Why is IT so much more popular than many other King books?

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César Hernández-Meraz

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I guess that would make sense so that they'd know which back titles are worth reprinting.

All of them, if you ask me. Although no one is asking me. ;;D

(And yeah, I get that publishers need to have a certain confidence on the money they would get back after reprinting before deciding to. Still would be nice to always have all of his books in circulation.)
 

thekidd12

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Perhaps because those child actors are so good that their performances transport us (those of us who were kids back around that time era anyway) back in time? Those kids were very believable in their roles. Tim Curry as Pennywise is also another reason that it holds up today- he brings the menace to the role, but he also brings the glee that Pennywise has and he plays it to the hilt, but never crosses the line to where you're laughing at him.
I think the entire cast had a lot to do with the popularity of the mini series. I watched it when it first aired.

At the time Richard Thomas, John Ritter, Harry Anderson, Tim Reid and Tim Curry all were huge on TV and/or stage. Richard Masur and Annette O'Toole were recognizable actors as well.

Yes it was rather tame and innocent by today's standards. But some of the best suspenseful movies do not need blood and gore to scare the !@#$ out of you.

Slasher movies like Texas Chainsaw never appealed to me. The build up of tension is what frightens both children and adults alike. Think that is what made the first Nightmare on Elm Street so interesting. It was a mixture of both.

Once the boogeyman has a face, no longer just a bumping sound in the night, he can be dealt with. Thought Curry's portrayal was true to the book itself.


And c'mon he's a clown!! They scary anywhere, anytime.
 

grin willard

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The epic size and scope of the novel, the iconography of Tim Curry's Pennywise, et cetera.

Personally, I think It is a 5-star novel but isn't one of my faves. Weird.

Pennywise. :ambivalence: Really? Oh, he just gets you all girly & giggly. It's like you people went to a boat show, met guest celebrity David Hasselhoff, got day drunk with him at the Ramada Inn bar, ended up getting rogered in the back of his rental car, took the walk of shame back to your Ford Fiesta, now, lo these many years later, you find yerself having to explain odd lapses of time because you're driving hundreds of miles out of your way from your cashier job at STUCKIES, to every boat show you can find within a four state radius!!! I ask you, why not this guy?


Y'know, I wasn't going to put this up. But you deserve it! You deserve it all day long!

h07Vgo9.gif
 
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carrie's younger brother

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I think the entire cast had a lot to do with the popularity of the mini series. I watched it when it first aired.

At the time Richard Thomas, John Ritter, Harry Anderson, Tim Reid and Tim Curry all were huge on TV and/or stage. Richard Masur and Annette O'Toole were recognizable actors as well.
I too watched it when it first aired. For me it was exactly the opposite: other than Tim Curry I couldn't stand any of these actors in any of the previous things they had done. Therefore I was very disappointed when I heard they had been cast.
 

Gerald

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My problem with the mini-series was that the clown looked so ordinary. Just an actor in a clownsuit, there was nothing scary about it for me.
He looks weirder in the remake.

I think It would be best served with a series like 11.22.63. The three hours of the mini-series was too short, and what will the length of the new movie be - two hours for each part at most? Still seems short.

But with 11.22.63 which is also a long book, although not quite as long as It, they did it in 8 episodes. Maybe a couple more would be right for It. Just a well produced tv-show with good actors like 11.22.63 and with more gore and mature content than the ABC mini-series.
 

thekidd12

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I too watched it when it first aired. For me it was exactly the opposite: other than Tim Curry I couldn't stand any of these actors in any of the previous things they had done. Therefore I was very disappointed when I heard they had been cast.
The Waltons? John Boy?

Night Court?

Three's Company?

WKRP in Cincinnati?

C'mon man you didn't like any of those?

You just blew up some of my young life with that.
 

thekidd12

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[QUOTE/] with more gore and mature content [/QUOTE]

That goes to what I was trying to say last night. Some of the most highly regarded horror/suspense movies of all time did not rely on gore and mature content to scare us.

