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I'm wondering what people thought of it. I kinda liked it. It was quite good. I'd recommend it. What did you think of it ? Did it contain any flaws. I haven't read the book (although I'll get it soon) so I can't compare it to anything.

It was better than most made-for -television films. I though it was a good idea to have the first half children and second half adults. It's always nice to see (the late) John Ritter and Annette O'Toole.

It had a rubbish ending, though.

Some "IT" fun...


http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ohDEd14_NUo&feature=related

I think the adaptation did a good enough job keeping it scary enough for a "made for tv" miniseries.  Of course it moves in leaps and bounds from the book but the central idea of an evil clown terrorizing children is pulled off nicely.  Tim Curry absolutely shined as he does in most roles. 

For what it was worth, It was a well done tv-movie.  The whole cast did a good job, especially, I felt, Tim Curry. 

I personally haven't read the book, yet.  None of the stores I've been to have had it.  The biggest complaint I've heard over the years is how much is left out.  To be fair though, the book clocks in at over 1,000 pages.  To do a movie, especially a tv-movie to include everything seems obscene.  Time constraints, budgets, etc make a straight up adaption a little far fetched.  Lord knows I wouldn't want to watch it if it were a ten hour miniseries. 

Not to say there haven't been longer miniseries.  Supposely, Sci-Fi Channel is working on a remake.

The minseries was ok.  It was as good as any TV adaptation of the book could have been.  Tim Curry really hasn't gotten the respect he deserves as a "monster" actor.  He was great as Pennywise here and as Darkness in Legend.

Tim Curry, all around, is just flat out underrated as an actor, on the whole.  Even movies he's done that have been terrible, he's been the highlight of said movie.  Like in Scary Movie 2.  He was hilarious in it.

Never saw it all the way through but it looked like a decent adaptation. I'm a fan of both Tims who appeared in this: Tim Curry (Pennywise of course) and Tim Reid (Mike Hanlon), a guy who you see now and then on TV but not nearly often enough.

Tim Curry's great in Command and Conquer Red Alert 3

Tim Curry was awesome in this movie! They really couldn't have picked anyone better for the role. I prefer how the book goes, particularly towards the end, but tv/film adaptations usually follow a different path. I've always liked anything with clowns, evil ones especially, but IT is cool. I just hate the ending more than anything, it totally spoiled the entire thing.

It's a big spider ain't it ?
Jurassic park is the best book ever. Don't know why I mentioned that....

It started a life long phobia of clowns! I actually enjoyed this movie quite a bit and to annoy my friends I remind them that "We all float down here". I don't remember the ending that well, so it must not have been anything I found to exciting or particularly clever. It's been years since my last viewing so I'll have to check it out again just to remind myself.
I agree that Tim Curry is underrated, I even found him entertaining in "Clue".

The end I found slightly annoying but overal a very great film.

The first chapter of IT, the book, may be the best bit of writing STEPHEN KING has ever done (and there are quite a few good bits).  The book then devolves into a bloated mess, but one must understand how KING was paid, and he himself had pointed out he had a tendency toward "literary elephantiasis."  The miniseries is better in many ways from the book, including in what's missing, and the first half of the TV miniseries, focusing on the children, is wonderful.  The second part is not so great when they're adults, and the ending is, uh...  Just like the book. 

Pennywise - what a terrific part for TIM CURRY!  And Pennywise is the best part of the film.   

Good points AllHallows.  I liked the first part much better as well.  The ending had me confused.  So Pennywise can no longer be seen in clown form.  That means his true form, aka the spider, is the only thing they can see.  Is that it or is there something else I'm missing?

My wife who does not like horror but LOVES Tim Curry actually watched it.   It has been a while since I saw it, but I thought the whole spider part at the end was wierd.  I would have prefered to have kept the evil clown and ditched the spider. 

Tim Curry = amazing

Good movie, better book, except for the part at the end where in order to secure their pact they almost all had sex with Bev, which was just plain pervy of King.

I liked the mini series enough that I bought the DVD. I enjoyed the novel more, I must agree that Mr. King's novels can be long and contain a lot of backround information about the characters, I generally enjoy this sort of thing but it can get annoying at times. This is something that can't really be put in a movie. In the scene where young Ben Hanscomb is confronted by Henry Bowers and company he knocks Henry down then jumps down to the creek bed and hides till they leave, in the novel, in the seconds before this happens you get into his mind, he thinks about his favorite TV hero, Lt. Dan Matthews of "Highway Patrol".  Matthews is a chubby man, must have been a fat kid, Matthews is also a very tough guy who takes no #$#@ from anyone, he wouldn't just let himself get beat up, he'd do something. This is what gives him the courage and ability to take action. There's a lot of this sort of thing in a King novel and while it can sometimes be boring it usually adds to my enjoyment of his writing.

I remember liking the film version; I watched it a few times when I was younger although I have not seen it recently. That is something I might have to remedy. I haven't read the book yet though (I thought I had in my youth, until I saw how thick it was and realised I had not read anything that thick at that time of my life), but I intend to as I have recently finished my first Stephen King book and was very impressed.

Also (and I am hesitent to put this) I never realised Tim Curry played Pennywise until I read this topic.

Ha ha - this post makes me seem so dumb!

I really enjoyed this when it aired, and I can recall watching it a couple of times since. As nearly everyone has said, Tim Curry is amazing in this, and the ending left me scratching my head and wondering what the hell just happened.

I've been tempted to get the book from the library and give it a try, although I have half of From a Buick 8 and a Michael Slade thriller to read first.

Re:  Sex with Bev --

As I said in another thread, King was trying to establish IT as a most ancient of Evils that had been around forever.  The oldest known continuing religious tradition that has a mythos of fighting Evil is Tantrism.  What was happening in the sex scene was that Bev was offering herself as a Dakini to empower the boys by focusing and magnifying their kundalini energies.  See the Wikipedia entry on Tantra, which isn't half bad.

It was via this ritual that such "miracles" as the harmless inhaler being perceived as a powerful weapon by the Ancient of Evils (IT) were achieved.  In the TV adaptation, yes, IT seems little more than a giant spider, sort of a companion to Shelob in The Lord of The Rings.  In the book, IT is something much much worse . . . we float down here . . .

peter johnson/denny crane

do you think Pennywise could be some kind of decendent to the Crimson King?

I think Pennywise is a descendant of Ronald McDonald.  :wink:

I've seen many TV makes of Stephen King novels.  I've seen It, the Stand and the Tommyknockers.  All of them were good.  But I would love to see someone make a film of one of King's newest books, Cell.

I would really love it if they did films of his Dark Tower Series.  Roland the Gunslinger deserves some screen time.

I've been told the guys from Lost have bought the rights to do film adaptations of the the books.  King is a big fan of Lost and says he trusts the guys to do a good job on it, whatever they come up with. 

One problem many have mentioned though is how to handle the character of Jake, who's eleven in the first book (and reappears in the third book to stay throughout most of the series)  Obviously, casting a young boy would cause problems as he'd grow while filming, and if the story would span multiple films, well, you can see how that would mess things up.  Course, I say given the nature of Midworld, they could just say that the place is aging Jake faster than normal, forcing him to grow up (physically and emotionally) faster than he normally would have.

If they do, and do a good job, I can die a happy man. :smile:

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