When I was four years old and living in New Jersey, I was sent into a storm drain to retrieve a baseball that my brothers and friends lost during their game on the street. So into the black hole I went, I found the ball and then tried to get out and quickly realized that I was stuck and I could not get out. About an hour and a half later I emerged from the dark place thanks to my parents and friends from the neighborhood. While I was in the hole I had this terrifying feeling that something was in there with me. It was the longest hour and a half of my life, and the scariest.
A few years after the storm drain incident I caught my first viewing of Stephen King's IT on TV. While I watched the scene when Pennywise is in the storm drain and is trying to lure Georgie in I was more terrified than I ever had been since I had gone though a similar experience. Worst of all now I could put a face to the unknown thing that was in the dark hole with me, the face of Pennywise the evil clown. To this day that scene scares me like no other.
What a vivid description! It is a good thing you hadn't seen It before the incident! Talk about having a personal experience to connect to a movie!
Such a good (in parts) movie. I thought the first part was much better than the second though. The adults didn't seem as "real" to me as their younger counterparts.
Not a huge remake fan but I'd like to see this one done again sometime, although filing Tim Curry's oversized Pennywise shoes would be a tough feat.
One scene that really stood out for me was when one of the kids is looking at a photo album and the pictures start to move. Something about that just made me cringe.
Going to have to dig this one out of the vault and give it a rewatch sometime soon.
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sob317, I complete agree that the first night was superior to the second because it was more believable when they were children. I don't think anyone could replace Curry as Pennywise! Super creepy!
Just went and checked the cast list for this at IMDB and I think I might see where my problem with this was. Harry Anderson, Tim Reid, Richard Thomas, Annette O'Toole and John Ritter, among others, all in prominent roles. I think I so strongly identified these people with other roles that I couldn't see them as their IT characters. Really now, Judge Harry Stone, Downtown Brown, John-Boy Walton, Lana Lang and Jack Tripper was just too, too much for me. Damn you, casting director and damn me for not being able to just get over it and enjoy the show. I think I kept expecting Bull, Chrissy or Superman to show up. Or maybe one of those Simon brothers. Anyhow…
On a side note just noticed that Seth Green is in this as young Ritchie Tozier. Don't think I knew that or remembered it anyway. Although now that I look at the date I can see why. Has it really been 20 years since I saw this? Yikes!…sigh…I digress…
You guys are so right! The first part is amazing and then the second part kind of drops the ball. The spider thingy may have worked in the book but it's a real anticlimax on screen.Â
The spider thing didn't work in the book either. Even with the whole mentally biting the evil spider's tongue. Heck, the scariest thing in IT to me was the description of one of the throw away characters' pants. They were bright blue bike shorts that were so tight you could see the ridges on his penis. I can't even remember why he was in there – I think his boyfriend was killed by Pennywise or something – but that was the part that terrified me. And only because my mom had bought me bright turquiose colored bike shorts.
Even though I'm female, wearing almost the same color bike shorts as a Stephen King character – ick.
As for Freddy – I wish they hadn't made it at all. I didn't see it, but I read the synopsis. Sorry, Freddy is suppose to be a psychotic pedophile serial killer. Not your run of the mill pedophile. Just the previews alone turned me off. "I didn't do anything!" What a whiny little baby! Not at all the undead servant of Lilith that Freddy is suppose to be!
I'm pretty sure it was never fully implied that the original Freddy was a pedophile, just a child killer.