Stephen King's It (1990)

Your every fear - all in one deadly enemy.  

Welcome to Day 7 of 31 in my 31 Days of Horror...Reviews!

 

Today we are watching It, I have never seen this movie before, I know!  It deals with one of the biggest fears for people, Clowns, I myself have never really been afraid of clowns, but this movie will most likely change my mind.  Also apologizes in advance this is quite long, as this movie is 3 hours long, so sorry.  Let's start!

We open in present day (1990) Derry, Maine, which is one of those places King writes a lot of his stories in.  A little girl has been killed, and right before she died we saw a clown, Pennywise, talking to her.  This guy, Mike, a librarian, shows up to the scene investigating what's happened, one of the cops tells him it's just like the others, which is a total of 6 kids disappearing or dying.  The chief shows up and tells Mike that it's probably just a case of kids getting itchy feet, are you stupid?  Kids are dying and disappearing, that isn't normal!  Mike is about to leave when he finds a picture of someone named Georgie, Mike heads back to the library and we learned that 30 years ago he and his friends made a promise to come back if this starts again.  Mike then calls the 6 friends who made the promise, Bill, Bev, Eddie, Richie, Ben, and Stan, who have all become incredibly successful.

 

"I'm Pennywise the Dancing Clown"

 

We are then taken to each person to tell their story, starting with Bill.  Bill is a successful author living with his wife, Audra, in England, during dinner Bill receives a phone call.  The call is Mike telling him that it has started again, we then head back to 1960 where the kids are making the promise near some type of river.  Going further back, before they encountered Pennywise, younger Bill is in bed, sick, talking to his brother, Georgie, which is the kid from the picture Mike found.  Georgie is bothering Bill so Bill give him a paper boat to go sail, Georgie heads out to sail it, but it falls down a storm drain.  Georgie crouches down by the storm drain when Pennywise shows up in the storm drain, he tells Georgie to come down because theres all kinds of goodies.  Georgie ask if it all the stuff floats, Pennywise says yes, and that he can float too, Georgie sticks his arm down the storm drain and Pennywise rips it off. 

After Georgie's funeral, Bill goes into Georgie's room and starts looking through a photo album, on one of the pages is a picture, the same one Mike found.  The Georgie in the picture winks at Bill and Bill throws the book across the room, suddenly the book starts oozing blood and he screams.  His parents run in, but they don't see the blood, they then forbid him to come into Georgie's room ever again.   Bill also had a bit of a stutter, that he has grown out of with age, however back in present day it has returned as he is reliving his childhood memories.  Bill leaves to head back to Derry, Audra wants to come with, but Bill tells her she can't, $10 says she goes to Derry before the movie is over.  Bill leaves, and we switch focus to Ben, who has become a successful architect, but is a bit of an alcoholic and a player. 

 

"Dad?"

 

Ben gets a call from Mike and we are transported back to '60's Ben, who is fat and always getting picked on by this kid named Henry and his group.  Ben leaves the girl he brought back and heads to a construction area where he drinks and relieves his childhood memories.  We start with him arriving in Derry and introducing himself to the class he's joined, which has Henry and his pack, plus the other 6 who made the promise.  After school Ben and Bev chat for awhile, after that he gets cornered by Henry and crew, where Henry pulls a switchblade on him, but he manages to get away with them on his tail.  He hides by some place called the barrens, they pass by him and see Bill and Eddie, who they start messing with.  Eddie has asthma, they take his inhaler, he then starts having an asthma attack, they ask if they've seen Ben, which they haven't, they give the inhaler back and leave. 

Ben comes out of hiding, Bill asks him to look over Eddie, because his inhaler is empty and he has to go pick up the prescription.   It takes Bill forever to get back and by this time the attack has passed, they ask Ben if he wants to join them into building a dam in the barrens, and he accepts.  The next day we find out more about his home life and that him and his mom, his dad died, are living with his aunt and cousins.  Ben is working on a poem for Bev, as he has a crush on her, when his cousin comes in and starts messing with him, but of course Ben gets in trouble for it.  Ben runs off after his mom tells him to apologize, he heads to the barrens and starts to hear his dads voice.  Ben follows the voice over to some type of river and sees his dad, but his dad slowly transforms into Pennywise, who tells him to come and that he will float, they all float.

 

"See you later, alligator"

 

Back in present time we meet Bev, who is know a successful designer, she gets the call from Mike, but her boyfriend/business partner wont let her answer it.  I don't like him, I bet you he is abusive, he seems the type.  After an important business deal that goes well, her and her boyfriend are at home when she gets the call from Mike, she agrees to come then starts packing to leave.  Her boyfriend returns to see her packing, and he hits her, I fucking knew it, the asshole then pulls out a belt to smack her with, but luckily she fights him off and leaves.  On her ride to the airport she relieves her childhood, rewind to 1960 and Ben dropped the poem off at Bev's, but hides so she doesn't see him.  In her house she's reading the poem and likes it, but her dad walks in and he is abusive just like her boyfriend, he sees the poem and goes after her, she manages to escape though.

