You’ve seen the trailer; you know what’s coming. IT is back. According to the previous film and book, IT returns every 27 years. Uh… the last film (TV 4 parter) came out in 1990. The film is out in 2017 – that would make it 27 years. Keep our seat warm for us, we’ll be right back.

 

The trailer looks terrifying. Tim Curry was very frightening, but I personally knew him so well as Frank N Furter from Rocky Horror, it was hard to be very scared of him. Also, he added a dark humour to the film. It was scary, or course it was! But it was a bit like The Thing. The original was scary when we watched it as kids, no doubt how most felt when it first came out. But our current generation has been spoilt with great make up, effects and graphics. Let’s hope this new one doesn’t let us down, as the remake of The Thing was awful. Please don’t follow the same route!

 

We’re going to compare the Book to the Film in this particular blog post.

Before we start – lets just point out the elephant in the room. There are very mixed opinions of the 4-part TV special. Most, us being one of them, hated it. But it wasn’t really their fault, the book was so rich and filled to the brim with intricate detail, it would have been a 30-hour long film to include everything. Our personal opinion of the movie is that it’s very dire. It bored us. In fact, if it wasn’t for Tim Curry. It would have been quite awful. Tim made the film in our humble opinion. So, here’s the pros and cons of the book and film. At the end we’ll rate them both, and we want you to do the same!

 

 

BOOK

 

 

- Released in 1986, it sold 1 million copies in it’s first print run. It also won best Fantasy in 87.

 

- The book goes into more detail. For example, showing the kids personalities more. Like having asthma or an interest in history.

 

- It has more appearances from IT in other forms. In the film it shows IT as the clown, mostly. Where as the book shows other forms like various creatures and even Frankenstein.

 

- The book has a questionable underage love scene with the young boys and Bev. The context is she does so to bring them closer. But we did find it incredibly strange. That was not included in the film, for good reason.

 

- It’s also terrifying. Scarier than the film. The scrap book goes crazy twice and rather than the old lady turning into a witch, she turns into Bev’s decomposing dad who then chases her around the house… shivers.

 

- There’s also more detail about IT as a thing. It was explained that IT existed before the big bang, landed on earth and awoke in 1715 to cause havoc every 27 years.

 

 

 

FILM

 

 

- Tim Curry. Need we say more. He was the life and soul of the film. Even if he didn’t technically have soul. There’s a reason the film terrified us all and to this day makes us shiver in our seats. And that was all to Curry.

 

- The Film is a 4 parter – in fact, it isn’t even technically a film, it was TV. This was a good and bad thing. The good part about it was that it could be lengthier. There’s just so much to the books, so they did well to include as much as they could.

 

- The casting was great. The actors really did they best they could with the script. And the children were all brilliant. It’s rare to have an entire cast of child actors that can all, act!

 

- It flows more smoothly than the book. Yes, the book was great. But there were definitely some slow moments. That was the biggest test of reading it. It did add context and built to the novel, but it was slightly boring at times, we will admit.

 

- The new film is said to be more like the book. Did you see the cheeky inhaler moment in the new trailer, this gives a hint that it will be more true to the book, that would be wonderful?

 

- Okay, it didn’t get the greatest ratings. But it brought at new fan base to Stephen King. It was released in 1990, which was almost 20 years after The Shining. Stephen King was brought to life in the 90’s and we can blame the film for our fear of clowns.


 

Now, for a funny story.

 

When I was a toddler, I had very bad insomnia – leaving me awake until 2am most nights. To battle my boredom of being awake, my mother would tape Sesame Street on the old VHS’s. If you remember these, you’ll recall that once it was over. It returns to normal TV. At 12am the watershed is over. So, what was on TV for little me? A clown film! How wonderful! It wasn’t long before I realised this wasn’t a normal kids film. And from then, my childhood was ruined. Being absolutely terrified of clowns and having reoccurring nightmares for years.

 

Then came our time to watch Rocky Horror. At around 7 or 8, we were treated to Rocky Horror, and fell in love with Tim Curry as Frank N Furter. From there we watched him in other films like Legend and adored the cartoon ‘The Wild Thornberry’s’ – it didn’t take us long to find out that he played Pennywise the clown in IT. And we were over the fear! We can’t look at Pennywise and not picture a skinnier and more youthful Tim Curry in fishnets and heels. So, thank you Richard O’Brien, for relieving our fear of clown. We appreciate it.

 

Do you have any funny stories about IT or another Stephen King book?

Also, what did you think about the book and the film? Are you excited for the new one? It’s out soon! But, we can’t help but think we haven’t got Tim Curry to save us this time. And have you seen the trailer? It looks TERRFIYING. We’ll still watch it. But, we may have to have a few following months sleeping with the door open.  

 

Also, for our rating. The book is better. But we watch the film for Tim. So it’s a close call.