Abraham Elizondo

Professor Ramos 

English 102

15 November 2019

Can you float ? IT can  

Recently scary tales and movies haven’t been really too scary and it’s just been all of the same types of movies for example zombies, paranormal activities, etc and honestly it’s really not all that scary anymore But at least most of us can admit that we all have at least one fear in our lives, right?. It’s actually interesting to think that some people are afraid of clowns in fact there is actually a scientific name for this phobia called Coulrophobia and it is estimated that at least 12% of US adults suffer from it. So without further to do I introduce you to Pennywise “it” a killer clown that lives deep down in the sewers and far away from the public but don’t let that fool you, he’s as far as your thoughts go and I mean that literally. Pennywise is only in the thoughts of children and adults with an abusive or bad past and he comes out every 27 years to feast on them. Pennywise is not only a killer clown but he is an unnatural force from a different world that is explained to be an ancient alien creature. Pennywise also has a very intimidating smile and can open his mouth to fit a horse if he really wanted to, but that’s not what he’s interested in. He’d much rather feast on children that fear him, pennywise thrives for children that have a fear for him. He is also a smart clown and knows how to convince the children to come down with him, he comes off as a nice and funny clown and mainly offers them balloons and his most famous line “you can float too”.

In the novel of Steven King’s IT he describes the dancing clown to be a very terrifying creature and has admitted that he thinks that clowns are terrifying and that is a reason why he considered on making a book and later on movies about IT. Now the first movie that King came out with was originally released in 1990 and his most recently released movie was 2019 but for now I will only focus on the 1990 film and the 2017 film. In the 1990 film it was the first IT movie and all of the 7 children which were all outcast and all apart of the “losers” squad that they personally created. The main character for the film is Georgie Denbrough and his older brother Bill and of course Pennywise IT. Derry, Maine is where pennywise was brought to life and become a powerful and evil clown that can shapeshift, manipulate, and go unnoticed by adults but during the story of IT he appears as Pennywise the dancing clown. In the beginning of the film Georgie is begging his older brother Bill to come out and play with him but Bill refuses and claims he is sick and not able to go out, but he just didn’t feel like going outside, probably because it was rainy weather in the film. But before Georgie left Bill gave him a boat to play with so Georgie being a kid he takes it and goes outside to play and he let his boat flow all the way down to about a block. As he reaches a certain point he bumps into a sign and knocks him down to the floor, so that doesn’t allow him to catch up to his boat so right as he is about to grab it, it goes down to the sewer and that is where IT is first introduced to the public. Pennywise talks to Georgie about his boat and tries to make Georgie feel better by offering him his boat and other things to convince him to reach further in the sewer. Time goes by and Georgie reaches and Pennywise opens his mouth as wide as he could and eats Georgie. When Bill found out about his brother he couldn’t believe it and he still had hope that his little brother was alive somewhere and just got lost so he started a search for himself with a couple of the friends he had. Later on, Bill came to a realization that his brother really is gone but that doesn’t stop Bill from trying to find  his brother’s mysterious disappearance. When Bill finds out Pennywise is the one that took his baby brother from him he is frightened but at the sametime confused about it because he didn’t know what to do. That is the intro for both films, they both start the same but it’s the little details that are different the most obvious being the actors but the storyline stays the same throughout the 1990 film and 2017. In the story all 7 children have their own fears and background, most of them got bullied but some of them just had family problems, so that is the reason pennywise came to them because they were all outcasting children that are afraid and let their past get to them. They weren’t friends from the start of the story but all of them later because friends because they all had something in common.. What could that be? It was the fears they had but the main fear they all had was the fear of Pennywise which had been haunting their lives with their past, Pennywise would make them overthink and make them feel guilty about their past. Although IT seems almost invincible, he did have a couple weird weaknesses one being if you stop thinking about your fears he goes away but temporarily and another being a cat, yes literary pennywise was terrified of pussy.The loser squad later became adults and since they are adults you’d think the fears would go away, not in this case though because of the fact that pennywise comes every 27 years. In the film of 1990 they go on a journey to meet pennywise and kill him but they fail to do so or at least they thought they killed him but he ended up coming back. Now at this point you should be wondering, what the hell can kill this monster? Well in the 2017 film it shows a slightly different version of how they attempt to kill him and I mean they put him in his place but that doesn’t mean he died. King did a really good job on keeping the newer film almost pretty much the same as the 1990 film. Although the 2017 film was split into two chapters of the story, mainly in my opinion because they wanted to make more of a profit off the films rather than just making one good long film like the 1990 film. Also the chapter 2 film that placed earlier this year 2019 was very extended for no reason and was not even scary anymore because they had involved drama and comedy to it by adding actors that mainly take place in comedies for example Bill Hader being a very well-known comedian. When I saw that he was apart of this film I was a bit confused but I was open minded about it. But in my personal opinion I believe that is what extended the movie and also killed the movie from being one of the scariest films of 2019. Now there are many monster theories but the ones that I think best connect to these films are theory number 1, because in this theory it explains that as an embodiment of a certain cultural moment of a time, feeling, and a place. IT comes every 27 years, feels and feeds off the fear of children, and IT is only located in Derry, Maine. Also the second theory that ties down to this is theory number 2, because in this theory it is explained that the monster always escapes and in most all the films pennywise escapes and he never really dies, only in the 2019 film he does die but who really knows if he did or not?.

Overall, The films are almost exactly the same just different time frames and production of the picture the only difference is the 2019 chapter 2 version because of the comedy and drama that they involved, don’t get me wrong though I like laughing but I went to see a scary movie, and I was expecting to come out and have nightmares about it so for that I would have to rate the whole series of the films IT a solid 8.5. Even Though its an 8.5 for me I would still watch the film again and I would recommend for others to watch for themselves. 

Work cited 

“Episode One” IT, written by Stephen King, Tommy Lee Wallace, Lawrence D. Cohen, directed by Tommy Lee Wallace, American Broadcast Company, 1990.

IT. Directed by Andy Muschietti, performances by Bill Skarsgård, 20th Century Fox, 2017.

“Chapter two” IT, Stephen King, directed by Andy Muschietti, New Line Cinema, 2019.