7 Key Mistakes Upcoming Movie Reboots Must Avoid

Despite being objectively poor movies, the two-part direct to TV adaptation of Stephen King’s IT has become an adored cult classic. Of course, this is mostly down to Tim Curry’s nightmare inducing performance as Pennywise, a character King claims to have created as the most terrifying thing he, the master of horror fiction, could imagine: a clown.

While the films did nail the central villain, what they didn’t quite achieve was an adaptation worthy of the fantastic source material. IT is a sprawling text widely considered to be one of King’s finest works and follows its main characters from their youth into adulthood as they deal with all the usual stuff kids go through in small towns: puberty, social awkwardness and a demonic presence that feeds on the fear of children.

Part of what makes the book so effective is that it’s full of challenging material that makes your skin crawl. While the 80s adaptation was happy to replace most of this with Tim Curry watching a young boy shower, this year’s remake should make full use of King’s prose.

There’s plenty of chilling gold to be mined from IT’s pages such as the grotesque sequence with the leper under the porch or the many forms of Pennywise that were missed out the first time around.

From what has been made available so far in terms casting choices and statements from the creative team – it looks like they’re onto a winner. Let’s just hope they’re brave enough to tackle the challenging material in King’s coulrophobia causing masterpiece.