Editorials
‘IT’ is the Rare Remake That Actually Feels Necessary
Sometimes, you have to be honest with your nostalgia.
In the wake of the IT teaser trailer hitting the net, I am incredibly excited to see Andy Muschietti’s vision for the Stephen King novel up on the big screen – but that’s an excitement that I personally felt long before I ever saw a single frame of the movie. For starters, I’m a huge fan of Mama, which proved that Muschietti is adept at making a pretty damn scary horror flick. But perhaps more importantly, I was excited that King’s novel was getting another adaptation because, well, I’m just going to come right out and say it: the book was not done any sort of justice back in 1990.
Director Tommy Lee Wallace’s lengthy miniseries adaptation of IT is easily the most beloved horror movie to ever debut on the small screen; Tim Curry’s portrayal of Pennywise, in particular, is still dishing out nightmares at a steady clip to this very day. There’s no denying that Curry was incredible in the role that Bill Skarsgard is taking over for Muschietti’s two-film adaptation, but the high points of the 1990 miniseries almost entirely begin and end with his talents.
What I’m trying to say is, there’s a reason most don’t remember much of anything about the adaptation aside from the fact that Curry, as Pennywise, was truly nightmarish. Many fans tend to have a nostalgic connection to the miniseries because they saw it when they were young, but when you revisit it in the present day, one thing becomes immediately clear: it’s a poor telling of a really great story, made iconic only by an unforgettable performance from the great character actor of a generation. Take Curry out of the mix and, well, let’s just be glad he was in it.
Of course, this is only my opinion, but a recent revisit of IT 1990 (just last year) admittedly let me wondering why the miniseries is even as beloved as it is; to an even greater extent, it left me wondering why the hell anyone was up in arms when the new adaptation was announced. And it’s not even that the special effects don’t look so great today, which many tend to hold against it when they revisit; if anything, the dated effects give the miniseries a charm that I can’t help but love. It’s more that the story is poorly conveyed and executed, the acting is shoddy, and it all around feels very much like what it is: a made-for-TV movie. It’s incredibly corny, and not just by today’s standards. And though it has its moments, it’s mostly just plain bad.
Furthermore, my most recent revisit made me realize that even Pennywise himself is poorly brought to the screen in the 1990 miniseries. Sure, Curry is fantastic and the costuming/makeup is exceptional, but Tommy Lee Wallace does a pretty bad job of actually making Pennywise scary; he’s more whimsical than he is threatening, and as a result, the incredible fear that the characters feel – both as children and later as adults – does not at all translate to what you’ve actually seen for yourself. It all comes off as being silly, awkward, and amateurish.
But my intention with this post wasn’t to sit here for an hour trashing the work Tommy Lee Wallace did back in 1990; it’s beloved for a reason, and it makes me happy that so many fans hold it so near and dear. Rather, I wanted to point to its flaws to illustrate that Stephen King’s IT, maybe more than any other iconic horror property out there, is in desperate need of a proper adaptation. As horror fans, we’ve become accustomed to perfect movies from the past being greenlit for remakes/reboots/re-adaptations, but IT is the rare film that actually warrants one. And now that I’ve seen the trailer for Muschietti’s rated R adaptation, holy shit has that become crystal clear to me.
Muschietti’s IT looks genuinely terrifying, and with King’s decades-spanning story being spread across two completely separate feature films, I’ve got a good feeling that it’s going to be done the epic justice that it has long deserved. If we’re all being honest with ourselves, the 1990 adaptation left much to be desired. And if you’re asking me, that makes it as ripe for a fresh new take as any piece of entertainment has ever been. Tommy Lee Wallace’s hands were tied when he made his TV miniseries. Muschietti, however, doesn’t appear to be holding anything back.
We may very well be in store for one of the great horror remakes of all time.
Having grown up in a religious family, Christian movie night was something that happened a lot more often than I care to admit. However, back when I was a teenager, my parents showed up one night with an unusually cool-looking DVD of a movie that had been recommended to them by a church leader. Curious to see what new kind of evangelical propaganda my parents had rented this time, I proceeded to watch the film with them expecting a heavy-handed snoozefest.
To my surprise, I was a few minutes in when Denzel Washington proceeded to dismember a band of cannibal raiders when I realized that this was in fact a real movie. My mom was horrified by the flick’s extreme violence and dark subject matter, but I instantly became a fan of the Hughes Brothers’ faith-based 2010 thriller, The Book of Eli. And with the film’s atomic apocalypse having apparently taken place in 2024, I think this is the perfect time to dive into why this grim parable might also be entertaining for horror fans.
