IT (1990 miniseries) (2024)

IT (also known as Stephen King’s IT and the IT miniseries) is a 1990 American horror miniseries based on Stephen King’s 1986 novel of the same name. It is the first show in the IT franchise.

Directed and co-written by Tommy Lee Wallace and co-written by Lawrence D. Cohen. The miniseries stars Harry Anderson, Dennis Christopher, Richard Masur, Annette O'Toole, Tim Reid, John Ritter, Richard Thomas, and Tim Curry.

Plot[]

During a heavy rainstorm in Derry, Maine in the spring of 1960, George Denbrough plays in the streets with a paper sailboat made by his stuttering older brother, Bill. It goes down a storm drain, where Georgie encounters Pennywise the Dancing Clown. Pennywise entices Georgie to reach in to retrieve his boat, only to tear his arm off and leave him to bleed to death. A few months later, Bill and asthmatic Eddie Kaspbrak befriend the chubby new kid Ben Hanscom. They are later joined by Beverly Marsh, who lives with her abusive father, and she and Ben are introduced to Bill and Eddie's other friends: the comical Richie Tozier and skeptical, Jewish boy scout Stan Uris.

Ben develops feelings for Beverly, and sends her an anonymous poem, but she has feelings for Bill. At school, by the creek and around town they are all bullied by Henry Bowers and his greaser gang. The children all have grotesque, frightening encounters with Pennywise. In July, the group is joined by Mike Hanlon, an African-American boy, as he is chased by Bowers' gang. The children, now dubbing themselves the "Losers Club", fend off Bowers gang with rocks. While looking through Mike's History of Derry school project scrapbook, the Losers realize that Pennywise, whom they refer to as "It", is not a human being, but rather an ancient creature that awakens every thirty years to hunt and feed.

Realizing that It killed Georgie, Bill leads the Losers into Derry's sewers to kill the creature. Stan becomes separated from the group and is ambushed by Bowers and Belch Huggins. Belch is killed by It, and Henry is left traumatized, his hair turned white. Stanley regroups with the Losers in a large sewer drainage chamber, which fills with fog as the 7 join hands to form a circle, their united strength but Stan is grabbed by It. The Losers take advantage of It's ability to access their imaginations and use it against him. Eddie imagines his inhaler is full of battery acid, injuring half of the clown's face, then Beverly slingshots silver earrings at It, which seems to 'break' Pennywise's head open, his light force seeping out. Wounded It flees down a drain, where the kids hear moaning, and concludeIt is dead. The group exits the sewers, but vows to return should It ever return. Bowers, now incoherent or possessed from ITs deadlights confesses to the child killings and is institutionalized.

Thirty years later in May 1990, It kills a little girl in her backyard, signalling another awakening and feeding spree. Mike, the only one to stay in Derry, contacts his old friends to fulfill their oath after hearing reports of missing children. All of the Losers, who have gone on to have successful careers, return, except Stan, who commits suicide. The other Losers reunite in Derry, later learning of Stan's suicide. Upon returning, they are all taunted and terrorized by Pennywise. Bowers, with ITS help, escapes from the asylum to murder the Losers. Bill's British wife, Audra, travels to Derry but is captured by It, hypnotized by the monster's "Deadlights". Bowers attacks and stabs Mike, but is fatally stabbed with his own knife when Eddie & Ben rush in. Mike is hospitalized, where he gives Bill the two silver earrings he retrieved from the sewers ten years ago. The five remaining Losers return to the sewers to confront It, where Bill realizes that It has Audra.

They reach It's inner sanctum, see the catatonic Audra engulfed in spider webs and discover It's true form of a gigantic, otherworldly spider. Bill, Ben, and Richie are entranced by the Deadlights emanating from Its underside, while Beverly retrieves the silver earring she overshot. Eddie attempts to repeat the wound he inflicted on It as a child, but is grabbed and mortally wounded. Beverly frees her friends, but Eddie dies. The others follow the injured demon spider, finishing it by ripping out its heart. They remove Eddie's body and the catatonic Audra from the sewers. Mike recovers in the hospital, explaining how the Losers go their separate ways once again, their memories of It and each other fading over time, save for his journal; Beverly and Ben get married and are expecting their first child, and Richie is cast in a film. Bill is preparing to leave Derry, but pulls Audra out of her catatonia by riding her down a street on "Silver" his childhood Schwinn cruiser.

Cast[]

• Tim Curry as IT/Pennywise

• Richard Thomas as Bill Denbrough
  • Jonathan Brandis as Young Bill Denbrough
• John Ritter as Ben Hanscom
  • Brandon Crane as Young Ben Hanscom
• Annette O'Toole as Beverly Marsh
  • Emily Perkins as Young Beverly Marsh
• Harry Anderson as Richie Tozier
  • Seth Green as Young Richie Tozier
• Dennis Christopher as Eddie Kaspbrak
  • Adam Faraizl as Young Eddie Kaspbrak
• Tim Reid as Mike Hanlon
  • Marlon Taylor as Young Mike Hanlon
• Richard Masur as Stanley Uris
  • Ben Heller as Young Stanley Uris
• Michael Cole as Henry Bowers
  • Jarred Blancard as Young Henry Bowers
• Gabe Khouth as Victor Criss

• Chris Eastman as Belch Huggins

• Frank C. Turner as Alvin Marsh

• Sheila Moore as Sonia Kaspbrak

• Tony Dakota as Georgie Denbrough

• Donna Peerless as Mrs. Douglas

• Olivia Hussey as Audra Phillips

• Michael Ryan as Tom Rogan

• Venus Terzo as Cyndi

• Caitlin Hicks as Patti Uris

• Steven Hilton as Mr. Denbrough

• Sheelah Megill as Sharon Denbrough

• Chelan Simmons as Laurie Anne Winterbarger

• Merrilyn Gann as Mrs. Winterbarger

• Susan Astley as Aunt Jean

• Claire Vardiel as Arlene Hanscom

• Garry Chalk as Coach

• Terence Kelly as Officer Nell

• Steve Makaj as Ben's father

• Florence Paterson as Mrs. Kersh

• Jay Brazeau as The Derry Cab Driver

• Charles Siegel as Nat

• Kim Kondrashoff as Joey

• Noel Geer as Bradley

• Scott Swanson as Rademacher

• Nicola Cavendish as The Desk Clerk

• Tom Heaton as Mr. Keene

• Paul Batten as The Pharmacist

• Russell Roberts as Greco

• Bill Croft as Koontz

• Amos Hertzman as The Chubby Kid

• Boyd Norman as The Gas Station Attendant

• Helena Yea as Rose

• Suzie Payne as The Female Cabbie

• Megan Leitch as The Library Aide

• Deva Neil DePodesta as Bum

• Katherine Banwell as The TV Announcer

• William B. Davis as Mr. Gedreau

• Laura Harris as Loni

• Gary Hetherington as The Police Deputy

Production[]

Pre-production[]

Motive[]

"We're taking some chances with It, but the networks may be learning there's an audience for heightened evenings. People are hip and savvy, they've seen it all. What David Letterman did with the talk show, Twin Peaks did with the drama. It's a different arena now, with cable and all, and they've got to compete."

Hollywood significantly increased their interest in screen adaptations of King's work after the box office success of Pet Sematary (1989), and several of went into development;around this time, ABC had acquired the rights to a television miniseries of It and green-lit it to be an eight-to-ten-hour miniseries. One reason, according to Lawrence D. Cohen, was that it was "the heyday of networks adapting lengthy novels for TV." ABC film chief Allen Sabinson explained that they chose to produce It as a previous film based on a King story about children, Stand by Me (1986), was a success. The producers were also focused on the story's drama aspects,likely due to most viewers leaning towards drama productions in 1990.

It was also being made in a time when the television landscape was making a slight change into unusual styles, as indicated by the popularity of shows like David Lynch's Twin Peaks (1990–91) and Tales from the Crypt (1989–96). In fact, Twin Peaks was constantly referenced in discussions between the cast and crew of It during shooting. As Tommy Lee Wallace recalled, "It brought everyone's attention to the fact that it doesn't have to be like and look like and act like everything else to succeed. You can break new ground – not with hard-core violence or nudity, necessarily – but just by being different and strange, which I certainly am trying to bring to It." At the same time, CBS was taking similar chances with the horror film Psycho IV: The Beginning (1990), which aired in the same month as It and also featured Olivia Hussey, who played Audra in It.

Development[]

George A. Romero was originally planned to be It's director, but his scheduling conflicts and the miniseries' length decrease influenced him to drop out of the project.

George A. Romero had originally been signed on to direct the project, which at the time ABC had planned for an eight-to-ten-hour series that would run over four two-hour blocks.On June 1, 1989, ABC announced that the miniseries would be six hours and directed by Romero, with no cast planned. A July 1989 announcement published in the Houston Chronicle indicates that the miniseries was originally planned to be set in "small-town Massachusetts" instead of Derry.

In an interview published in January 1990, ABC's Dan Doran described It as a "long-range development project, and it's not even a firm, 100% commitment yet." He also revealed Romero's involvement to be "tentative." However, Romero described himself as being incredibly involved in the project: "I worked with the effects guys. I did [story] boards. I must have thousands of pages of scripts and notes." However, a scheduling conflict with his 1990 remake of Night of the Living Dead (1968) resulted in him having to leave the project just after ABC decreased the length of the miniseries to four hours. His exit initially upset him because it reminded him of his time being dropped from Pet Sematary. However, he stated in 1993 that he appreciated his leave, feeling that the length decrease lessened the likely "impact" of the miniseries' final product. The producers were also worried about Romero making the miniseries too graphic for television.

The producers "lost their nerve" from how much work they could be faced doing an eight-to-ten hour miniseries. Thus, ABC condensed it to a three-part series, before shortly after making it a two-part miniseries once Tommy Lee Wallace was signed on to direct after reading a draft of the first part of Cohen's script.

