Line #7 YMMV/It1990


1	* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Creator/JamesRolfe argues that rather than being a genuine threat to the Losers, IT actually serves more as an escapist fantasy that distracts them from the RealLife problems they face like Henry's gang and neatly wraps all their fears about growing up into a terrifying, but vulnerable enemy.
2	* AntiClimaxBoss: Although accurate to the book, the infamous [[SpecialEffectFailure stop-motion spider]] is widely considered a very lame climax and totally deflates what little tension might remain at that point. It shows up, they literally ''push it over'' and rip its heart out. [[CurbStompBattle The end.]]
3	* CantUnhearIt: Just try to read the book and not visualize everybody as from the mini-series, especially Creator/TimCurry.
4	* CompleteMonster: [[EldritchAbomination IT]] is a predatory eldritch entity that vaguely resembles a GiantSpider and dwells in a cavern under the city of Derry, Maine. Awakening every thirty years, IT has terrorized the populace of Derry since at least the early 1700s. A gleeful sadist that [[EmotionEater savours the taste of fear]], IT uses its shapeshifting and illusory powers to terrify its victims; decorating its lair with their cocooned corpses. [[ChildEater Preferring to eat children]], IT uses the comical guise of [[MonsterClown Pennywise the Dancing Clown]] to lure them in; its psychic influence causing most adults to be apathetic and clouding the memories of those who leave Derry. In 1960, IT ripped off six-year-old Georgie Denbrough's arm, repeatedly tormenting his older brother Bill and the other six members of the Losers' Club with their worst fears when they rallied to stop its child-killing spree. Seemingly vanquished, IT returns in 1990 and leaves a young girl's mangled remains as a message to the Losers' Club that it survived. When they return to end its reign of terror, IT repeatedly taunts them over Stan's suicide, breaks Henry Bowers out of prison to kill them, abducts Bill's wife Audra and [[MindRape leaves her comatose with its Deadlights]], and finally crushes Eddie with its claws.
5	* CrossesTheLineTwice: Pennywise disguises himself as Bev and starts making out with Ben only for the latter to see who his partner really is in a mirror. [[{{Troll}} Pennywise then says "Kiss me, fatboy!" and leaves Ben alone, even though he would have been an incredibly easy kill.]]
6	* FirstInstallmentWins: The first half, with the Losers as kids in 1960, is more widely and fondly remembered than the second half with the grown ups.
7	* FridgeBrilliance:
8	** During Pennywise's final appearance before the spider form appears, Creator/TimCurry's FakeAmerican accent [[OohMeAccentsSlipping begins to falter a bit]], causing him to accentuate certain phrases in Curry's natural British accent (e.g. how "all" is pronounced). This isn't just Curry's accent slipping; This is IT finally dropping the FauxAffablyEvil persona of Pennywise (who never appears again after this scene) and showing his true colours to the group (or at least, the truest colours their minds allow them to see).
9	** Applying the logic of the novel to the film applies this to It's Pennywise incarnation, which is far more comical and goofy than It's other forms, playing the part of a capering, {{troll}}ing jester to the point of {{Narm}} and SugarWiki/FunnyMoments for the audience. In the book, It is subjected to the weakness of whatever form It takes due to the children's beliefs in monsters' weaknesses. If a similar rule applies to the It of the 1990 miniseries, then It's clownish behavior in It's Pennywise form could well be because the children's beliefs of how clowns are ''supposed'' to be are influencing It to be LaughablyEvil as Pennywise.
10	** When Pennywise appears to Richie in the library, he alternates between aggressive death threats and trolling the shit out of him with corny jokes and obnoxious laughter. This is because Richie is the ClassClown of the Losers Club, even growing up to be a stand-up comedian, and Pennywise was using his greatest strength (humor) as a weapon to get under his skin.
11	* FridgeHorror: Towards the end, the Losers are about to skip town when Bill sees a vision of himself and his mom playing the piano, giving him the resolve to finish IT. If he hadn't, Audra would've remained in Pennywise's lair and he would have had no idea what happened to her.
12	* HamAndCheese: While Creator/TimCurry's performance as Pennywise, is viewed as pretty scary by many, he also gives it a healthy dose of this, and it is ever so glorious.
13	* HarsherInHindsight: The special stars both Creator/JonathanBrandis and Creator/JohnRitter, two actors who would have untimely deaths in 2003 (the former from suicide, the latter from an undiagnosed heart condition). Eerily, Brandis was 27 years old when he died.
14	* HeartwarmingInHindsight: Creator/OliviaHussey lampshaded this in her autobiography, stating that the bike ride scene between Bill and Audra would end up being repeated for her in real life. Years later, while she was recovering from breast cancer, her husband came home one day with a new bike and had her go out for a ride. She describes the experience as being the start of her overcoming the worst parts of depression associated with the disease - much as riding on Silver helps shake Audra out of her catatonia.
15	* HilariousInHindsight:
16	** Pennywise is a male persona played by Creator/TimCurry. The monster is revealed, at the end of the book to be [[spoiler:female. Tim Curry is therefore, [[Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow once again]], playing a transvestite]]. What's more is that IT is from another planet, just like Frank. What's funnier is in ''Rocky Horror'', Dr. Frank-N-Furter even sings "Don't dream it, be it."
17	** Richie is scared of werewolves. He's also played by Creator/SethGreen, who would go on to play the role of the werewolf Oz in ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''.
18	** When Eddie admits that he's a virgin, Richie says "Well I can't help you there, pal." In ''Film/ItChapterTwo'', [[spoiler:Richie is gay and in love with Eddie.]]
19	** Creator/JohnRitter plays a man who, in his childhood, was a newcomer to a TownWithADarkSecret, and spent his first summer there matching wits with a LaughablyEvil [[RealityWarper Reality Warping]] EldritchAbomination. Twenty-two years later, [[LikeFatherLikeSon Jason Ritter]] [[WesternAnimation/GravityFalls would do the same thing]]. Minus a few details, [[Film/FreddyVsJason it wouldn't have been his first time either]].
20	* HollywoodPudgy: In the novel, Ben Hanscom is dangerously overweight as a child, but in the mini-series he's played by a stocky actor who has the build and weight of a young football player. Despite this, everyone still acts as if he's grossly fat.
21	* HoYay:
22	** Eddie mentions that he could never be with anyone he didn't love, and he's never loved anyone but the rest of the Losers. Beyond that, he and Richie have a very definite bromance. Due to some adaptation changes, such as he is unmarried and still living with his mother, has prompted some fans to wonder if Eddie was actually gay.
23	** Richie's feelings towards Eddie are also unstated, but he clearly cares deeply about his friend and is single at the time of the Losers' reunion, whereupon he spends most of his time with Eddie, similar to Ben and Beverly. After [[spoiler: Eddie's death, Richie goes into a cold rage towards It he hadn't shown even over Stan's death and Mike's near-death and is seen carrying Eddie's body over his shoulders after the final battle. Despite leaving Derry forever and losing his memories of his friends, his [[ReplacementGoldfish new partner]] in comedies is said to be suspiciously similar to Eddie]].
24	* JustHereForGodzilla:
25	** While having a modestly positive reputation overall, fans and critics alike agree the main reason to watch is Creator/TimCurry's performance.
26	** Jonathan Brandis's heartfelt performance as the young Bill in the first part is considered a close second in terms of reasons to watch.
27	** Many ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' and ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'' fans have only shown an interest in this movie just to see Seth Green play Richie.
28	%%* MemeticMolester: GUESS.
29	* MemeticMutation:
30	** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmjrqJcouIQ WUHAH! WUHAH! WUHAH!]][[labelnote:Explanation]]Pennywise [[LaughingAtYourOwnJokes laughing at his own terrible joke]] about [[ItMakesSenseInContext Prince Albert in a can]] is quite memorable.[[/labelnote]]
31	** [[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/pennywise-in-the-sewer--2 Me: jumps into the sewers]][[labelnote:Explanation]]An ImageMacro of Tim Curry's Pennywise using a temptation [[RippedFromTheHeadlines themed on real-life stress]] (e.g. "I can pay your student loans!") followed by images from [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFzAQzWGU-8 a video]] of a woman jumping into a sewer.[[/labelnote]]
32	** Speaking of sewers, the moment of Pennywise in the said sewer is also popular to the Japanese fanart community.
33	* NightmareRetardant:
34	** [[https://youtu.be/vx-BrPxdshU?t=2m6s The scene]] where Pennywise appears in the form of a dog in a clown suit. It is far too silly to be considered scary. (In the book, he was supposed to be a werewolf, but the miniseries just uses a regular-looking dog).
35	** The reveal of It's true form. From the book's EldritchAbomination that ''sort of'' resembles a giant spider (that's the closest the Losers can come to describing it) to a gangly stop-motion spider that wouldn't scare a five-year-old.
36	* QuestionableCasting: It's an odd decision to cast Creator/OliviaHussey as Bill's wife Audra. Not only is she NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent (in the book she's an American like Bill who has lost some of her accent living in the UK but regains it as soon as she returns home) but there's no resemblance between her and Annette O'Toole. It's a minor plot point in the book that Audra resembles Beverly, hinting that Bill married a ReplacementGoldfish. The miniseries keeps the sexual tension between both of them, making it odd that they don't reference this in Audra's casting.
37	* RetroactiveRecognition:
38	** Creator/SethGreen is Young Richie. Also check out young Creator/EmilyPerkins and Creator/ChelanSimmons. Both would have plenty more horror credits as they grew up.
39	** William B. Davis has a small role as the high school principal, just a few years before becoming embroiled in all sorts of supernatural goings-on in ''Series/TheXFiles''.
40	** And of course Tim Reid would be better known to 90s kids as Ray from ''Series/SisterSister''.
41	** Creator/AnnetteOToole would reach a new generation of fans as Martha Kent in ''{{Series/Smallville}}''.
42	%%* SignatureScene: The sewer sequence in the opening.
43	* SpecialEffectsFailure:
44	** The werewolf costume looks very cheap.
45	** The giant spider at the end of the movie. The true metaphysical nature of IT is only vaguely referenced. It looks very cheap and results in quite an AntiClimax. Partially justified in that the cosmic elements of the novel would be tough to replicate on the screen. The stop motion effects are pretty cheap too. Even Creator/TimCurry himself is [[CreatorBacklash not fond of the spider.]]
46	--->'''Tim Curry:''' [[NightmareRetardant It wasn't very scary. Or convincing.]]
47	** During the flashback to Georgie's death, he's sailing a paper boat on the water during a pretty intense rain - yet it's obviously a very sunny day with patches of intense sunlight between the trees. When Georgie leans over the sewer where It is, and we see Georgie from It's point of view, there's a perfectly blue sky with not a single cloud despite the "torrential rain" behind him. Mind you, rare as this is, [[RealityIsUnrealistic "Sunshowers" are real occurrences]].
48	* TearJerker:
49	** Georgie's death, of course. Immediately followed by Bill looking at an old photo album and finding an old picture of Georgie. Of course, the moment turns to NightmareFuel when the photo of Georgie ''winks'' at Bill, revealing the photo was an illusion made by Pennywise.
50	** Stan's suicide, too scared of Pennywise to even live anymore..
51	* ToughActToFollow: For some, the first part with the child actors is much more solid at building the atmosphere that the second part can't really follow. The second part features the infamous stop-motion spider.
52	* WTHCostumingDepartment: Fans have often laughed at the irony that Bill goes bald as an adult in the book, and in the miniseries not only has a full head of hair, but the most 90s grunge ponytail ever.

Context YMMV / It1990