IT (1990) A Retrospective

Last week I saw the film IT (2017) a remake of the classic miniseries from the 1990's however I had never watched the original so I felt like I couldn't give a proper comparison of both films until I had seen both of them so yesterday I watched the entirety of the original miniseries. Something I should mention is that the new film is only the first half of the story with a continuation currently in the works. However, in the miniseries it covers the entirety of the story starting when the Loser club were kids and ending with them returning to Derry (the fictional town the film takes place in) as adults to kill It for good. I mention this because I will be discussing plot points that may appear in the 2017 films continuation so beware for spoilers.

IT (1990) Poster

Overall after watching the miniseries I enjoyed it the original was no where near as scary is its remake however it still has a creepy vibe surrounding it which still manages to catch the audience of guard sometimes. The first part of the miniseries is fairly similar to the remake with some scenes altered to make them more scarier. This can be seen at the start of the miniseries when Georgie has to go into the basement to get some wax to help his paper boat float, while this scene is in the 2017 version has been extended as when Georgie goes down the stairs he grabs the wax and sees what appear to be two glowing eyes staring at him making him quickly run up the stairs whereas in the original Georgie runs down the stairs grabs the wax and immediately runs back up the stairs. I believe this scene was extended in the remake to make it more tense for the audience and surprise people who watched the original as they would be unaware of this scene and be caught off guard by it. One of the biggest noticeable changes is Georgie's death scene in the original never see him die instead we get a close-up of Pennywise's teeth as he eats Georgie whereas in the remake Pennywise rips Georgie's arm of making Georgie crawl away fro the drain but It grabs him and pulls him into the drain. I believe this was done to make Georgie's death look more horrific and gruesome and show It is a merciless killer.

One big difference between the films that I want to discuss in further detail is the portrayal of Pennywise in the miniseries. You may remember in my IT (2017) analysis I mentioned that I was basing Tim Curry's Pennywise on the clips I had seen of him but now that I've watched the original I would like to discuss his role as the killer clown. In my opinion, I still believe that Bill Skarsgård's Pennywise is by far the most terrifying as he plays the character as a psychopathic manic clown which can be summed up by the signature smile that Bill created for the character which he created when he used to chase his brother around the house. Now looking at Tim Curry's Pennywise the most noticeable difference in his portrayal is he is plays Pennywise in a much more comedic tone compared to Bill with Tim cracking jokes in many of the scenes that he is in with some poking fun at the characters such as when Bill Denbrough returns to Derry as an adult Pennywise mocks his stutter pronouncing his name as 'B-b-b-Billy boy' Pennywise referring Bill as boy also makes him seem inferior to It. In addition, we also get scenes such as when Richie returns as an adult and Pennywise is saying that they are to old to kill him only to then say out of know where 'Excuse me ma'am is your refrigerator running? *Gasp* It is!? well, you better go catch it before it runs away! A-HA A-HA A-HA' this turns a very serious scene into a comedic which makes it loose all of the tension that it had.

The Library scene much of Pennywise's dialogue is much more humorous then scary

Like I did with the remake I'll now talk about different elements and conventions in the miniseries that I could use for inspiration for my Horror Action trailer. Looking at the sound throughout the miniseries a lot of the music sounds very similar to the happy cheery music you would hear at a circus however its use in the miniseries is usually during scenes where It is scaring the kids/adults such as when he makes loads of balloons appear that explode covering the library with blood. I think I could use this convention for my trailer by inserting music that sounds much more positive than what is actually going on in the scene to bewilder the audience as they are uncertain of how they should feel during this scene. Another convention that I believe that I could use is having the antagonist in the trailer mock/taunt the characters show that they are superior to them making the protagonists seem weaker.