Writing[]

Cohen, who had previously written the film adaptation of Carrie in 1976, was hired to write It, receiving a manuscript of the novel that was sent to his New York apartment in 1986 before the book was published. Although King had multiple drafts of the script sent to him by Cohen, he had little to no involvement in the writing of the miniseries. Cohen's early drafts rejected the flashback format of the book, where the first night would show the Losers as kids and the second part as adults. He originally planned for the spider form to be hinted at in part one when Pennywise was hit by the rock, but the idea was scrapped. Cohen also initially wrote the second episode as, according to Wallace, "a very interior melodrama" that differed heavily from the novel and where Tom Rogan played a much bigger role in the plot.

In reading Cohen's draft, Wallace initially avoided reading the book to get an objective view of it: "I knew I was dealing with people who had been intimately involved with the book for years." After noticing many issues in the script, especially in the second part, Wallace gave Cohen an offer to rewrite his drafts; however, that would have required Cohen to take a three-week trip to the miniseries' Vancouver production location, which his schedule would not permit as he was involved in other projects. This led Wallace to have to re-write the script himself and use the book as reference, which turned out to fix all of the original drafts' issues. As Wallace explained, "One of the things I believe I contributed in my rewrite was just packing in as much of what was memorable about the book." He added the flashback structuring from the book into the script and made sure the screenplay for the second part "maintain[ed] some of the rhythm" of the first.

Changes from the novel[]

Given the length of the King novel, which runs 1,138 pages,a great deal of material was left out of Cohen's 215-page screenplay, including subplots concerning the personal lives of the adult characters and a scene in which the young male members of the Loser's Club each lose their virginity to Beverly. Cohen, while upset about the material that did not make it in the final cut, also opined, "the best moments from the book made the cut and the rest are casualties of war."Themes of friendship and loyalty were distorted in the miniseries in order to appeal to non-horror TV viewers.O'Toole has admitted to disliking the removal of the Losers' orgy scene: "This was their greatest attachment to one another – she thought they were all going to die, and this was a gift she was giving to each one of them, and I thought it was the most beautiful, generous love-filled gift, and it tied them all together in such an amazing way." Cohen retrospectively admitted that he wished he was permitted to write an ending different from the novel's: "If I had to do it over again, my instinct would be to find a way to have the adults confront Pennywise in another way, in all his shapeshifting glory."

One major change King disliked but had to deal with was the decreased amount of depth of the main characters, particularly Richie Tozier, who was altered from a Los Angeles DJ into a television show comedian. He found the miniseries' version of Richie to have only two dimensions: "scumbag" and "sort of a kindhearted Buddy Hackett. "However, Wallace and Cohen retained the centrality of Pennywise in the source novel; as noted by film scholar Tony Magistrale in Hollywood's Stephen King, the made-for-television movie retains the "association between the adult world of Derry and It [which] is further established in the masterful choice of a carnival clown as a unifying symbol for the various creatures representing the monster."

Main-Production[]

Filming[]

We really felt like we were in Derry. All the exterior stuff was done in Stanley Park and I remember being amazed it was so woodsy and so far removed. — Crane, 2015

It was shot over a three-month summer period in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Green set the budget at $12 million, double the usual television film, to give It a major motion picture feel. Filming locations in Vancouver included Stanley Park, Beaver Lake and Saint Thomas Aquinas High School Convent in North Vancouver. The Buntzen Lake Hydro Plant, in particular, was used as the miniseries' sewer plant.

For the opening scene where Laurie Winterbarger is eaten by Pennywise, Simmons' shots were done while Curry wasn't on set; Wallace stood at the laundry area of the backyard giving her simple directions for emotions. However, she still met Curry via read-throughs and while in her trailer after the shot: "while walking down the sidewalk Tim walked by in the full clown costume—make up and all. He turned to me and said "Hi!" in a very friendly voice, but it still scared me half to death!" Similarly, the scene where Patti Uris finds her husband dead in the tub (done on the first shooting day) involved Uris not being on set for shots of Caitlin Hicks' reaction. The Captain Hanscom sequence in the first part was shot at the Lost Lagoon, which involved Makaj on a platform just below the water surface to give the illusion of the character standing on water. The shots of the captain's corpse were done when Crane wasn't on set.

Filming It was not without difficult sequences. The scene where the blood-filled balloon explodes in Beverly's bathroom required multiple takes due to how difficult it was to get the timing of the explosion right. The theater scene took many retakes and much waiting, so Curry went on the stage and entertained the child extras with singalongs, all unaware he was playing a monster character in the miniseries. Shooting the last sewer scene was tough for the adult actors, as they had to deal with walking in an area filled with rust likely infected with tetanus. The final scene with Bill and Audra Denbrough took days to rehearse, a library scene with all the adult actors involved some slight injuries due to the number of objects randomly flying around the place, while the photo album scene where Pennywise comes to life was the hardest scene to shoot for Wallace.

Directing[]

In explaining why directing a screen version of a King story was difficult, Wallace summarized, "Stephen King is so good with language that he can make almost anything sound incredibly scary. Some of King's images translate to film. Some are simply ethereal, like smoke."

