I recently saw both the 1990 version and the 2017 version of IT, the movies based on Stephen King’s 1986 horror novel.

While the 2017 IT was an immediate breakout hit, the 90s version is mostly remembered for Tim Curry’s portrayal as Pennywise the Dancing Clown.

But while I found both versions of the story to be very compelling, I have seen people online who have criticised the 1990 version for not being as scary as they remembered from when they were children, and even that the story did not make any sense.

This is baloney.

 

One of the major complaints is that Pennywise seldom tries to hurt the main characters, but instead just scares and teases them. But this is not a fault in the story, but rather a feature.

The monster It is a being with psychic powers that lives under a small Maine town called Derry.

It manipulates people (mostly children) into seeing their worst fears, and uses its powers to lure people into the sewer system in which it resides.

It merely projects an image of Pennywise the Dancing Clown to interact with its intended victims, but cannot physically harm them until he has manipulated them to move to a location where he can reach them.

 

This is a much more interesting dynamic than just another mindless monster attacking hikers in the woods.

The monster instead employs psychological warfare to get its prey to hike to it.