Old and New Review - Stephen King's It (1990 miniseries and 2017 film)

Last year, one of Stephen King's most well known novels, got itself its first film adaptation. And I can say that as the adaptation that came before it was a made for TV miniseries. That was something of which King was known for doing with many of his works. Thus making it possible for us to experience the story the way King wants you to in two ways. Normally with horror films, I tend to leave those until October time. But seeing as this was quite a big deal last year, I decided to do a review sooner than later. So let's look at the most terrifying and murderous clown there is (apart from Ronald Mcdonald that is):

1990 Miniseries

As it is with many Stephen King stories, the place that they are mostly set in is Maine. The year is 1960 and a group of kids join up to create the Losers club and all share a thing or two in common. They all get bullied by a group of bullies led by Henry Bowers (played by Michael Cole) as well as encountering a terrifying clown known as Pennywise. When Pennywise (who is later called It) starts to kill people, the kids use their imaginations to take him down. But its going to take more than their imaginations to do just that. As a miniseries, its pretty good. Tim Curry is a perfect fit for Pennywise and while its seen nowadays as a silly and camp miniseries, it would have been very terrifying at the time it was shown on TV. It probably also started the whole idea of people being scared of clowns and making clown entertainers get less business. But despite that, its a very good adaptation and while I've not read any King novels, I'm sure it was faithful to the source material in some capacity. 9/10

2017 Film

So rather than do a complete adaptation of the story, the filmmakers at Warner Bros. decided to split the story in two with this film focused on the children and the next film focused on the characters 30 years later. In other words, its the same story as the miniseries. Just split into two. And stars one of the Stranger Things kids as well. The film feels very much like the miniseries again, but goes above and beyond it by including some new elements of fear and terror which work great visually. Also the jumpscares that the film has (in a time where jumpscares are predictable) are well timed and despite being as silly as the miniseries, it is still pretty scary. Let's hope the sequel continues this level of scariness. 9/10

As far as completeness is concerned, the miniseries tells the complete story whereas the film tells only half of the story. But in the film's defence, its visually great and has well timed jumpscares and very creative uses of Pennywise's tricks. Though in the miniseries, it is scary but scary in a way that can be tolerable and just silly by today's standards. So I am saying that its a tie. The miniseries is a great adaptation, but so is the film despite telling only half of the story. But where it lacks a complete story, it makes up with great visuals and uses for Pennywise and his tricks as previously mentioned. Check them out and judge them for yourselves.