A lot of Wallace's directing was influenced by films he worked on with John Carpenter, such as Halloween (1978) and The Fog (1980). He made several technical and staging decisions just to make each scene scarier or weird. These included interesting camera tricks, such as the Chinese restaurant scene being shot with a handheld camera; and shots where It goes through pipes filmed as if they were from It's point of view, a decision inspired by Wallace's past experiences working with Carpenter. The Chinese restaurant sequence was shot in only one take and involved the actors not being aware what was going to happen so that "our expressions were all real," explained Reid. As Wallace explained, "The fortune cookie scene is an example of how to get great scare-power out of fairly humble, low-budget special effects. A trick table, puppeteers underneath, a handful of creepy little cookie models, a group of characters taken by surprise. So much depended on the details." When it came to the Ms. Kersh scene, Wallace place several incidental details, such as Mrs. Kersh's teeth being rotten like Pennywise's, to give the audience a clue something was up; the scene also ends with Beverly Marsh in the middle of the street, with intentionally no extras around to add to the creep factor. Wallace also chose to make the furniture in Stanley Uris' house odd to signify something being wrong with the character.

Special effects[]

Gene Warren's effects company Fantasy II were in the middle of working on Predator 2 (1990) when ABC assigned the company to work on It with a deadline of 12 weeks. The effects team of It included Warren, who handled the visual effects; Bart Mixon, who coordinated the makeup effects and Pennywise's animated deadlights; Jo-Anne Smith, who previously worked on Curry's make-up for his role in Legend (1985); Salty Ray; J.C. Matalon; and the Fantasy II effects team run by Warren's son, Gene Warren Jr., and including Jim McLoughlln, Aaron Sim, Brent Baker, Norman Cabrera, and Joey Orosco. Fantasy II previously worked on a feature also directed by Wallace named Fright Night Part 2 (1988) and another King adaptation named Pet Sematary (1989).

The majority of the special effects were done practically without digital alteration, such as puppeteers being used to animate the fortune cookies in the Chinese restaurant scene. Some scenes were done with replacement animation, an animation technique similar to stop motion animation.Replacement animation was used for when Pennywise came out of the drain, killed Belch in the sewers, and did a somersault in the air. A lot of the effects Wallace planned to use while storyboarding did not make it into the final version for budget reasons, such as the roots writhing around Pennywise in his ghostly encounter with the adult Losers in the sewer. Lindsay Craig, an artist who made a living doing prop work in film and television, created some of the blood for It using food coloring, water, and methacyl.

While It's lair features many cocooned humans, Sally Ray and J.C. Matalon sculpted only six of them, four children and two adults, for close-up shots.

To work with the deadline, Mixon divided the design team of each It creature into four artists: "Each artist was given a considerable amount of freedom with his creations, with occasional input from Warren or myself to make sure we were adhering to Wallace's vision."

Pennywise[]

When designing Pennywise, Mixon focused on making him look as "friendly" as possible: "This creature is trying to lure children in, so he's not going to be a monster at first." He began drawing concepts for how Pennywise would look before Curry was cast, researching the looks of most other clowns in the process. Original storyboards for Pennywise featured exaggerated cheekbones, a sharp chin, and bulbous forehead.

The Losers Club watch as Pennywise goes down the drain after his head was cracked open. Multiple effect techniques can be seen in this shot, such as rotoscoping for Pennywise's deadlights, the incorporation of a stop-motion puppet into a live-action shot, and a visual of one of Mixon's original head designs for the clown that only can be seen on the puppet.

Mixon began working on a head cast for the Pennywise character after Curry was cast in the role; he also designed three clay molds for testing. According to Mixon, he based the shape of Pennywise's head on Lon Chaney in The Phantom of the Opera (1925), "stylized into a clown." Three different versions of the clown's face were created, one of which resembled a hobo clown, another that was "a little meaner," and the final one seen in the series. Mixon then worked with Curry on the makeup and tested two concepts: one with just a nose, headpiece, and a make-up pattern Curry suggested; and another one that was closer to the original designs. The former was chosen, although the other make-up choice is featured in the final cut when Pennywise is sprayed with battery acid. Instead of traditional clown make-up, PAX paint was used for makeup that made Pennywise look "almost like a living cartoon."

According to director Wallace, "Tim [Curry] objected strongly to all the rubber. He had recently been in several movies which covered him in prosthetics and I'm sure he felt all the glue and latex would just get in his way. He was right, of course. With those eyes, and that mouth, and his crazy, sardonic sense of humor, less turned out to be more in the makeup department." However, the bulbous forehead was kept to give the character "a supernatural aspect without getting in the way."Getting the clown faces right also depended on some of the actor's own efforts, to the point where he had to do a day of training of not only getting into the character but also practicing the faces. Small adjustments to Pennywise's face, such as on his mouth and the eyebrows ("the hardest thing to get right" according to Curry), were still being made in the first five days of shooting.

In the scenes when the clown became vicious, Curry wore yellow lenses and two sets of sharp teeth throughout shooting: a smaller set he could talk while wearing, and a less flexible but far bigger set for more horrifying shots. The teeth were designed by Jim McLoughlin. Wallace originally did not want Pennywise to switch into a "horror" look but rather maintain the "nice" clown look throughout the miniseries, but this idea was dropped.

Dan Platt sculpted a puppet replication of Pennywise specifically for the stop motion scenes, with painting done by Mixon and the hair by Jack Bricker. Rotoscoping was used for Pennywise's "dead light" effects in the first part of the miniseries.

