IT is fine. IT is great!

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 film was an immediate breakout hit, the 90s version is mostly remembered for Tim Curry’s portrayal of Pennywise the Dancing Clown.

But while I found both versions of the story to be very compelling, I have seen some people online criticizing the 1990 version.

People often say that the 1990’s miniseries is not as scary as they remembered from when they were children. They even clam that the miniseries’ story did not make any sense.

This is baloney.

One of the major complaints is that Pennywise seldom tries to hurt the main characters. Instead it 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. Then it 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.

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

Related article: My Top 10 Halloween Movies

If you liked this article, sign up for my monthly newsletter!

At the end of each month, I’ll send you an email with my best articles from that month.