Review by
Sue Finn
Directed by: John Campopiano, Gary Smart
Featuring: Tim Curry, Tommy Lee Wallace, Seth Green, Richard Thomas
Stephen King's 'It' is my favourite book and has been ever since it
was first released in 1986. The recent two movies based on this book,
It Chapter 1 & 2, are my favourite films of all time; but I’ve always hated the
miniseries that came out in 1990. So when I was asked to review this
documentary about the miniseries, I was thinking it would be a challenge
to review it fairly. However, this isn’t the miniseries, this is a film
about the miniseries, and so must be judged in that way.
Starting with a wonderful scene of King explaining an experience that was
the starting point for the creation of 'It', I uneasily settled in to
watch this documentary.
What I particularly enjoyed about this was the discussion about the
stories behind the tale of 'It', King’s inspirations, and the themes of
'It', which are universal: childhood, friendship, memory, connections and
growing up.
This is an exhaustive retelling of how the miniseries was made, featuring
interviews with the entire cast, the director and many behind-the-scenes
crew members.
The early involvement of George A Romero, and the initial plans to
make a 10 hour miniseries was a surprise to me, and I can’t help but
wonder what that would have looked like had it eventuated.
As it is we have director Tommy Lee Wallace and writer
Larry Cohen discussing how they condensed this rich narrative into
a two-part series.
I liked the exploration of coulrophobia (fear of clowns) and its
connection to serial killer John Wayne Gacy - that’s truly interesting
stuff.
If you loved Tim Curry’s performance, there’s much here for you to
enjoy with an entire chapter dedicated to him and how he created his
version of Pennywise.
The people behind the miniseries talk a lot about the casting, which is
very hit and miss though the miniseries-makers seem to feel they did a
good job across the board. Miscasting was a huge problem with this version
of 'It', but this documentary is happy to gloss over that. However, the
discussion concerning the skills of child actor Johnathan Brandis,
who played main character Bill and was tragically lost to suicide in 2003,
was moving and effective. The loss of the wonderful John Ritter is
also keenly felt.
The exploration of the mostly successful practical effects is a nice
time-capsule of things that are missing in a lot of modern horror, but it
also highlights a lot of what I don’t like about the miniseries - a lack
of understanding of Pennywise’s true identity and the story’s ultimate
heart. The director Wallace and special effects creator
John Lazarowich in particular seem to have a minimal understanding
of the deeper themes of the book, not to mention even basic story beats,
and for me this explains a lot.
Perhaps if you saw the miniseries when you were a less discerning child
you would’ve enjoyed it and would view it now with rose-coloured nostalgic
glasses; but I saw it when I was 17 and despised it on sight.
As a documentary, this is detailed to the point of minutiae and that isn’t
particularly interesting unless you are passionate about the subject. I
enjoyed the dialogue about the actual novel and story of 'It', but there’s
a lot of filler and the documentary could have done with some tighter
editing.
To its credit this is not just a bunch of talking heads; it is packed full
of behind the scenes footage and gives a good background into why certain
decisions were made; but it lacks any kind of ‘dirt’ that would make this
compelling viewing. It’s a cuddly jumper love letter rather than an actual
tell-all and the lack of grit gives it the bland feeling of a DVD extra
stretched out over two hours.
This is clearly made by people who have good feelings about the
miniseries, and so I’m sure that if you feel the same way, you will enjoy
this.
For me its a 2/5. For fans of the series I’m sure it’s double that.
Pennywise: The Story of It is on
UK/ROI VOD from October 3rd, followed by a DVD/bluray release on October
24th.