Werewolf[]

Norman Cabrera sculpted the design of the werewolf.Because Wallace did not want it to look like a usual "Howling type of creature," Mixon instructed Cabrera to make "a slicker, '90s version" of the wolf from the 1950s film Richie viewed.The makeup used for the werewolf character was kept simple, consisting only of a spandex hood mask, gloves, and hair tied around the neck all put together through KY Jelly; this was done to suit the limited application time and "the nature of the shots." Jack Bricker created the wolf's hair, and Mimi Cabrera made stylistic additions. Aaron Sims painted three sets of false eyes for the wolf; a "beauty pair" for close-up shots, a "stunt pair" that had the pupils "drilled out," and a set of glowing eyes. Only the "stunt" and "beauty" pairs are seen in the final miniseries.

Mrs. Kersh[]

For the part when Mrs. Kersh is revealed to be Alvin Marsh's corpse, Florence Peterson was still playing the character.Cabrera was responsible for the Marsh part of Kersh's make-up, composed of two face pieces, one teeth piece, false fingernail pieces, one neck piece, two pieces on the back of the hands, and an "empty eyesocket" piece. Mixon handled a PAX paint layer of the makeup. As Mixon explained, "Director Wallace wanted an empty eyesocket look for Al, so Cabrera sculpted rot inside the sockets and then burned tiny holes through the foam for the actor to see through."

Stanley's refrigerator head[]

The scene when the Losers find Stanley's decapitated head in the refrigerator was done via a split screen effect; it consists of one shot of Masur wearing a Jim-McLoughlin-designed "severed neck" with black areas filled in by another shot of the refrigerator without the actor. McLoughlin also created a dummy head of Stan used for wide shots.

The spider[]

I had a problem with the spider. King was able to conjure it up in his head, but it was difficult to bring to the screen. We set the tone and parameters in the first part of the movie with Pennywise. But when you get to the spider, you move into a different world. It was supposed to be a horror movie, not Jason and the Argonauts.— Warren, 2015

Producing and shooting It's final spider form required a budget of $200,000 and 13 weeks of time. It began with Mixon coming up with the idea of a "soft and fleshy" spiderlike creature. Joey Orosco, with some help from Henry Mayo,used his idea to create a design that included the abdomen and multiple limbs of a spider; and shoulders, hips, and torso-attaching legs of a human; the body parts went through more than 16 concept sculptures. In addition to painting the entire creature, Orsco mold the torso, arms, and head;while the spider's legs and abdomen were sculpted by Sims. Sims also molded a stop-motion replica of the spider, with an armature built by Mike Joyce, used for nine split-screen, rear projection, and tabletop shots supervised by Warren.

As Wallace explained, the spider was far less "beefy and muscular" and more "lean and mean" then what was in the concept drawings; its face was also not suppose to be as visible as it was in the final cut, although he blames himself for letting that happen. As Mixon described the 500-pound, 250-foot radio-controlled spider, "They've had some other creatures on TV but I can't think of anything just this big or this neat." Its odd design and unusually large size caught the attention of Canadian customs officials when it reached the US-Canada border of White Rock during its relocation from Los Angeles to a sound stage at The Bridge Studios; the officials delayed the operation.

Brent Baker was inside the spider, previously going through three months of training in using it, where there was a video monitor showing him how the spider was moving: "It got a little stuffy, but they had a place where they could stick in a little hose if I wanted water or some fresh air." Baker got really uncomfortable when the spider had to do multiple shots of the roll-over movement, as he would have to lay on his side while the crew set up another shot. Dave Kindlon's mechanics of the spider required control by various operators for different body parts; the head was radio-controlled by three people, the legs were operated by six people, one person operated the arms, one handled the deadlights, and others handled the movement of the entire spider.

As Mixon described controlling the spider, "We used a certain amount of animatronics for the head, and the body had some of my crew members inside it. Once we got it into place, we couldn't move it around too much, because it was pretty unwieldy. For some reason, they shot it in super slow motion, so it's no wonder it looks like it's not moving! It was capable of more than what you saw onscreen."

The final spider figure disappointed both the cast and Wallace. On set, Thomas called the spider a "diva," Ritter mocked it as a "muppet from hell," and O'Toole recalled most of the cast calling it the "Alaskan king crab." King also disliked the spider, mocking it as "three Chevy headlights on the bottom of a wheelbarrow." The effects artists made touches after King revealed his disappointment during production.

As the producers were about to throw away the spider, Bart's father Tom rushed to Fantasy II to obtain it; as of January 1993, the spider resided in a Houston, Texas warehouse owned by Bart's parents Tom and Barbara.

Post-production[]

ABC originally did not want King seeing the footage of It until after it was broadcast; however, the author threatened the network that he would not do any promotional interviews if he did not see it first. King explained in a September 1990 Fangoria interview that he had seen the first hour of the miniseries, and that the rest was currently being edited. His reasoning for checking on the miniseries' progress was, "It's my damn book and I worked on it for three years."

Music[]

It was composer Richard Bellis' first score since his career "came to a screeching halt for some unknown reason" in 1984. He was in the fourth year of owning a woodwork business when getting the call to score the miniseries. The score took five weeks to compose and produce. Bellis recorded four-days worth of orchestra parts performed by various ensembles that had 55 players at most, and the electronic instruments were tracked at Ray Colcord's home studio.

