7/28/2023 0 Comments Pennywise actor bad dreamsIn my case, it started with a dare from an older sibling, and aided by parents that did not seem to mind if we rented a double VHS with a terrifying clown on the cover from our local Blockbuster. It was the first film that made me think about my own mortality and that being a kid does not mean I am safe in this world. The power of Curry’s performance is most potent if you watch as a child, which is how most people of my generation first encountered it. ![]() After that fateful night, Curry would become the reason I still don’t get too close to storm drains. When I watched IT for the first time in 1997 at a friend’s sleepover, I saw Tim Curry as just the dude from Home Alone 2 and Muppet Treasure Island, two of the greatest films of all-time according to nine-year-old me. Not to mention he was already an accomplished voice actor and stage performer, starring in the 1981 Broadway premiere of Amadeus, earning him a Tony nomination (he lost to his co-star, future wizard Ian McKellen). He also was a villain in the 1982 version of Annie, a demon in the 1985 Legend, and a mischievous butler in Clue that same year. Frank-N-Furter in the 1973 midnight cult classic, The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Curry quickly came out of the gate with the role he will probably be best remembered for: Dr. He already had a few memorable performances under his belt by 1990. The fact that it still lives on in our imaginations and continues to ruin clowns generation after generation is mostly the result of the unbelievable performance by British actor Tim Curry. Seventeen million people watched this.Īlthough it was considered a success at the time (it came in fifth in the ratings that week), in the pre-streaming, pre-social media days where people couldn’t tweet, “Holy moly did people see this scary-ass sewer clown movie last night?”, the film could have easily been forgotten in the dustbin of made-for-television King adaptations like The Tommyknockers or the Steven Weber version of The Shining. He waves at her, beckons her closer to him, and then proceeds to devour her. The little girl finds herself alone in her backyard before hearing the giggles of Pennywise ( Tim Curry). A mother calls for her young daughter to get inside from the rain before leaving her unattended. A thousand-page horror epic that features an evil space entity who crashes to Earth, takes the form of a clown, and appears every 27 years to lure children into its sewer lair and feast on them.ĭirected by Tommy Lee Wallace, the film opens on a rainy day in a wholesome neighborhood in the town of Derry, Maine. The next thing that airs that night is ABC’s Movie of the Week, which happens to be part one of an adaptation of Stephen King’s novel, It. ![]() They continue watching ABC, because we’re on a roll at this point. A show that was like America’s Funniest Home Videos but with less hits to the groin and more people making weird faces into the camera. After that show, they leave it on the same station to watch America’s Funniest People, hosted by fellow Full House co-star, Dave Coulier. A person turns on the television to ABC to watch America’s Funniest Home Videos, hosted by Full House co-star, Bob Saget. We are in year ten of the Reagan-Bush dynasty and halfway through the Gulf War. Let’s set the stage: it’s Sunday evening, November 18, 1990. Many actors have had iconic roles in these adaptations, but there is one performance that received zero awards and little critical acclaim at the time, even though it may take up the biggest real estate in our collective nightmares and single-handedly made clowns go from unsettling to terrifying monsters in the cultural zeitgeist: Pennywise, the Dancing Clown. Starting with Sissy Spacek’s star-making role in Carrie, to Kathy Bates’s Oscar winning and foot-destroying Annie Wilkes in Misery, King’s gift for writing characters that are both salt-of-the-Earth and pure evil allows the right actor with the right part to put on an absolute clinic. The pantheon of great performances in Stephen King adaptations is as large as the author’s five-decade-long bibliography. This month, we ring in the release of It: Chapter Two by exploring the various adaptations of the master of horror, Stephen King. ![]() For all its drawbacks, the 1990 miniseries boasted an instantly iconic rendition of Stephen King’s murderous clown.Įvery month, we at The Spool select a filmmaker to explore in greater depth - their themes, their deeper concerns, how their works chart the history of cinema and the filmmaker’s own biography.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |