| Stephen King's It | |
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Promotional poster |
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| Genre | Horror Fantasy Mystery Thriller |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Television |
| Directed by | Tommy Lee Wallace |
| Produced by | Mark Basino Allen S. Epstein Jim Green |
| Written by | Lawrence D. Cohen Tommy Lee Wallace |
| Based on | It by Stephen King |
| Narrated by | Tim Reid |
| Starring | Tim Curry Harry Anderson Dennis Christopher Richard Masur Annette O'Toole Tim Reid John Ritter Richard Thomas Seth Green |
| Music by | Richard Bellis |
| Cinematography | Richard Lieterman |
| Editing by | David Blangsted Robert F. Shugrue |
| Production company | Lorimar Productions DawnField Entertainment |
| Country | United States Canada |
| Language | English |
| Original channel | ABC |
| Original run | November 18, 1990 – November 20, 1990 |
| Running time | 195 minutes |
| No. of episodes | 2 |
It (also referred to as Stephen King's It) is a 1990 horror television miniseries based on the novel of the same name. The story revolves around an inter-dimensional predatory life-form that is simply referred to as "It", which has the ability to transform itself into its prey's worst fears allowing it to exploit the fears and phobias of its victims, while also disguising itself when hunting. The main protagonists are "The Losers Club", or "The Seven", a group of social outcasts who discover "It" and vow to destroy him by any means necessary. The series takes place over two different time periods, the first when the Losers first discover "It", and the second when they're called back to defeat "It", who has resurfaced. "It" mostly takes the form of a sadistic, wisecracking clown called "Pennywise the Dancing Clown", which it uses to lure children and kill them. It takes place in the fictional town of Derry, Maine, USA between the two aforementioned timelines; 1960 and 1990.
It aired as a two-part television movie on November 18 and November 20, 1990 on ABC, and loosely follows the plot of the novel. The miniseries was filmed in New Westminster, British Columbia in late 1989. The film's all star cast includes Dennis Christopher, Annette O'Toole, John Ritter, Richard Thomas, Tim Reid, Michael Cole, and Tim Curry as the evil Pennywise. British actress Olivia Hussey appears in Part 2 as Audra, Bill Denbrough's partner.
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In the opening scene, a little girl rides her bike down the street happily singing. Her mother tells her to come inside. Just as she is about to go inside, she hears a clown giggle. She turns and spots a clown standing in her backyard. The film then cuts to her mother looking for her, and then finding the girl (off camera) dead in the backyard. This prompts Mike Hanlon to call across the United States looking for his six friends, telling them that "It" has returned and their promise from years ago that if "It" ever comes back, they will fight it again. The film is then told in separate flashbacks among the seven friends.
Bill, Beverly, Richie, Eddie, Ben, Stan and Mike, a group of outcasts, form the "Losers Club," a group of social misfits who meet and form a tight-knit friendship. Each of the children individually encounter the mysterious, child-killing clown haunting their home town of Derry, Maine. The monster, which the group later collectively names It, usually appears as the thing the child victim most fears before taking the form of Pennywise the Dancing Clown. Their separate encounters are later fortified when they all witness Pennywise reach out from a photograph (threatening to kill them) in an album owned by Mike.
Spurred by Bill's desire for revenge on It for killing his younger brother Georgie, the Losers resolve to locate It's home in the sewers and destroy the threat to Derry once and for all. Henry Bowers, a psychopathic bully, and two of his friends, Patrick Hockstetter and Belch Huggins, follow the group into the Barrens and into the sewers, in a bid to ambush and kill them as revenge for an earlier rock fight. During their trek through the sewers, Stan is pulled away from the group by Henry and Belch, and Henry pulls out a switchblade. Patrick has been ordered to ambush the Seven from another side but is killed by It.
As the remaining Seven come to the middle of the sewers, they discover Stan is missing. Belch restrains Stan as Henry prepares to kill him with the pocketknife, but It bursts through a sewage pipe and kills Belch while Henry and Stan watch in horror. As It makes its way out of the pipe, Stan flees and Henry's hair instantly turns white from the sight of It's true form. It spares Henry's life and continues searching for Stan.