Bellis' use of motifs and ostinatos in It were inspired by the works of Bernard Herrmann. The music features motifs of not only each Loser and Pennywise but also themes of nostalgia and the difference between the past and the present. In presenting the story's varied tone, the score mixes together adventurous orchestra motifs (especially so for the music of the last showdown between It and the Losers),horror synthesizer pieces, circus music, big band jazz, creepy sound design touches, and trumpet-heavy music accompanying the setting of Derry.

Bellis took a long time figuring out the first interval of the title theme, since he considered the use of a tritone overused in horror. Then, one day, he spontaneously chose the interval to be a major seventh after he heard it on the hairdryer he was using. The scrapbook seen in the title sequence influenced how he composed the theme: "I do remember being struck by the fact that it was not like other scrapbooks, filled with happy memories. The pages were sparse and the sequence mostly in black & white." The producers and Wallace initially intended The Impressions' cover of "The Way You Do the Things You Do" to be the title song, but it is instead played in the sequence where the Losers build a dam in the final cut.

The choice of calliope, drums, and bells for Pennywise's circus theme was obvious to Bellis; however, how he would use the bright-toned circus instruments was challenging in composing the theme for an evil clown. As Bellis described his thinking process, "Does the music have to be evil too? Besides, calliope music is usually very busy— I use this instrument as a scoring instrument or will that just be distracting? Maybe I can use it in a register lower than an actual calliope is capable of playing and just with single notes. And what about a sort of "demented" carousel? Maybe I can create something that uses my major seventh interval?"

In the beginning of It, Winterbarger sings "Itsy Bitsy Spider" while riding on a bike, which foreshadows the titular antagonist's spider form.

Wallace and the producers disliked the score (particularly the title music) according to Bellis.

The first release of the score was in February 1996, but only as a 16-minute suite on the album Richard Bellis: Film Music Volume 1. Then, a 2-CD release of the TV movie's complete score by Richard Bellis was released on November 15, 2011, by Intrada Records, and is volume 184 of the label's special collection. On October 31, 2016, Warner Brothers, as part of their Archive Collection Series, issued the score in a shorter, one-tracklist version on CD and Spotify. In 2017, Waxwork Records issued the entire score for the first time on vinyl. A six-minute suite of the score, along with a six-minute outtake recording of an orchestra session, can be heard on Bellis' website.

On October 18, 2016, guitarist Eric Calderone released his electric guitar cover of Bellis' circus theme for It.

Track listing[]

Release[]

It was initially planned to air on ABC in May 1990 before being moved to the "sweeps month" of November, specifically the nights of November 18 and November 20.

It turned out to be the biggest success of 1990 for Capital Cities, owner of ABC, garnering nearly 30 million viewers over its two-night premiere. Part 1 was the fifth highest rated program of the week with an 18.5/29 rating/share, and being watched in 17.5 million households. Part 2 was the second highest rated program of the week with a 20.6/33 rating/share, and watched in 19.2 million households. During a time when recording television programs on tape with VCR was becoming a commonly-practiced activity in family homes, the second part of It was the most taped program of the month of November, with 1.96 million tape machines detected by A.C. Nielsen to be recording it. In a year where traditional television films like Decoration Day (1990) and The Incident (1990) garnered the most viewers, It was the only non-safe fare on 1990 to obtain the high ratings it received.

In France, the miniseries aired on M6 on October 16, 1993, under the title Il est revenu, French for He Came Back.When it aired on BBC One in the United Kingdom in 1994, part one garnered 6.6 million viewers; and the second part became the eleventh-most viewed program of the period of May 29 to August 14, 1994, by attracting 7.6 million watchers.

Home Media[]

It was released on VHS and LaserDisc in 1991. Warner Home Video released the VHS version in the United Kingdom on August 22, 1991; Samhain, Britain's longest running horror magazine, promoted it with a five-copy giveaway for readers who sent in when the original novel was published. In January 1992, a high-quality, digital-stereo LaserDisc version of It was released in Japan. On February 10, 1993, Warner Home Video released two VHS versions of It: a standard-play-speed set consisting of two tapes, as 193 minutes was too much time for a standard play tape to hold; and a one-tape, lower-quality, extended play-speed version. Houston Chronicle writer Bruce Westbrook considered this a questionable business decision for Warner: The versions were being sold at a high rental price ($79.99); and many retailers were un-equipped to display "cumbersome two-tape" products or worried about customers not wanting to rent a long two-tape set for just one night. The VHS and LaserDisc releases feature It as originally aired. In 1998, It was re-released on VHS on a single cassette tape and was altered, removing the end credits from part 1 and the opening credits of part 2. These edits carried over to all future releases of the miniseries.

Reception[]

Critical Response[]

Pre-release[]

Just before the broadcast, a variety of predictions were made by television writers about how big It's ratings would be. Journalist Janos D. Froelich analyzed the final product of It as looking cheaper than ABC's previous sweeps month big events, which made her less faithful about it being successful. Mike Drew suggested that while the star power could increase the miniseries' chances of succeeding, its content was "probably too tamed-down by TV requirements" to gain its primary target horror demographic. However, Joan Hanauer suggested the program would be "a natural ratings grabber" for its "good clean horror fun," and Greg Paeth forecasted that it could bring in curious King fans.

