"It" Takes a Village ... of Children

I'd be interested to see just how many people's fear of clowns can be traced back to this movie. Personally, I've never had much of a problem with them. But boy does this movie give ample reason.

This is probably one of the most iconic Stephen King adaptations out there. Just the image of Pennywise can be enough to make you relive some very creepy scenes. I watched this one when I was a kid and it's stayed with me over the years.

I've read that Tim Curry did such a thorough job with his performance that everyone in the cast avoided him even off-camera. He's really quite a chameleon of an actor. He played Darkness in 1985's Legend. He was Wadsworth in Clue from the same year. Dr. Petrov on The Hunt for Red October. Hexxus on FernGully. Dr. Poole on Oscar. And of course, there's the infamous Rocky Horror Picture Show. I mean, the man'll throw himself into any role.

The movie follows a group of friends who grew up together in Derry, a small town in Maine. There are two main time periods that are shown in the movie. One in 1960 when they're kids, and again in 1990 after they've all grown up and went their separate ways. Throughout the movie, the story moves back and forth between the two eras.

In 1960, a number of children were attacked, including the younger brother of Bill (Jonathan Brandis). Our team of kids realize that the culprit is some kind of evil force that appears as Pennywise the clown. They confront the beast in its lair and attack it.

Years later, kids begin to disappear once again. One of their number, Mike (Tim Reid), who has stayed behind and kept his ears open, calls everyone back to try once more to stop the clown.

And it's interesting to see a young Seth Green get chased by a werewolf, presaging his future role on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

I've heard several people rag on this one. Yes some of the effects are a little chintzy today, but they do ther job. But more importantly, the story is great.

The movie suffers from age, but not all that much. If you allow yourself to simply enjoy the movie, you'll have fun.

There's cheese, yes. But this genre is kinda built on cheese.

I give this one 8 / 10.

It was made for TV and is unrated, but it has a bit of language, scary thematic elements, a few disturbing images, and a clown.