Editorials
Stephen King’s ‘It’ Really Doesn’t Hold Up That Well
Twenty six years ago today, the first half of the two-part miniseries adaptation of Stephen King’s It premiered on ABC. It followed the children of the Losers Club as they were beset upon by Pennywise the Clown, who kills Georgie, the younger brother of leader Bill. The second part aired two nights later, focusing on the adults of the Losers Club and their attempt to vanquish Pennywise, the alias of the titular character. Directed by Tommy Lee Wallace, who co-wrote the film along with Lawrence Cohen, the event was a smash success upon premiere with the first part landing the fifth most watched program in that time slot and the second part was the second highest viewed program.
I hadn’t seen the film in about 15 or so years and I remember thinking very little of it. As I mentioned at the end of my revisit with the 2005 remake of The Amityville Horror, it’s worth coming back to something you don’t like when you have a different mindset and different life experiences. Perhaps what didn’t bring enjoyment at one point of your life will at a different point. Alas, It doesn’t fall under that category.
The first half of the film deals primarily with the Losers Club as children, introducing them one at a time and focusing on their connection to Pennywise. This is definitely the stronger half as the child actors are damn good and there is a lot of exciting events going on throughout the runtime. When Pennywise isn’t scaring everyone half to death, there are the perils of simply being a child: overprotective or abusive parents, bullies, and small town life where racism is alive and well (remember, this part takes place in the mid-50’s), as well as the towns folk seemingly doing their best to ignore the rash of child deaths.
Still, it must be said that the first half also feels terribly disjointed. It’s great getting to know these kids but the way it’s done makes it feel like we’re getting the smallest of snippets and there aren’t really any solid connecting lines. There’s a lot of awkward attempts to tie everything together but the film does itself a disservice by constantly jumping back and forth between the two timelines. Since they knew it was going to be two parts, they could’ve done what New Line Cinema is doing now, which is to have the first film focus 100% on the children while the second film focuses entirely on the adults. We all know how flashbacks can become really annoying and frustrating and that’s precisely the problem with the It miniseries.
The second half is more problematic because the film loses its flow and rhythm, coming to a grinding halt when the Losers club reconvenes as adults per the request of Mike Hanlon, who tells them that “It” has come back. They proceed to bicker and quibble about what they’re going to do. If they’re not doing that, they’re swapping random stories, eating Chinese food, and drinking booze. It just feels like all sense of urgency is lost, even though they each encountered a version of Pennywise who warned them to leave before it was too late. Eddie Murphy must’ve had a field day with that.
Plus, we all know that the climax of the film looks atrocious. I realize that this was before CGI was affordable and exceptional (although Terminator 2: Judgment Day came out less than a year later…) but this was also after John Carpenter’s The Thing, so we know how good practical FX could be. The spider-thing was a damn disgrace and its design is laughable at best.
Furthermore, the way the movie was filmed just feels like it’s made for TV. And yes, I realize that it was but c’mon now! Just look at “Twin Peaks”, which was on air in 1991 and was most likely filmed around the same time as It and you’ll see a stark difference in visual quality. It just felt cheaper, even though it was a big event for ABC. After all, King’s “It” was the best-selling novel of 1986, according to Publisher’s Weekly.
Even Pennywise, who is played expertly by Tim Curry, ends up looking bad at points simply because of how he’s shot. To make him scary, the film resorts all too often on close-ups of his face, especially when he’s got those sharp disgusting fangs. It just feels lazy, especially considering the amazing potential that was there throughout the story.
Watching the film with today’s eyes, it’s hard to understand why there is resistance to the upcoming remake from Andy Muschietti. King’s story has a great deal of opportunity within and getting a multi-million dollar studio production is rather exciting! And yes, I realize that Bill Skarsgard isn’t Tim Curry, so Pennywise will be totally different. Then again, Heath Ledger wasn’t Jack Nicholson. Kane Hodder wasn’t Richard Brooker. There are great remakes and there are shitty ones, just like there are great horror movies to counteract the really bad drivel that gets put out without a second thought.
It was a major event in its day but that time has come and gone. We now have much better technology to make something grander and far scarier than what was previously given. I look at It and see potential for something greater. Because I’m an optimistic kinda fella (I promise you, I really am), I’m allowing myself to be cautiously optimistic about Muschietti’s film. But you better believe I’ll speak my honest opinion about it once it’s released.
Until that day comes, “Beep beep, Richie!”
