Halloween Week Finale: IT miniseries review

Here's what you need to know; after three decades of trying to forget their battle with Derry's resident eternal child killer, the Losers Club are once again forced into action when the killing resumes in the small town, no doubt the work of their old friend Pennywise. But as the club are forced to recall their lost memories in an effort to fight the creature, it becomes apparent that this time, in their adulthood, the threat of It might be too much even for them to overcome.
Well, another year, another spooky season comes and goes, and what a shame, watching spooky movies and carving that Ghostbusters logo Jack o Lantern has been a huge lot of fun. But since a certain little horror film took me by storm last month, and became my favourite film of the year, I thought there would be no better finale for this spookiness than where that film came from. From the pages of the one and only Stephen King, the 1990 miniseries that caused a Coulrophobia epidemic, and that took Blade Runner 2049's crown of the numbest arse I've had all year at a runtime of 187 minutes, that's right folks, it's IT, now let's get started.

I usually start at the film's opening, but for once, I want to start at about an hour in, because that's when I looked at the back of the Blu ray box and saw that I had another 2 hours to go, and my heart sank. The miniseries' opening sequence actually does do an alright job of getting the plot moving, to its credit, as we are teased Pennywise and are introduced to not only one of the Losers, but to one of this miniseries' narrative crutches; Mike dairy narration. Unlike the 2017 film, which focused a lot more on a few Losers, namely Bev and Bill, this IT takes a lot more time building it's ensemble, this is aided, at least at first, by the fact that this IT, unlike the new IT, tells both sides of the story in an alternating narrative. It works at first, as we see Mike at a crime scene, finding a photo of Georgie, we see Bill, a writer living in England, who is mentally taken back to the death of his brother, thus we see the famous Georgie scene. It works at first, and is surprisingly effective for the first few Losers, but by the 5th or 6th Loser, when they're still introducing new characters at the 1 hour mark, it at that point becomes mind numbing. The miniseries introduces the Losers as if it's procedural, and it loses all sense of pacing in the process, dragging it out for literally hours. This is beyond a doubt the Miniseries' biggest flaw, it's so boring to watch; the story takes so long to actually get going, frankly wasting time ensuring that each and every Loser gets the same about of establishment, and even when it does get going, it moves at such a crawling pace that by the last 20 minutes, when they finally confront It, you're glad it'll be over soon. There are some alright slow scenes, like seeing the Losers playing together in the kids storyline, which is sweet, or seeing them reconnecting over Chinese food as adults, which is funny, but for all of them, there's, for instance, the scenes with Bev's abusive dad, which, while about as awkward as they are in the new film, are so for entirely the wrong reasons, far from being threatening and intense, it's cringe worthy. There is an interesting element of Bev growing up to have an abusive boyfriend, which would have been good if it wasn't just a footnote lost in the miniseries' first 2 hours. The same can be said of Eddie's placebos, which he's still dependent on despite knowing that they're bullshit, and he's still living with his obsessive, overbearing mother, but again, just a footnote. There is some good stuff here, thankfully, seeing Bill struggle to manage his stutter, and as an adult having sudden episodes of stuttering is interesting, but not very consequential in this miniseries' grandness. Unlike the film, in the miniseries I found myself gravitating to Richie, who grows up to be a comedian, while Stan, just like the film, kind of gets pushed to the back of the pack. Since we're going though characters, let's mention another footnote, the kids story is set in the 1950's so I was very surprised that with Mike, they did play the racial element, something the new film omitted, but like many things, it really isn't as interesting as it should have been. The miniseries' anemic pace isn't aided by the alternating story like it should either, because it goes from sometimes good, to awkward, to boring, and it's consistently cheesy with really inconsistent writing and acting, and something I'll now delve into, the horror is very severely lacking.

The IT miniseries has the very unfortunate position of being a made for TV adaptation of the material, meaning it has to struggle with a lower budget and must abide by TV regulations of the time. The new IT film may also have had a lower budget, but like I said in my review of The Mummy, film technology has massively improved, and what is considered scary and or socially acceptable has also changed; you can call one of your characters the dreaded N word, but you can't show any graphic violence, funny how times change. Take for example, the bathroom scene, which both ITs have. In the far more effective film, Bev is attacked by her own bloody hair as it grabs her and traps her at the sink, reflecting her character's psychological distress, before blood explodes from the drain and covers literally everything in the room. In the miniseries, kind of the same thing happens, but with far less shock value and no real character significance; a balloon comes out of the drain, the balloon pops, covering Bev, the sink and the mirror in blood. On paper these scenes are very similar, but in execution, the film one is far scarier, and more impactful for the audience, whereas in the miniseries it plays out more like a sick prank. There is no better example of the problem with this miniseries' horror than the famous Georgie scene. In the film, the scene is beautifully shot to carefully craft an apprehensive tension, before Georgie gets his arm ripped off, which we are shown in all of its gory glory. In the miniseries however, it's still nicely shot, but doesn't have the same tension, and unlike the film, which shows us Georgie's gruesome end, the miniseries does a PG13 style cut, what we learn from these two scenes is the same; that Pennywise is manipulative and cruel, and that Georgie dies, but like the bathroom scene, one is just far scarier and more impactful for the audience. This scene also highlights another thing about IT, but this is less of a flaw. I've always thought it unfair to compare Heath Ledger's Joker to Jack Nicholson's Joker, because while they're both the Joker, they aren't the same character, nor were they trying to be, Tim Curry as Pennywise and Bill Skarsgard as Pennywise are the same. Tim Curry does steal every second he's on screen as the clown, but he has way less screen time than you'd think, and is only around very briefly. I do look forward to seeing him though because he's very entertaining when he is on screen, but at no point did I find him scary. Tim Curry's Pennywise is a clown, figuratively speaking, when he shows up, he scares the kids, cracks a funny line, and then leaves, there's no menace to him, he just doesn't convey this eternal evil that Pennywise, as I understand him, is meant to be. He's still a lot of fun when he is around, and a hand full of the scares are actually somewhat effective, mainly due to the decent makeup on It, or the one or two times Tim Curry actually does play the clown with some intensity, but for the most part, he's not scary. In the last 20 minutes when Pennywise takes on his most elaborate form yet, a giant spider, the effects are surprisingly good, but the cheesiness kind of ruins it, and the ending is hideously cheesy, it's such a happy ever after ending, and to be honest, I don't like it that much, it's too sweet for such a bleak story.

I know I've compared this IT to the film a lot, but that film really puts this miniseries in the dark. A restrictive budget and broadcast heavily limits the horror, to the point that the 1932 Mummy is scarier, the production itself is very inconsistent, writing and acting is all over the place, and the pacing is terrible, making the miniseries an absolute grind to watch. Tim Curry makes the shortcomings forgivable when he shows up, but he doesn't very often, and even when he does, he only hurts the horror by being funny. It's expected, but the IT miniseries really hasn't stood the test of time, and in the wake of the 2017 film, is pretty difficult to watch. It's not good, and I personally wouldn't recommend it, but grab some friends and a few beers and maybe you could make something of it.
And so concludes this week of Halloween fun, sadly. I've had a lot of fun watching all these movies, especially ones I hadn't seen before like The Void and Coraline, but now it's time to hang up the Pumpkin carvers for the year. I hope I've persuaded you to watch a few of these films, and I wish you a Happy Halloween, now if you'll excuse me, I have to go bust some ghosts.