There are a lot of reasons why Stephen King's It was ripe for revival on-screen in 2017.
It'd been 27 years since the last adaptation, which is a fateful number in the story.
Clowns are still pretty damn scary.
And, well, the 1990 TV miniseries simply couldn't capture the most terrifying elements of King's
bestseller under network restrictions and a small-screen budget.
The outdated special effects in particular have rendered certain portions of the original
It film laughable, instead of frightening.
Even so, there are certain scenes in the 1990 miniseries that still hold up — and are
actually even scarier than the new big-screen adaptation.
The moving pictures
The 2017 version of It includes a memorably terrifying sequence in which Pennywise comes
to life within a sinister slideshow, but the 1990 version of that moment is a bit eerier
in some respects.
Bill Denbrough is alone and still completely grief-stricken about his brother Georgie's
funeral when he first comes into contact with It.
He skims through a book of photos, when all of a sudden Georgie's most recent picture
winks at him...and starts oozing blood.
What's worse is that Bill's parents are more concerned about him not belonging in the room
than finding out what he saw — or more importantly, what they can't see.
It's nightmarish enough not to be believed or heard by your parents, but when they're
smearing invisible blood all over your murdered brother's room it's even worse.
Pennywise's page-bouncing also comes into play later on when the Losers look at Mike's
dad's photo album about Derry's many child-murder sprees, and the town square's carnival comes
to life with a certain dancing clown at the center.
If the slow burn of him coming into closer, full-color view isn't scary enough, the fact
that he then reaches through the page to grab at the Losers should keep you up at night.
Ben's father
The new version of It makes very little of Ben Hanscom's background, but the miniseries
introduces a gnawing element of the story that still works as a hair-raiser.
Early on, Ben is seen traipsing through the Barrens alone and sees his long-lost father
in full military dress, standing in the swamp and beckoning him into the sewer.
The 2017 movie offers its own share of Pennywise's dread-inducing impressions.
But the idea that Ben's dead dad would slowly morph into the clown like that is a kind of
creepy cruelty that's hard to forget.
Beverly's bathroom
The 2017 movie does a good job of depicting Beverly Marsh's infamous bloody bathroom — her
physical maturation is stoking fear in Beverly and others in her life.
But there's still something extraordinarily unsettling about the 1990 version.
It's slower, there are children's voices crying out to Beverly …
"I'm Matthew O'Connor.
We're all the dead kids."
And once the balloon of blood explodes all over the place, Mr. Marsh puts his hands right
into the gory mess, unable or unwilling to see what his kid sees.
So, it's a test of her squeamishness and sanity.
Eddie's shower
There's no denying that Eddie Kaspbrak's first encounter with It in the 2017 version is really
creepy.
But there's a certain emotional vulnerability that's lost in translation from the first.
In the first version, Eddie is being pinballed by the adults in his life — his mother has
told him not to shower at school, but his gym teacher absolutely insists he does.
Everyone else has already cleaned up by the time Coach wins the argument, which leaves
Eddie out to dry solo in the school showers — just as they start to come to life.
Mid-rinse, all the nozzles start operating themselves and turn every spout into a scalding
torture device meant to steer Eddie away from safety just before Pennywise pays him a visit
through the drain.
If Psycho didn't make you think twice about showering away from home, here's another scene
that'll creep into your memory at the worst moment.
Going clear
The kids' final stand against Pennywise in the new film is incredibly similar to what
goes down in the miniseries.
And both ignore the novel's very weird Ritual of Chüd in favor of a more old-fashioned
fight with It, and make their pact to come back together if and when It returns.
But despite all the faults to be found in the camerawork, props, and visual effects,
the 1990 version is still highly effective, thanks to some key fog machine work and the
attack on poor Stan.
While the Losers are trying to stay together, Pennywise already sees the weakest links in
their chain and tries to make a meal out of Stanley Uris.
It's a terrible preview of what's to come, and the fact that Pennywise is able to break
their chain certainly undermines their sense of strength in numbers.
"I am eternal child."
The meta element
One of the essential elements of the first movie is how informative pop-culture was to
the Losers' fear.
For example, within days of the group seeing I Was a Teenage Werewolf at the Paramount
theater, the group's most entertainment-oriented member, Richie Tozier, is chased through the
school's basement by a werewolf in a varsity jacket.
That scene speaks volumes about Stephen King's story and influences, as it derives from so
many other scares while also informing new nightmares all its own.
"They float, Georgie.
They float."
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