Stan meets up with the Seven and warns them that It's true form has something to do with living white lights that instantly kill anyone who looks directly at them and which is far more reprehensible than Pennywise. They are to avoid looking into It's "deadlights." It vanishes, and smoke fills the chamber. The seven form a circle, although It attempts to distract and break them apart by simultaneously appearing as Georgie, Beverly's father and the werewolf of I Was A Teenage Werewolf . It, in the form of Pennywise, attempts to eat Stan alive, but Eddie stuns It with his asthma inhaler. Beverly cracks the monster's head open with a silver slug fired from a slingshot, revealing the bright deadlights underneath. However, before the children can kill It, It somersaults through the air and escapes through a drain in the floor. The group grabs It's arms, only for the glove to rip off, revealing a larger 3-fingered claw that disappears. After arguing and deciding It is dead, the group exits the sewers and make a promise to return and fight It, should It ever return.
Mike Hanlon, the only member of the Seven who never left Derry, summons the rest of the group back to their home town. Stan commits suicide rather than face the fear of facing It again. However, this is left ambigious as the tiles in the bathtub in which he is found are smeared with blood spelling "IT", which may have also suggested It murdered Stan.
As the remaining six congregate in Derry, each has another frightening encounter with It. Henry Bowers, who had been placed in a mental hospital after accepting blame for the child deaths in the early 1960s, escapes under the influence of It (which took the form of the deceased Belch) to take revenge on the remainders of the Seven. After escaping, Henry attacks Mike at the hotel where the Seven are staying and stabs him, after which Henry accidentally and fatally stabs himself during a grapple with Eddie and Ben that saves severely wounded Mike's life. With Henry dead, It is left to complete the task of killing the Losers on its own.
At the hospital, Mike gives Bill the two silver slugs they made to use against It when they were children. Bill gathers the others and declares the slugs are "representatives" of Mike and Stan, thus the "Seven" are now reunited and ready to confront it. Bill's wife Audra follows him to Derry and is captured by It who hypnotizes her by using the deadlights. Bill, Beverly, Richie, Eddie, and Ben return to the sewers and rescue Audra, who has become catatonic. They make their way to It's lair where they discover It's true monstrous, spider-like form.
During the climax, Bill, Richie, and Ben are paralyzed by the deadlights located on It's abdomen. Eddie is grabbed and mortally wounded by It before Beverly shoots out the deadlights with her slingshot and one of the silver earrings. The others tend to Eddie, but he dies in the middle of his last sentence, then the others kill It by disemboweling it and ripping out its heart.
Richie returns to his showbiz career which extends into movies, and partners with a man who acts and behaves much like Eddie. Ben and Beverly fall in love, marry and are expecting a child. Mike is released from the hospital and remains in Derry, but considers whether he ought to move now that Derry no longer needs a "lighthouse keeper" to watch over the town for the monster's return. Bill helps Audra to come out of her catatonia by taking her on a seemingly suicidal bicycle ride impersonating the Lone Ranger, which is something he had done years earlier to help revive a young Stan who was frozen with fear. Slowly she comes out of it and holds Bill, finally overcoming her fear. As the film closes, Pennywise's evil laugh is heard one last time.
It originally aired on ABC as a two-part television movie in 1990 on the nights of November 18[1] and November 20.[2] Part 1 was the fifth highest rated program of Sunday night with an 18.5 rating and watched in 17.5 million households.[1] Part 2 was the second highest rated program of Tuesday night with an 20.6 rating and watched in 19.2 million households.[2]
The film was released on VHS in early 1991 after the film's initial broadcast. The original VHS release had two separate tapes, one with Part 1 and the other with Part 2. A later VHS release contains the entire film on one tape. All VHS releases of the film are out of print and are considered rare as they are hard to find.
The film is now available on DVD on a double-sided disc with part one on the front and part two on the back. The "To be continued..." and the 1st set of closing credits at the end of part one and the 2nd set of opening credits at the beginning of part two (unlike the VHS release) have been removed. It also features an audio commentary by the director and cast members.
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