by Jen
Thanks to Stephen King, I know that I never want to live in New England. Also, if a clown asks you if you'd like a balloon, the answer is always NO.
Let me back up and give you some history: I grew up in a pretty conservative home, and wasn't allowed to see much in the way of horror movies (or, really, anything that wasn't rated PG). So there was no way my parents were going to let me watch the 1990 miniseries based on Stephen King's It, despite my penchant for scary tales. (I may not have been allowed to watch scary movies, but I loved horror novels - I think I read everything Christopher Pike ever wrote!)
But then I grew up and went away to college, and one night the miniseries was on TV again - and there was no one to make me change the channel, so I settled in for a good scare.
Let me back up and give you some history: I grew up in a pretty conservative home, and wasn't allowed to see much in the way of horror movies (or, really, anything that wasn't rated PG). So there was no way my parents were going to let me watch the 1990 miniseries based on Stephen King's It, despite my penchant for scary tales. (I may not have been allowed to watch scary movies, but I loved horror novels - I think I read everything Christopher Pike ever wrote!)
But then I grew up and went away to college, and one night the miniseries was on TV again - and there was no one to make me change the channel, so I settled in for a good scare.
I think it's safe to say I was scarred for life. The tale of a group of childhood friends reuniting in a small New England town after thirty years to fight an evil they thought they'd defeated as children was haunting and suspenseful.
Tim Curry is the stuff of dreams and nightmares - I had seen him in the Rocky Horror Picture Show, and as the red devil in Legend, but nothing is quite as scary as Pennywise the Dancing Clown.
Tim Curry is the stuff of dreams and nightmares - I had seen him in the Rocky Horror Picture Show, and as the red devil in Legend, but nothing is quite as scary as Pennywise the Dancing Clown.
And if the clown wasn't scary enough, there were the sewers. And the blood. Blood in the photo album, blood in the bathroom sink - all that blood that the adults couldn't see, because they apparently didn't believe in the evil. It was like a horrible reverse Polar Express.
Quite some time passed before I was able to walk past a sewer without giving it an extraordinarily wide berth, or go into a bathroom without flinching if the sink so much as gurgled.
It's been at least twenty years since I saw It on TV, and I decided to bravely rent the miniseries to watch as research for this article. It wasn't quite as traumatizing as I recall it being the first time, but then again it was daylight and I was watching it on my computer screen. (Also, the late 80's/early 90's special effects don't really hold up.)
Maybe someday I'll be brave enough to read the novel...
Quite some time passed before I was able to walk past a sewer without giving it an extraordinarily wide berth, or go into a bathroom without flinching if the sink so much as gurgled.
It's been at least twenty years since I saw It on TV, and I decided to bravely rent the miniseries to watch as research for this article. It wasn't quite as traumatizing as I recall it being the first time, but then again it was daylight and I was watching it on my computer screen. (Also, the late 80's/early 90's special effects don't really hold up.)
Maybe someday I'll be brave enough to read the novel...
