clown. Pennywise entices Georgie to reach in to retrieve his boat, only to tear his arm off and leave him to bleed to death. A few months later, Bill and his asthmatic peer Eddie Kaspbrak befriend the chubby new kid Ben Hanscom. The trio are later joined by Beverly Marsh, who lives with her abusive father, and she and Ben are introduced to Bill and Eddie's other friends: the comical Richie Tozier and skeptical, Jewish Boy Scout Stan Uris.
Ben develops feelings for Beverly, and sends her an anonymous poem, but she assumes the poem is from Bill and develops feelings for him. At school, by the creek, and around town, they are all bullied by Henry Bowers and his greaser gang. The kids all have grotesque, frightening encounters with Pennywise. In July, the group is joined by Mike Hanlon, an African-American boy, as Bowers' gang chases him. The kids, now dubbing themselves the "Losers Club", fend off the Bowers Gang with rocks. While looking through Mike's History of Derry school project scrapbook, the Losers soon realize that Pennywise, whom they refer to as "It", is not a human, but an ancient creature that awakens roughly every thirty years to hunt and feed.
Realizing that It killed Georgie, Bill leads the Losers into Derry's sewers to kill the creature. Stan becomes separated from the group and is attacked by Bowers and Belch Huggins. Belch is killed by It who has also already killed Victor Criss, and Henry is left traumatized, his hair shocked white. Stan regroups with the Losers in a large sewer chamber. The chamber fills with fog as the seven join hands to form a circle, their united strength, but the circle is broken when Stan is grabbed by It. The Losers take advantage of It's ability to access and use their imaginations against It. Eddie imagines his inhaler is full of battery acid, injuring half of the clown's face, then Beverly slingshots silver earrings at It, which 'breaks' Pennywise's head open, his light force seeping out. Wounded, It flees down a drain, where the children hear groaning, and conclude It is dead. The group exits the sewers, but vows to return should It ever return. Bowers, now insane or possessed from It's deadlights, confesses to the child killings and is institutionalized.
Thirty years later, in May 1990, It kills Laurie Ann Winterbarger in her backyard, signaling another awakening and feeding spree. Mike, the only one to stay in Derry, contacts his old friends to fulfill their oath after hearing reports of missing children. All of the Losers, who have gone on to have successful careers, return to Derry, except for Stan; He cannot bear the thought of returning to fight It, and slits his wrists to bleed to death. The other Losers reunite in Derry, later learning of Stan's suicide. Upon returning, they are all taunted and terrorized by Pennywise. Bowers, with Pennywise’ help, escapes from the asylum to murder the Losers. Meanwhile, Bill's wife, Audra, travels to Derry but is later captured by It, hypnotized by the monster's "deadlights". Bowers attacks and stabs Mike, but fatally stabs himself with his knife when Eddie and Ben rush in to save Mike. Mike is hospitalized, and he gives Bill the two silver earrings he retrieved from the sewers ten years ago. The five remaining Losers return to the sewers to confront It, where Bill realizes that It has Audra.
They reach It's inner sanctum, see the catatonic Audra engulfed in spiderwebs, and discover It's true form of an enormous, spider-like monster. Bill, Ben and Richie are entranced by the deadlights emerging from It, as Beverly retrieves the silver earring she overshot. Eddie attempts to repeat the wound he inflicted on It as a kid, but is grabbed and mortally wounded. Beverly frees her friends, but Eddie dies. The others follow the injured demon spider, killing it by ripping out its heart and crushing it. They remove Eddie's body and the catatonic Audra from the sewers. Mike recovers in the hospital, explaining how the Losers go their separate ways once again, their memories of It and each other fading over time, save for his journal; Beverly and Ben get married and are expecting their first child, and Richie is cast in a film. Bill is preparing to leave Derry, but pulls Audra out of her catatonia by riding her down a street on "Silver", his childhood cruiser.