Originally penned by gaming journalist and The Walking Dead: The Game co-writer Gary Whitta, the spec script for The Book of Eli was already making waves back in 2007 when it appeared on the coveted Blacklist. It wasn’t long before Columbia and Warner Bros. snatched up the rights to the project, hiring From Hell directors Albert and Allen Hughes while also garnering attention from industry heavyweights like Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman.
After a series of revisions by Anthony Peckham meant to make the story more consumer-friendly, the picture was finally released in January of 2010, with the finished film following Denzel as a mysterious wanderer making his way across a post-apocalyptic America while protecting a sacred book. Along the way, he encounters a run-down settlement controlled by Bill Carnegie (Gary Oldman), a man desperate to get his hands on Eli’s book so he can motivate his underlings to expand his empire. Unwilling to let this power fall into the wrong hands, Eli embarks on a dangerous journey that will test the limits of his faith.
SO WHY IS IT WORTH WATCHING?
Judging by the film’s box-office success, mainstream audiences appear to have enjoyed the Hughes’ bleak vision of a future where everything went wrong, but critics were left divided by the flick’s trope-heavy narrative and unapologetic religious elements. And while I’ll be the first to admit that The Book of Eli isn’t particularly subtle or original, I appreciate the film’s earnest execution of familiar ideas.
For starters, I’d like to address the religious elephant in the room, as I understand the hesitation that some folks (myself included) might have about watching something that sounds like Christian propaganda. Faith does indeed play a huge part in the narrative here, but I’d argue that the film is more about the power of stories than a specific religion. The entire point of Oldman’s character is that he needs a unifying narrative that he can take advantage of in order to manipulate others, while Eli ultimately chooses to deliver his gift to a community of scholars. In fact, the movie even makes a point of placing the Bible in between equally culturally important books like the Torah and Quran, which I think is pretty poignant for a flick inspired by exploitation cinema.
Sure, the film has its fair share of logical inconsistencies (ranging from the extent of Eli’s Daredevil superpowers to his impossibly small Braille Bible), but I think the film more than makes up for these nitpicks with a genuine passion for classic post-apocalyptic cinema. Several critics accused the film of being a knockoff of superior productions, but I’d argue that both Whitta and the Hughes knowingly crafted a loving pastiche of genre influences like Mad Max and A Boy and His Dog.
Lastly, it’s no surprise that the cast here absolutely kicks ass. Denzel plays the title role of a stoic badass perfectly (going so far as to train with Bruce Lee’s protégée in order to perform his own stunts) while Oldman effortlessly assumes a surprisingly subdued yet incredibly intimidating persona. Even Mila Kunis is remarkably charming here, though I wish the script had taken the time to develop these secondary characters a little further. And hey, did I mention that Tom Waits is in this?
AND WHAT MAKES IT HORROR ADJACENT?
Denzel’s very first interaction with another human being in this movie results in a gory fight scene culminating in a face-off against a masked brute wielding a chainsaw (which he presumably uses to butcher travelers before eating them), so I think it’s safe to say that this dog-eat-dog vision of America will likely appeal to horror fans.
From diseased cannibals to hyper-violent motorcycle gangs roaming the wasteland, there’s plenty of disturbing R-rated material here – which is even more impressive when you remember that this story revolves around the bible. And while there are a few too many references to sexual assault for my taste, even if it does make sense in-universe, the flick does a great job of immersing you in this post-nuclear nightmare.
The excessively depressing color palette and obvious green screen effects may take some viewers out of the experience, but the beat-up and lived-in sets and costume design do their best to bring this dead world to life – which might just be the scariest part of the experience.
Ultimately, I believe your enjoyment of The Book of Eli will largely depend on how willing you are to overlook some ham-fisted biblical references in order to enjoy some brutal post-apocalyptic shenanigans. And while I can’t really blame folks who’d rather not deal with that, I think it would be a shame to miss out on a genuinely engaging thrill-ride because of one minor detail.
With that in mind, I’m incredibly curious to see what Whitta and the Hughes Brothers have planned for the upcoming prequel series starring John Boyega…
There’s no understating the importance of a balanced media diet, and since bloody and disgusting entertainment isn’t exclusive to the horror genre, we’ve come up with Horror Adjacent – a recurring column where we recommend non-horror movies that horror fans might enjoy.
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