In 1960, poor little Georgie is drawn to a drain by a scary entity who introduces himself as "Pennywise the Dancing Clown". He promises Georgie lots of fun things and tricks him into reaching out. Pennywise tears Georgie's arm off, killing him. Georgie's brother Bill is part of a group of disparate friends who call themselves "The Losers", because they are always being picked on. He believes that there is a very dark presence that has cast a shadow over his town Derry in Maine and which manifests as Pennywise the killer clown. His friends don't really believe him until Pennywise starts to visit them. While they are looking at a photo album, a picture of Pennywise comes alive and tries to attack them. The Losers make a vow to kill Pennywise at his den in the sewers. They do battle with Pennywise and manage to defeat him. As adults, the Losers have all gone their different ways and don't keep in touch. However, as kids they made a vow to come back to Derry and kill Pennywise should he ever resurface. Mike - the town librarian and only group member who stayed in Derry reckons that Pennywise has reared his ugly head again and has killed a local girl. He gets in contact with his old pals and they instantly drop what they are doing, come back to Derry and do battle with Pennywise again. Pennywise taps into the fear of the evil clown archetype. The first part of It works much better than the second part. Pennywise is much more scary when he is terrorising children, instead of grown ups. There are also a lot of soap opera style subplots going on in the second part which reduce the tension of the miniseries but the special effects are solid and the acting of the children is very capable. Much of the power of It lies in Tim Curry's performance as the villainous clown Pennywise. He is scarily convincing in his role, making Pennywise the most frightening Stephen King villain ever.
My first film watched was Carrie aged 2 on my dad's knee. Educated at The University of St Andrews and Trinity College Dublin. Fan of Arthouse, Exploitation, Horror, Euro Trash, Giallo, New French Extremism. Weaned at the bosom of a Russ Meyer starlet. The bleaker, artier or sleazier the better!