15 Movies You Loved As A Kid (That Are Actually Terrible)
3. It
Most of us will surely agree that Tim Curry gives an absolutely outstanding performance as Pennywise the Dancing Clown in the original 1990 It TV movie/mini-series, but that's really where the praise begins and ends for it.
As a child watching the film (possibly against their parents' wishes), the intense creepiness of Curry's work made the entire film feel like a tight feat of bone-chilling terror. Outside of his performance, though, the writing, direction and performances are absolute trash.
A TV movie in the worst sense of the word, It is flatly framed at almost all times, the dialogue is creaky and doesn't borrow nearly enough from Stephen King's novel, and the adult performances are incredibly rough (especially a never-worse Annette O'Toole as Beverly Marsh).
What truly damns It, however, is the flaming trainwreck of an ending, in which Pennywise transforms into an hilariously unconvincing - and totally un-scary - giant spider. No matter how much Pennywise may have horrified you as a kid, that papier-mâché arachnid was a real thigh-slapper.
And with 2017's big-budget remake categorically blowing it out of the water, it now seems even more dated and lazily thrown together.