It’s been 75 years since The Thing From Another World first warned us to “watch the skies”, and filmgoers have done just that by showing up to multiple instances of extraterrestrial contact on the big screen. This makes sense, as a recent CBS news poll estimated that 63% of Americans believe in intelligent life on other planets, and the ongoing disclosure movement aims to raise that number with each passing day.
With Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day leaving many genre fans hungry for more alien footage (preferably of the spooky variety), today I’d like to share a list recommending six underrated alien invasion thrillers for your viewing pleasure. After all, regardless of whether or not you believe that we’re alone in the universe, it can be fun to dream about the worst-case scenario if our cosmic neighbors ever decide to visit.
For the purposes of this list, we’ll be focusing on lesser-known invasion stories rather than the popular extraterrestrials of franchises like Alien and Close Encounters of the Third (or even Fourth) Kind. That being said, don’t forget to comment below with your own alien favorites if you think we missed a particularly thrilling movie.
While it won’t be featured in this article, I’d highly recommend checking out Dean Alioto’s UFO Abduction/The McPherson Tape if you’re up for some ufology-inspired found footage thrills.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
6. The Arrival (1996)
Not to be confused with Denis Villeneuve’s Academy Award-winning Amy Adams vehicle about learning to communicate peacefully with extraterrestrial life, David Twohy’s The Arrival is a much more straightforward (but no less entertaining) genre romp where Charlie Sheen faces a global conspiracy involving hostile alien invaders.
It’s not exactly up there with Close Encounters or even Independence Day, but Twohy’s conspiratorial thriller plays out like an exceptionally fun episode of The X-Files that I’d recommend to sci-fi/horror fans who don’t mind a little bit of wonky CGI and 90s excess alongside their alien thrills.
5. Extraterrestrial (2014)
The Vicious Brothers made a name for themselves with the success of 2011’s Grave Encounters, but that was far from the Canadian duo’s only collaboration. And while it’s not exactly a fan favorite, I always point out 2014’s Extraterrestrial as one of their most underrated projects simply because I agree with the filmmakers’ opinion that there aren’t enough ‘cool alien abduction movies’ out there.
Admittedly, the majority of the picture functions like a run-of-the-mill creature feature with paper-thin characters and familiar horror tropes, but I’d argue that the cosmically-terrifying final act elevates the experience to new and memorable heights. The movie also boasts great performances by both Michael Ironside and Emily Perkins – a combination that more than makes up for the occasionally janky CGI.
4. Alien Raiders (2008)
Director Ben Rock has gone on record lamenting how his John-Carpenter-inspired creature feature was forcefully renamed from Supermarket to the painfully obvious Alien Raiders (a change which likely resulted in many potential viewers skipping out on the experience), but the new title doesn’t change the fact that this single-location thriller is something of a hidden gem.
Taking place entirely within a supermarket, Alien Raiders tells the story of an ensemble of customers and employees who are taken hostage by a group of armed men looking for something far more dangerous than an easy payout. I won’t get into details in order to avoid spoiling the experience, but I’d highly recommend this criminally underseen flick to fans of John Carpenter and the Resident Evil games.
3. Phoenix Forgotten (2017)
You’d think that a Ridley-Scott-produced retelling of one of the most infamous real-life UFO sightings of all time would have a bigger following, but I rarely see Justin Barber’s Found Footage period piece brought up during discussions about extraterrestrial-focused horror movies.
This is a huge shame, as Phoenix Forgotten is just as spooky as it is convincing, with this well-researched dive into the Phoenix Lights incident benefiting from surprisingly believable special effects as well as an appropriately horrific finale.
2. Communion (1989)
I wouldn’t blame you for disregarding Whitley Strieber’s controversial book about his alleged close encounter as sensationalist slop, but I’d argue that Phillipe Mora’s 1989 adaptation of these events is much better than the source material. After all, the movie works as a standalone piece of speculative fiction while also benefiting from an incredible performance by the one and only Christopher Walken!
Mora’s take on Communion may not be particularly scary, but the film is still an unforgettable character study regardless of whether or not the abduction really happened. Not only that, but the flick also paved the way for plenty of future sci-fi stories where the extraterrestrial invaders aren’t as evil as they initially appear.
1. Altered (2006)
Originally envisioned as a Sam Raimi-style horror-comedy titled Probed, Eduardo Sánchez (of The Blair Witch Project fame) eventually realized that it would be much more interesting to turn the film into a serious exploration of the emotional aftermath of a traumatic abduction incident.
That’s how we got Altered, a clever inversion of the standard abduction narrative that follows a group of troubled friends as they capture and experiment on an alien in order to enact revenge for their own abduction years prior.
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