SCREAM YOUR ENTHUSIASM (21)
By:
December 8, 2024
One in a series of 25 enthusiastic posts, contributed by 25 HILOBROW friends and regulars, on the topic of favorite horror movies. Series edited by Heather Quinlan.
IT (1990) | d. TOMMY LEE WALLACE | 1990
Oh, yes… They float, Georgie… They float…
These words conjure the sad moon of Georgie’s face as the young boy peers into the sewer, searching for his lost paper boat. The syllables carry the musty odor of the basement where Stuttering Bill sent his little brother to get paraffin wax to fortify the newspaper vessel. If you were a child of the 90s, however, we all hear the same voice inside our heads bellowing:
They float… and when you’re down here with me… YOU FLOAT TOO!
Tim Curry had 20 minutes of screentime during the two-part 1990 TV miniseries of Stephen King’s IT, but that was all it took for the OG Pennywise to claw into our inevitable nightmares. While Bill Skarsgård, who played Pennywise in the 2017 film adaptation, was super scary, his performance was enhanced by digital effects. Curry’s analog dancing clown was one part greasepaint, two parts single red balloon, and 97 percent f#*king terrifying.
Despite the network television restrictions, IT scared 30 million viewers, and the second night was videotaped more than anything else in the United States that year. One of those restrictions—being unable to show blood coming out of a wound—also created the creepiest moments. Blood oozing out from beneath Georgie’s school picture, further traumatizing Bill, who blamed himself for his brother’s death. Blood-filled balloons popping with macabre splatters that covered the faces of adults who remained unaware of Pennywise’s presence. Blood gurgling up through the pipes and bursting all over Beverly’s bathroom. Any girl going through puberty knows the particular terror of being trapped inside a bathroom because of unexpected blood.
As a kid, I read IT obsessively (and way too young) and was one of those millions who videotaped the miniseries. It makes sense to assume that I saw myself as Beverly Marsh—the sharp-shooting, sole girl in the group of seven misfits. But at 11 years old, I wasn’t Beverly. I was Ben: the new kid, the fat kid, the loser without a club. Granted, no one carved their initials into my tummy, but on my first day at a new school, the class bully punched me as hard as he could in the stomach as he passed me in the hall. He gave no reason other than apparently taking aesthetic offense at my soft shape. I wanted to be Beverly, for my hair to be January embers, and for some boy’s heart to burn there too. Except, I wasn’t the kind of girl who received Haikus from secret admirers. I wrote them.
Identifying with young, fat Ben is why I still squirm at the scene when the adult, now-thin Ben (played by the late John Ritter) is passionately making out with the love of his life, Beverly, but pulls back in disgust, realizing he’s actually kissing Pennywise. The patch of low-budget white grease paint on Ben’s ashen cheek heightens the horror when Curry’s clown widens his smeared, too-red smile and screams in his face,
Kiss me, fat boy!
SCREAM YOUR ENTHUSIASM: INTRODUCTION by Heather Quinlan | Crockett Doob on THE SHINING | Dean Haspiel on TOURIST TRAP | Fran Pado on M3GAN | Erin M. Routson on THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT | Adam McGovern on THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER | Michele Carlo on THE EXORCIST | Tony Pacitti on JAWS | Josh Glenn on INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1978) | Kathy Biehl on HALLOWEEN | Annie Nocenti on ROSEMARY’S BABY | Carolyn Campbell on WAIT UNTIL DARK | Marc Weidenbaum on DAWN OF THE DEAD | Amy Keyishian on SHAUN OF THE DEAD | Gabriela Pedranti on [•REC] | Mariane Cara on PARANORMAL ACTIVITY | Trav SD on FRANKENSTEIN: THE TRUE STORY | Colin Campbell on EVIL DEAD (2013) | Lynn Peril on NIGHT GALLERY | Heather Quinlan on THE CHANGELING | Kenny Simek on REPO! THE GENETIC OPERA | Kelly Jean Fitzsimmons on IT (1990) | James Scott Maloy on CONTAGION | Nick Rumaczyk on THE BOY WHO CRIED WEREWOLF | Max Alvarez on THE INNOCENTS | Michael Campochiaro on BLACK CHRISTMAS.
JACK KIRBY PANELS | CAPTAIN KIRK SCENES | OLD-SCHOOL HIP HOP | TYPEFACES | NEW WAVE | SQUADS | PUNK | NEO-NOIR MOVIES | COMICS | SCI-FI MOVIES | SIDEKICKS | CARTOONS | TV DEATHS | COUNTRY | PROTO-PUNK | METAL | & more enthusiasms!