By Jane Nightshade
Illustration by Jane Nightshade, all rights reserved.
The recent film version of the first half of Stephen King’s voluminous best-selling novel, IT, is a visual feast for the eyes, but for this critic, something is missing. For me, the new movie lacks the warmth, heart and camaraderie of the 1990 TV miniseries, which starred Richard “John Boy” Thomas from The Waltons and a slew of other beloved 70s television actors, plus some very talented child actors like the late Jonathan Brandis (who played the child version of Richard Thomas.) The new film also lacks something else: a truly terrifying villain. Tim Curry, who played the murderous Pennywise the Dancing Clown in the miniseries, created a villain so memorable that he’s a certifiable legend in the horror community. On the other hand, Swedish actor Bill Skarsgard in the new film: not so much.
Why is Pennywise so much scarier in Curry form than in Skarsgard form? IMHO, it’s because Curry’s Pennywise follows a classic principal of horror philosophy: the relatively benign-seeming entity who gradually reveals his true capacity for evil to his unfortunate victims. Until he shows you his teeth, Curry’s Pennywise is a pretty normal, stereotypical circus clown. He laughs uproariously, tells cornpone jokes (“do you have Prince Albert in the can?”), clacks around with cheesy noisemakers, and makes garish balloons fall from the ceiling. It’s easy to see how sweet little Georgie (and numerous other children from the small town of Derry, Maine) could be lured by this Pennywise to his death in the Derry sewers. He’s only scary when the children get to know him, and by that time, it’s usually too late. The not-knowing about Pennywise’s true nature is what creates the dramatic tension, suspense and yes, fear.
Skarsgard, on the other hand---his Pennywise isn’t really deceptive at all. He doesn’t laugh a lot or tell stupid jokes; he wears a moldy, dirty costume that sort-of resembles a Victorian coffin shroud; his face paint makes him look like a viper or some other dangerous snake. Anyone, even sweet, naive little Georgie, can see that Skarsgard’s Pennywise is bad news from the get-go. (Which makes the Georgie death scene of the film so much less believable than the near-identical scene in the miniseries.) There’s no build-up of dramatic tension and fear, no second-guessing about when Pennywise is going to show his teeth to one of his potential victims, only the continuous, mind-numbing revelation of yet another chapter of evilness in the Pennywise saga. By the end of the movie, the viewer is paradoxically both shell-shocked and jaded to tears: yeah, Pennywise is really, really evil—I figured that out in the first reel. My considered guess is that Curry’s Pennywise will still be a horror legend long after everyone’s forgotten about Skarsgard’s.