Stephen King It

Stephen King’s It is a three-hour TV miniseries based on the Stephen King novel. It stars John Ritter from 8 Simple Rules and Tim Curry as the film’s demonic Pennywise the Clown.

The small New England town of Derry is plagued by a series of child murders. The police are baffled and parents are terrified. What they don’t know is that an evil force that takes the form of a creepy clown named Pennywise is killing the town’s kids and it seems as if nothing can stop it.

But a group of kids calling themselves The Loser’s Club show up to put a stop to the evil Pennywise. Each child has seen the monster, which takes on the shape of whatever their worst fears are. With a lot of bravery, the kids must descend into the sewers beneath their quaint little town and face up to the evil “It”.

Thirty years later, the kids are all grown up, but when more kids start turning up dead, they suspect that “It” is back. Once again, the childhood friends band together to help stop the terror once and for all and defeat their darkest fears.

At around three-plus hours, Stephen King’s It tries to pack a lot of stuff. John Ritter, best known for his hijinks on Three’s Company and 8 Simple Rules, shows that he’s an able-bodied actor even if the script features a lot of hammy dialogue and hokey situations. The always great Tim Curry plays the Pennywise villain with so much lip smacking relish that it’s like watching Bozo the Clown crossed with Charles Manson. While Curry sometimes overdoes it, he’s still a real joy to behold.

Stephen King’s It is an decent little flick in its own right, though it’s not the best of King’s filmed book adaptations. If you watch closely, you’ll notic that one of the kids is played by Emily Perkins. She went on to star in the Ginger Snaps movies as the weird goth younger sister.