I’d rather choose a childhood nightmare

It, 1990.
Directed by Tommy Lee Wallace

It will not be probably surprising if I write that this film made my childhood a little traumatic. I hate clowns. They are not funny for me and they seem to conceal licentious cruelty under the mask of white powder. I have never understood how parents can take their children to a circus or throw birthday parties for them where a clown plays main role. Perhaps I should not be so intolerant and take into account that not everybody has seen It based on Stephen King’s novel. I did. I was about eight then. Mum, although not so tolerant about reading Bravo magazine (another trauma…), did not oppose strongly when I watched horrors. Do not think that I am trying to judge her parenting methods (anyway, I am now a great woman;) but! Parents, you should really care what your children watch. I should confess that I have been regularly haunted by some scenes from this movie. They are great, hair-raising and there would be no shame if they were classified as ones of the best horror scenes ever. The worst thing is that I had no chance to watch the film ‘till the end as my mother finally lost her patience and sent me to bed (the film is really long, and if I am not wrong, they have changed it into miniseries). Unfortunately, the horror has not finished for me and the dreadful clown had stayed alive in my memory. Until yesterday. After twenty years I decided to face my childhood nightmare. Now I wish I hadn’t…

This is also the main film motif: face your fear, recognise and overcome your anxieties. You can guess that King does not provide us with simple answers. It is not all about killing and flaying. King’s inside look at our shameful fears is not skin-deep. He examines them closely and brings them to light.

The plot is as follows: in an American town children are kidnapped and murdered under unexplained circumstances. The police fail to find the reason or culprit of the tragic incidents. At the same time the group of teenagers is troubled by a demonic clown who seems to know perfectly what children are afraid of and knows how to use this knowledge. First, young people are not sure if the clown is real or if it is only for their vivid imagination which plays tricks on them. But when they finally conclude that they see the same creature, they decide to fight with it. They succeed in annihilating IT. But too bad after thirty years the child murderer returns to the town. The evil busters, who are now adult, also decide to come back to the hometown and wipe IT out once and for all.

The story is trivial. The acting and directing – rather bad. The end – disappointing (now I know that mum was right). But my memories and the film’s power of influence is cannot leave me indifferent. A clown represents everything what we were afraid of when were children. It embodies all the evil lurking around every bend in children’s seemingly simple lives. Little men are afraid not only of wolves and bad clowns. They often fear their parents wreaking their anger on them and their classmates scoffing at them in front others. They also fear they will not be loved and accepted. And I am sure that here is no need to convince anybody that one of the worst fears is that of physical violence but we must remember that pain inflicted upon a soul could be as deep as that inflicted upon a body.

So now the clown is not as scary for me as it used to be and serves rather as a symbol. But I have been left with a life fear which is closer, more real and more perceptible…  

I am curious what your childhood memories are. Please share.

My rating:  4/6