 

Ben follows her and brings her to the barrens to meet Bill and Eddie, we are then introduced to Richie, the comic relief, and Stan, a boy scout, and they all start working on the dam.  After the dams built they all start heading home, Bev and Bill start flirting and she thinks he wrote the poem, which he obviously didn't.  Later that night at home, Bev is getting ready for bed when voices start coming from the sink telling her that they are the kids that die and that they all float down there.  A balloon comes up out of the sink and when it pops blood splatters everywhere, Bev runs to tell her dad, but he doesn't see the blood, just like Bill's parents.  Back in present day we see Bev cowering in the cab before we head to meet Eddie, who still lives with his mom.

 

Eddie gets the call from Mike, he's getting ready to leave, when his mom starts pestering him about it, she's a bit of a nut case if you ask me.  In his car heading to the train station he starts relieving his childhood memories, and we head back to the '60s.  The group is at the movie theaters watching wolf man when he accidently drops his popcorn and of course it lands on Henry and crew, Richie makes matters worse when he pours his drink on them.  That night when they take Eddie home, Eddie's mom comes out and starts telling him that he can't hang out with them anymore because he doesn't need friends he just needs his mom.  Weird, she also tells him he can't take showers after P.E. that week, so at school that week he doesn't, but coach stops him and tells him to go take one.  In the shower, all the shower turn on and start coming at him, he makes it to a corner when Pennywise pops out of the shower drain.  Back in present day Eddie has made it on the train, we then head over to Richie, who is now a successful comedian.

 

"Bring your friends"

 

Richie gets the phone call from Mike, Richie gets sick thinking over his memories, and we head back to 1960.  The gang is at the barrens hanging out, Bill starts to tell them about Pennywise when a cop show up, and tells them there's been another murder and that they should always stick together.  At school the next day Henry and crew gang up on Richie and Stan in the cafeteria about what happened at the movies.  Richie manages to get one over on Henry, but a teacher shows up and Richie gets in trouble, the teacher tells him to get the janitor to clean up, and Richie heads to the basement to get him.  In the janitors room, Richie encounters the wolf man from the movies, but it's really Pennywise, have I mentioned that Pennywise has these creepy pointed teeth?   Richie gets away and runs back up to the cafeteria yelling that he just saw a werewolf, everyone in the cafeteria laughs at him except his friends that exchange a knowing look. 

Back in present day we meet back up with Mike who is in the library, he picks up a picture and says that was the best day of his life, and that they were the lucky 7.  Heading back to 1960, Mike is presenting a project on the history from Derry about weird deaths, all which happened in 30 year intervals, could that be a pattern I spot?   After school Mike gets jumped by Henry and crew, I have never cringed this hard at a scene, this scene is horrible.  Mike ends up running to a construction site, which is where all the others are, and asks for their help, they throw rocks at Henry and crew which makes them flee.  They take on the moniker of the losers club and asks Mike if he wants to join, he agrees and takes the picture that present day Mike was holding.  After the picture, Mike shows them the pictures in his album, and they see one of Pennywise, the picture then comes alive and starts coming at them.  This scene was really cool, as it went from a still black and white to a moving colored picture, this is also where Bill coins the term It.

 

"Help me"

 

Also at this point Stan finally sees Pennywise, he had been the only one who hadn't, and was denying it could happen, because it's impossible.  They start talking about what they can do, and how the adults can't see it since they've grown up, Bill ask them to help him kill Pennywise, because Pennywise killed Georgie.  Mike snaps out of his memories to see muddy footprint and a balloon next to him, it pops and he calls Stan.  Stan gets the call, he says he's not sure if he can make it there and hangs up, his wife asks what's wrong and he tells her that he's going to go take a bath, we then head back to 1960.  The gang is at the barrens and are practicing their shooting with a slingshot, we find out Bev is the best out of all of them, and she will be the one shooting the silver slug's at Pennywise. 

 

They then head to the main sewer hall, over by the river type thing, before they come in they all take a puff on Eddie's inhaler for some confidence then they head in.  We see that Henry and crew have arrived and are heading into the sewer behind them, they split up sending Victor, one of Henry's crew, to ambush the 7, while Henry and Belch, another member of Henry's crew, kidnap Stan.  Victor gets killed by It, a white light comes at Stan, Henry, and Belch, and Belch is killed, Stan manages to escape, while Henry's hair turns white, but he doesn't get killed.  Stan makes his way back to the 7, when the lights come back, and a fog settles over all of them, they hold hands to keep everyone together, and Pennywise appears.  Eddie stands up to him, using his inhaler as a weapon, he tells Pennywise that it's battery acid, and sprays him, Bev then shoots him in the head with the silver slug, and he goes down a drain, presumably dead. 

 

"I promise"

 

The gang leaves the sewer and Bill tells them that if It comes back they will all return to kill it, and they all promise, we are then taken back to present day Stan.  Stan's wife heads upstairs to find Stan in the bathtub dead, he slit his wrist, and before he died he wrote 'It' in his blood.  Bill arrives in Derry, he immediately heads to Georgie's grave, where he sees Pennywise digging graves for him and his friends.  Bill then heads to the library to see Mike, he and Mike leave the library and head to Mike's house, for some reason none of them remember anything from before they left Derry.  Mike takes Bill out to his shed where he pulls out Silver, which is Bills bike from when he was a kid.  Richie arrives in Derry and heads to the library, of course Mike isn't there and Richie starts seeing things like the blood balloon's, he eventually leaves due to being freaked. 

