Muschietti’s two-chapter adaptation of Stephen King’s IT reminds us of the children we once were and the adults we have become, and how the two are inextricably linked, no matter how much time passes.
Given the critical success of the ABC TV miniseries in 1990, one might have assumed that Stephen King’s IT would make the leap to the big screen, but no one expected it to take seventeen years. In 2009, Warner Bros. announced a movie version of Stephen King’s IT and began searching for the right director to bring King’s vision to life. But the question of what form Stephen King’s lengthy novel should take on the big screen haunted its development, as it had with the ABC series years earlier.
Initially, Warner Bros favoured a condensed version of King’s novel, one movie that housed the best IT had to offer in horror. However, turning the material into a single feature proved challenging, and two directors, David Kajganich and Cary Fukunaga, walked away from the project. When Andrés Muschietti arrived, they finally established a vision: a two-chapter movie event, with the second chapter’s development depending on the first’s success.
Muschietti’s first film would explore the horrors of Derry through the eyes of the young “Losers Club”, and the second would centre on the adult “Losers Club” as they returned to Derry. This would split Stephen King’s original narrative, separating the entwined past and present into two time-bound chapters while moving the young Losers Club story from the 1950s to the late 1980s. Warner Bros. gave Muschietti the creative freedom to capture the novel’s vast themes while modernising the story arc, resulting in one of the highest-grossing and most narratively complex horror films of the 2010s.
Central to IT’s success was Muschietti’s casting choices, as he brought together some of Hollywood’s finest talent to create a Losers Club we could all believe in, from an outstanding young cast to a fantastic group of adult actors.
Throughout Chapters One and Two, our ensemble has space to build on King’s characters, a weakness that had previously haunted the otherwise brilliant TV movie because of time constraints. Meanwhile, Pennywise fully embodies the alien creature inside, thanks to Bill Skarsgård’s exquisite, horrific, otherworldly interpretation. While Tim Curry’s 1990 Pennywise may have given an entire generation of kids nightmares and Coulrophobia, Skarsgård’s would both horrify and mesmerise in equal measure.
The critical and financial success of Muschietti’s faithful yet modern adaptation of IT only proved the enduring power of King’s original novel. But why is IT a modern horror masterpiece? After all, many argue it is not King’s strongest work, yet its cultural impact remains prominent.
IT brings together a range of themes found in his earlier work, from “The Body” to “Carrie” and “The Stand”, to create a coming-of-age horror centred on our deep-seated childhood fears and insecurities and their ability to shape the adults we become. Here, King reminds us of our human need to face our monsters, wherever they may reside, at whatever age we may be. IT, like “The Body”, is a story of the power of our early teenage friendships. But IT is also a tale of the adult scars we carry from our teens and the need to own our past.
Mushetti captures these elements beautifully throughout both chapters of IT, always acknowledging the psychological horror at the core of King’s story while unlocking the childhood fears we would rather keep buried. As a result, IT reminds us of the children we once were and the adults we have become, and how the two are interlinked, no matter the passage of time.
Follow Us