Hitchcock was great. Psycho,Vertigo,Rear Window, those stupid Birds. You can watch them on a bright Saturday afternoon and still get goosebumps.

The Sixth Sense always bothers me.

Heck Jaws didn't show the shark really until the end.

I never developed a taste for the slasher style films. Last one I saw in the theater was the original Halloween. Would have left if Jamie Lee hadn't been in it. Wait already discussed that elsewhere on board.
 

carrie's younger brother

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The Waltons? John Boy?

Night Court?

Three's Company?

WKRP in Cincinnati?

C'mon man you didn't like any of those?

You just blew up some of my young life with that.
The Waltons? John Boy? Hahahahahahahaha!!!! :rofl: No.

Night Court? Watched it but never like Anderson. Watched it for John Larroquett & the assorted bailiffs.

Three's Company? I watched it but couldn't stand John Ritter.

WKRP in Cincinnati? Watched it for Gary Sandy's tight jeans and the posters on the walls of the groups I liked at the time. Reid was ok. Howard Hesseman was cool. Loni Anderson was brilliant on this show.
 

thekidd12

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The Waltons? John Boy? Hahahahahahahaha!!!! :rofl: No.

Night Court? Watched it but never like Anderson. Watched it for John Larroquett & the assorted bailiffs.

Three's Company? I watched it but couldn't stand John Ritter.

WKRP in Cincinnati? Watched it for Gary Sandy's tight jeans and the posters on the walls of the groups I liked at the time. Reid was ok. Howard Hesseman was cool. Loni Anderson was brilliant on this show.
OK agree with most of what you say but the Waltons, early on in the show like so many others, was good wholesome entertainment. For nine years was a consistent performer for CBS, always in top 10 of shows watched. Richard Thomas was known ny everyone in the 70s.

Larroquette was good on Night Court but it was Anderson's show.

Three's Company-OK got nothing except people like to watch jiggle.

KRP? Fine ensemble cast in my opinion. "As God is my witness I thought turkeys could fly" is one of the funniest things I ever heard.

Anyway my point in original post on subject still holds up. The cast was made up of actors from very successful shows who were easily recognizable to the public.

Also it was based on a King book so you had to watch.
 

Gerald

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with more gore and mature content

That goes to what I was trying to say last night. Some of the most highly regarded horror/suspense movies of all time did not rely on gore and mature content to scare us.

Hitchcock was great. Psycho,Vertigo,Rear Window, those stupid Birds. You can watch them on a bright Saturday afternoon and still get goosebumps.

The Sixth Sense always bothers me.

Heck Jaws didn't show the shark really until the end.

I never developed a taste for the slasher style films. Last one I saw in the theater was the original Halloween. Would have left if Jamie Lee hadn't been in it. Wait already discussed that elsewhere on board.

No, I like horror and suspense without gore a lot too, and sometimes more because it leaves more to the imagination. But It (and King in general) is quite graphic, it starts with Georgie's arm getting ripped off.
 

Gerald

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with more gore and mature content

... those stupid Birds...

Heck Jaws didn't show the shark really until the end.

The Birds is quite graphic by Hitchcock's standards. There are a number of attacks by the birds that are quite vicious, mostly the one on Tippi Hedren in the attic near the end - that scene reminds me of Lucio Fulci's style (he often had these scenes of people attacked by animals with lots of close-ups).


The reason why the shark was not shown until the end was actually by mistake. The plan was to show it more often, but the mechanical shark malfuntioned constantly, so Spielberg had to be creative and suggest it rather than show it. An example of a mistake making a film better.

But even Jaws has its gory moments. The highlight everyone talks about is when the corpse falls out of the sunken boat. And there are a couple of others like a bitten off leg floating to the bottom of the sea:

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/1e/06/b8/1e06b8802c99c9ddfe4998a0cb3a45b3.jpg

Even though Jaws does rely a lot on suggestion in a movie about a killer shark you GOT to show some violence at a certain point.
 
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