 

Ben arrives in Derry and stops by the barrens, but he starts seeing Pennywise, and leaves, heading to the restaurant they are all meeting up at.  Eddie then arrives in town and has a flash back to the old pharmacy where the pharmacist told him that the inhaler is just a placebo, back to present day he starts seeing things and leaves the pharmacy.  Bev arrives in town and goes to see her old house and her father, she presses the buzzer for Marsh, and an old women opens the door telling her that her father died 5 years ago.  Bev asks why the buzzer still says Marsh, but on second look it actually says Kersh, the old lady tells her she can go freshen up and that she will make tea for Bev.  They sit down for tea, but the tea isn't tea it's blood, and this entire thing is Pennywise, Bev escapes and the building is actually condemned.

 

"Your pick"

 

We then go back to Audra, Bill's wife, and she announces to her friend that she is heading to Derry, I knew it!  At the restaurant, everyone starts gathering, when Bev arrives she faints, when she awakens she tells them that she saw something which is a relief to everyone since they all saw stuff too.  They all decide to start without Stan, and that they should just enjoy the reunion first before getting down to the reason they are all here.  During their talking we find out that Henry confessed to the murders and is now in a psychiatric hospital, which we are then transported to.  At the hospital, Pennywise comes to Henry, and convinces him to sneak out and kill the group, to finally get his revenge.   Back at the restaurant, Richie tells them that he is leaving in the morning, they all try to get him to stay, but Mike says if he wants to leave he can. 

 

The group is getting ready to leave, but first they go for their fortune cookies, which are Pennywise creations.  They all head to the library, Mike calls Stan's house and finds out that Stan killed himself, the library then starts to get destroyed by Pennywise's antics.   They pack up the supplies they need from the library and leave, heading back to the hotel everyone is staying at.  At the hotel, Mike starts passing out news paper clippings of the murders from 1960, he then tells them that every 30 years something happens, a pattern!  He also puts together the pattern that none of them have children and that all of them are successful, not losers like they were when they were children.  We then see Audra arrive in town and stop at a gas station, and she gets confronted by Pennywise, we don't find out what happens to her yet. 

 

Back at the hotel, Ben, Eddie, and Mike head upstairs to grab some stuff from the rooms.  Ben goes to Bev's room to get her shawl, when she arrives behind him reciting the poem, and they kiss, but it's Pennywise.  Mike heads to Richie's room to grab a coat, and gets stabbed by Henry, Eddie and Ben arrive and pull Henry off, while in the process Henry stabs himself and dies.  Since Mike has been stabbed they head off to the hospital, Mike's fine, but they only let one person in to see him, it's Bill.  Mike tells Bill to go into his jacket pocket, and Bill pulls out the 2 silver slugs from 1960, outside Bev and Ben are talking and things replay from the previous night, but real this time.  Ben gets the girl!  Even though she has kissed every guy in their group already.

 

"I still think we should've brought machine guns"

 

The group, minus Mike, heads back to the hotel, to deal with Henry's body, they decide to leave Henry's body and leave the hotel in general.  Outside the group decides they are going to go after Pennywise, Bev ended up bringing her sling shot and Bill pulls out the silver slugs and they head to the main sewer hall.  Down in the sewer they find Audra's purse and Bill runs off, they catch up with him, and find all these cocoon's holding all the missing people.  Turn's out It is a giant spider, not a clown.  I can handle It being a clown, but a giant spider, nope, that's a whole different ball park.  We then find out about something called 'deadlights' which is what the belly of the spider is and if you stare into it you see what It really is.  Bill, Ben, and Richie get caught in the deadlights, Eddie tries to stand up to the spider with the inhaler again, but gets half way eaten when Bev manages to hit the spider with one of the silver slugs.

 

"Beat it, Audra"

 

The spider presumably dies, and they leave, unfortunately Eddie dies and Audra is in some type of catatonic state.  They think it's really dead this time as they all have forgotten the memories, even Mike, they all head off, Ben and Bev get married and are expecting, Richie has gotten a big role in a movie, and Bill snaps Audra out of her catatonic state on Silver.  As we fade to the credits we hear Pennywise laugh one more time.

 

The End.

 This was a really good movie, the child actors were incredible, the adults not so much, and Tim Curry was flawless as usual.   Little confused as to Pennywise being a giant spider, I'm assuming It was some type of entity?  Either way I really liked it, the ending felt a bit rushed, and the fact they couldn't remember anything from Derry was odd, but I generally liked it.  Again, sorry if this was a bit long, but this movie is 3 hours long as I mentioned.  Tell me what you think of the movie in the comments, on Twitter (@SilentToHughes) or on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/SilentToHughes).

 

Hope you all have a great night!