It (1990): 31 Days of Horror
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I’ll come clean and admit that I don’t have a fear of clowns, so maybe I’m not the right person to be watching It. Then again, I don’t usually like crufts, and I love Best in Show, I hate children’s beauty pageants and love Little Miss Sunshine, and I hate toilet humour but find that beans bit in Blazing Saddles absolutely hilarious. Great filmmaking can make any subject likeable to anyone willing to watch. There are films where clowns scare me. It is not one of them. If anything, I find Pennywise an absolute joke to the point of crying with laughter. That is not Tim Curry’s fault, who turns in one of his strongest performances to date. That’s the cause of editing that turns scary scenes into punchlines, dialogue that is just silly, and blandness throughout the film that makes this character stand out much more than they should. The one thing that works outside of Curry’s acting is the makeup job on Pennywise (well, in this clown form, specifically), which is genuinely creepy (until he opens his mouth and says something stupid).
Granted, these are things that children can be scared of that we see in both parts of It, but it’s the duty of the filmmaker to channel these feelings to all audiences. Pan’s Labyrinth places us in the shoes of a child scared by war and drawn by fantasy. In It, we kind of just sit from a distance, aware that we’re watching a television production that is plagued by some limitations, despite its triumphs otherwise. These are mostly dated moments, which I can’t focus on too much (although the use of stop motion has aged so badly, I can’t even begin to describe it). I don’t wish to be too mean about this film, because a lot of it was made with the best intentions, particularly as an attempt to adapt one of Stephen King’s more difficult novels to transform onto the big screen (although an arguably better attempt has been done lately, as everyone knows). Much of It feels lost in translation; in the same ways that scary moments are actually funny, compelling drama is either boring, creepy, or, on the contrary, too cheesy.
Pennywise looking like he’s in a music video; perhaps for Pennywise?
Look. It is ambitious, and it does try to fulfil a lot of obligations that a filmmaker may feel when taking a novel and making it a feature. I will give the film kudos on those fronts, and for the occasional moment that feels creepy. Otherwise, I do enjoy It for the unintended reasons of finding Curry one of the funniest villains ever; it goes without saying that he makes the film even remotely watchable. Also, for over three hours, the film simply goes on for too long, even though it is divided into two halves (childhood and adulthood). It is a weird scenario where a lot of its faults are reasons to praise it, as if these are all attempts that looked good on paper and just failed on screen. So, It is a cinematic shrug. Barely scary. Often times a joke. Notably a project made with hard work. Regardless, it just doesn’t work for me.
Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Ryerson University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.