Television experts reported "rave" and not-so-fond reviews of It from television critics. Farrell Peter The Oregonian honored It as "the best horror show ever made for network television, and among the better miniseries of any genre offered this year," praising its multi-layered story and performances. Some critics called it one of the far better King films. The Cincinnati Post labeled it "one of the creepiest productions put together for broadcast TV" (although opined it to be nothing more than for "thrills and chills"), and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writer Eric Mink cherished it as "a gripping, bloody horror romp that will leave most of your major muscle groups aching from long stretches of constant tension." Matt Roush of USA Today categorized It as "the mini-series equivalent of those Saturday matinee shockers that merrily warped a generation before Freddy and Jason began stalking their more graphic turf."Both David Zurawik of The Baltimore Sun and Ron Miller of the Press-Telegram enjoyed It for working both as a straightforward scary miniseries and a very deep story,Zurawik highlighting its many "finely crafted" mythic and religious undertones.

Some critics highlighted its priority on character development over the typical horror traits of blood and gore,Richmond elaborating it was "all the more disturbing and believable by the fact that we are forced to care about these people as individuals." Many reviewers spotlighted some of the scare moments of the miniseries, often using the Chinese restaurant sequence as an example. A couple reviews particularly appreciated the miniseries' horrification of everyday objects and scenarios, such as shower heads and photo galleries. Times Union writer Steve Bornfeld recommended it for its freaky visuals and "effective cast," particularly Curry: "With his razor-sharp teeth and bloody balloons, Curry delicately balances clown-like cheer and pure evil, exploiting the freak show side of clowns that can terrify children." Julia Keller of The Columbus Dispatchapplauded the "solid production values" and "crisp direction," where "each moment is crafted and distinct as, layer upon chilly layer, an edifice of terror is painstakingly created."Reviewers also described the special effects as "exceptionally effective," "jaw-dropping," and "rival[ing] anything you've seen on the big screen.".

However, many writers also panned It's long length and padding, The Washington Times writer Rick Martin criticizing its lack of scary moments over a four-hour running time. The Miami Herald critic Hal Boedeker wrote that It was padded with the leads dickering around with confronting It, as if it was "a monster movie without the heroes confronting "the thing;"" and "trite" and "tasteless" dialogue, such as slurs targeted toward the black Mike and the Jewish Stan. Virginia Mann of The Record attributed the long length to the story's repetitive structure, where there are multiple scenes involving one Loser encountering the same villain: "After a while, even the scary stuff starts to seem silly." Some reviewers also criticized its out-of-nowhere undeveloped subplots and unexplained concepts, such as the lack of explanation for why only the Loser Clubs and none of the other adults see It's incarnations. Martin noted one plot error in particular: "[Bill] still feels responsible for his kid brother's being snatched by Ronald McDeath, and though he wasn't there at the time manages a detailed flashback of his brother's last moments." Some reviewers felt the miniseries failed to capture King's horror style, one of them included Dusty Saunders; he wrote that its terror wasn't "unrelenting" enough, as some of "the scenes and the special effects come across as routine, familiar work from predictable monster movies." He also was an outlier in dismissing the character of Pennywise, writing that he "comes across as a berserk, somewhat laughable circus character."

Part one[]

The most praise came towards the series' first part, a common highlight being the performances of the child actors and its development of the Losers. Jonathan Storm described Crane as "awkward but adorable" and Perkins as having "a subtlety to the role that belies her years; her sidelong stare can be full of fear one second, contempt the next."

The part had the most "impact" of the miniseries because it focused on children, a very "vulnerable" demographic of people, analyzed The San Diego Union writer Robert P. Laurence. Ed Bark of The Dallas Morning News wrote that, "We yearn to recapture what they had, and we also wince at the indignities they endured as members of their self-proclaimed "Losers' Club.'" Tim Funk of The Charlotte Observer explained, "Watching them, we can't help but recall our own childhood hurts and fears. But we're also reminded what a soothing salve friendship was."

Keller wrote the Losers' bonding "never lurch into the sentimental, but are deeply, powerfully moving all the same," also finding the back-and-forth flashback technique to be the miniseries' "most effective" aspect. However, Bodeker was less favorable towards the story's presentation of juvenile endangerment, made only more "distasteful" by its "hack filmmaking." Mink also called the introduction to the adult losers in the first part "ridiculously trite" and Bodeker a "monotonous" setup.

Part two[]

The second part garnered more criticism, a recurring con being the adult actors. Laurence opined the adult actors were "more willing to accept the story on its own terms," thus making the second half less interesting. Storm explained that the adult characters' "foolish" and "spoiled" behavior made their problems look more "trivial" than their younger counterparts, and called their activities less "interesting" as well: "The adults just sit around and eat Chinese food or whine through strange attempts at romance."