Cast and characters
It main ensemble features actors were not very well known in horror, such as John Ritter, Tim Reid, Harry Anderson, and Tim Curry. Thomas's only previous horror venture was Tales from the Crypt; and Anderson's experience in the genre included an episode in the series and his magician shows, where he would eat live animals, put a nail up in his nose, and catch a gun bullet with his teeth. This casting was unusual for a horror production at the time, but producer Jim Green reasoned that it was in order to increase eyeballs from more easily frightened casual viewers. The majority of the adult actors in the film, including Ritter, Dennis Christopher, Reid and Anderson, were hand-chosen by Wallace and Cohen for their roles. Emily Perkins and Marlon Taylor, who played the young Beverly Marsh and Mike Hanlon, were cast out of Vancouver, while Seth Green and Jonathan Brandis were cast out of Los Angeles for the parts of young Richie and Bill.
It / Pennywise / Robert "Bob" Gray
It is the titular shapeshifting antagonist of the miniseries whose primary form is a wisecracking clown named Pennywise, played by Tim Curry. Curry used Robin Williams-esque natural improvisation when playing Pennywise, giving the character a Bronx accent in order to sound like, as Curry put it, "an old-time Catskills comic." While the original novel showcased It taking on many other incarnations, the miniseries only features four of them (not counting the forms of Georgie, Stan, and Al Marsh): an elderly lady Beverly meets named Mrs. Kersh, portrayed by Florence Paterson; Ben's dead father Captain Hanscom, played by Steve Makaj; a werewolf Richie encounters after viewing I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957) played by an unknown actor (a 1991 Fangoria feature states an actor played the werewolf, but it did not specify who and the actor is not credited in the miniseries); and It's true spiderlike form, portrayed by Brent Baker.
According to writer Lawrence D. Cohen, he had written the script for the series without a specific actor in mind for the role of Pennywise. Malcolm McDowell, Roddy McDowall, and Alice Cooper were in consideration to play Pennywise, but director Tommy Lee Wallace wanted Curry for the role. King recalled that there was doubt from the crew about Curry playing Pennywise, perhaps due to the actor previously being known for comic roles in films like The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) and Clue (1985).
Wallace was not a fan of the other choices, particularly McDowall, as Wallace found him to have too much "sweetness" to play a part like Pennywise. Curry took the role for the clown's "subversive nature," being "both beguiling and murderous" and "a smile gone bad." He was originally planned to play all of It's forms, not just the clown; however, the crew thought it was more efficient to have different actors play the other forms so they did not have to take up so much time dealing with makeup changes.
Because of the amount of makeup Curry's character required, he had the earliest call time of all the actors. On each shooting day, it took at least three hours for him to take off his make-up and get out of his costume. Curry's performance unnerved the cast and crew so much they avoided him as much as possible while on set. While waiting between shots, Curry would be chain-smoking and showing his sharp teeth if one of the child actors got too close to him. As Perkins recalled, "He really tried to intimidate us, because he wanted the fear to be real in our performances." However, Wallace recalled having a pleasant time working with Curry: "Tim was always well-prepared, easy on set, patient and low-key."
In a 2015 interview with Moviefone, Curry called the role of Pennywise "a wonderful part", giving his blessing to would-be successor Will Poulter, who ultimately dropped out. Bill Skarsgård replaced him, and while being interviewed at Fan Expo Canada, Curry gave his approval, saying that "I like [Bill] Skarsgård. I think he's very clever. It'll be interesting to see what sort of clown face he puts on. because it's not an obvious clown face at all.[..] So I'm fascinated to see it."
The Losers
Richard Thomas portrays Bill Denbrough, the stuttering founder of the Losers Club whose desire to kill Pennywise is heavily influenced by the death of his younger brother Georgie. As an adult, he is a bestselling horror writer who lives in the United Kingdom before returning to Derry to face It in the present time. A Stephen King fan himself, Thomas easily related with the character he portrayed, as he was an easily frightened kid and had an imagination "so vivid that I could scare myself about just about anything. And I've never been particularly fond of snakes." Jonathan Brandis, who played young Bill, described his role the hardest he had ever done, especially when it came to performing the stuttering.