Mal Vincent felt the adult characters unintentionally looked like "psychopaths" seeing It's mind images, but also liked the performers of the grown-ups more than most other critics: "they do manage, just as importantly, to suggest camaraderie and friendship which, considering they are mostly stars of competing TV series, is an achievement in itself." He also called the premise of adults keeping to a vow they held for thirty years to kill a monster "silly." Chapman called Christopher's performance of Eddie "embarrassing," while Tucker panned Thomas' performance for being more like his character for The Waltons than a horror novelist. Funk opined the miniseries' final half to be somewhat inferior for being "a bit silly at key points," and Tucker disfavored the second part's predictable plot.

The ending of the miniseries garnered the most disappointment with critics, even those most favorable toward the miniseries. Bark dismissed it as a "hokey, feel-good" resolution, Keller called it "trite,"and Chapman described it as a "cop-out" as it ruined the "epic mind game" notion of It being in the characters' heads. It's spider form was particularly derided, called by Chapman a "cheap Alien imitation," described by Mann "as if it crawled out of a low-budget Japanese monster movie,"and by the Richmond Times-Dispatch "more laughable than frightening.".

Later Years[]

As of September 2020, on Rotten Tomatoes, the miniseries holds an approval rating of 67% based on 24 reviews, with a weighted average rating of 5.59/10. The site's consensus reads, "Though hampered by an uneven second half, Itsupplies a wealth of funhouse thrills and an idelible turn from Tim Curry as Pennywise." It topped The New York Observer's 2014 list of the best Stephen King miniseries; the source explained that while it was "two hours too long," it was still the scariest King miniseries of all time. Complex called it the scariest horror show of 1990, noting its "manipulative" horror as well the relationships of the Losers: "The camaraderie and shared history of It's protagonists stir feelings of warm nostalgia in viewers—which makes it all the more horrifying every time Pennywhistle pops up.".

Many retrospective pieces have spotlighted Curry's version of Pennywise, being called by several publications and scholars as one of the most terrifying clown characters in film and television. In fact, it is "widely considered the archetype of the [evil clown] genre," wrote Jessica Glenza. As The Atlantic summarized the terror of the performance and character, "He speaks in a kind of singsongy, guttural growl, his teeth are sharp fangs, and the contrast between his comical yellow dungarees and his penchant for ripping off children's limbs is fairly stark."Rolling Stone writer Sean T. Collins described it as "the stuff sleepless nights are made of. He gloats, he giggles, he taunts, he devours the scenery like the monster himself devours middle-schoolers – and he generally sears his way right into the brain of the viewer."

Collins and James Smythe of The Guardian claimed the miniseries to have a cult status, Smythe using Curry's portrayal as the main reason: "To this day, it's Pennywise that people turn to if you ask them to picture a scary clown. Far more people than ever read the book have seen pictures of Curry's Pennywise, or have watched clips, or remember their siblings forcing them to watch it with them." Curry's portrayal of the character turned him into a horror icon. As Bloody Disgusting explained, "His mixture of pleasant charm with gleeful terror has cemented the character in our minds, filling our slumbers with nightmares." In 2015, the source ranked his version of the clown the best Stephen King villain. Perkins recalled being at Hal-Con" and a lot of people wanted to talk about It with me, especially women who really loved Beverly and wanted to be her because they felt like an outcast, and saw her as a character with a lot of strength."

However, the other parts of the miniseries have faced more divided opinions. Smythe, while finding the miniseries enjoyable overall, also found the writing to be "clunky" and the other performances to be "soapy." Sandra Harris of Moviepilot noted the miniseries' "gorgeous scenery" and "nice interweaving of flashbacks with the regular scenes," while Ian Jane of DVD Talk and John Campopiano of Bloody Disgusting praised the combination of childhood nostalgia with horror elements. Dan Stephens from the UK website Top 10 Films praised the first part of the miniseries for its story, character development, and suspense. However, he found the second part disappointing, disliking the lack of "friendship and togetherness" of the main characters that was present during the first part as well as the clichéd ending. The Mary Sue critic Kate Gardner appreciated It for its camp value, but was disappointed with how the miniseries rejected the "character study" aspects of the novel to fit the three-hour running time. Rozsa was also one of the few reviewers to dislike the child performers, describing their line delivery as "unconvincing."

Jonathan Barkin, in a 2016 review, wrote that the first part, while the best of the miniseries, suffered from "awkward attempts to tie everything together," where what is only shown is "the smallest of snippets and there aren't really any solid connecting lines." He also panned the second part for padding it with uninteresting presentations of the adult Losers. His overall criticisms includes its flashback structure and cheap television look, especially when it came to the spider and the "lazy" choice of close-up shots for Pennywise's scary faces.

While King has admitted to enjoying the miniseries, calling it a "really ambitious adaptation of a really long book;" Wallace, who only read the novel years after finishing It, stated in 2003 that he found the miniseries to be inferior to its source material. In 2015, however, he stated that he "was, and am, very, very proud of It."

Trivia[]

• The case cover is a clear reference to The Tommyknockers's DVD case.
• Jonathan Brandis, who played the young Bill Denbrough, committed suicide at the age 27 on November 12th, 2003 at 11:40 p.m.
• In the 2017 film of IT, when Richie is in the room with the clowns, there is one that has a strong resemblance to the appearance of Tim Curry's Pennywise.