Along with numerous other horror novels, Stephen King was the mastermind behind It. His book, released in the ’80s, was over 1000 pages long and split into two distinct halves, detailing the distressing lives of a group of kids haunted by a creature most commonly appearing as a killer clown known as Pennywise, and then their continued torment as adults.
When the rebooted film adaptations came out in 2017 and 2019 they were split into two parts, the first was pretty well-loved, and the second was panned extensively. They also changed a lot of things. We’ve collected the ten biggest differences between the movies and the novel.
The Timeline
As the book was written and released during the 1980s, the ‘present’ back then was indeed the 1980s. When the book was first converted into a film quite soon after, the ‘present’ remained the 1980s. However, this time around, the film’s ‘present’ was the late 2010s.
In updating this part of the timeline, the childhood element of the main characters’ lives ended up being set in the 1980s, when it was the 1950s previously.
Removing A Controversial Incident
Stephen King was no stranger to injecting some exceptionally dramatic controversy into his work. He was a fan of creating as much tension, violence, psychological trauma and brutality as possible. See Rage, Misery and The Shining, for a couple of examples.
However, one of the things we’re glad ended up getting cut from the first film was the business in the sewer. In the novel, King had all of the boys be intimate with Beverly as, apparently, a way to unify them all and help their escape attempt.
Of the original scene, King says “I wasn’t really thinking of the sexual aspect of it… The sexual act connected childhood and adulthood. It’s another version of the glass tunnel that connects the children’s library and the adult library. Times have changed since I wrote that scene and there is now more sensitivity to those issues.”
It’s Gender
Something that is never mentioned in the films is the gender of It. Referring to It as ‘him’ seems to make sense, because he looks like and sounds like a man, and is played by a male actor. However, the books don’t skim over this detail, making it very clear that It is actually female.
In the second half of the book, the group discovers that she had laid eggs in the sewer, making sure to kill the strange clown-alien children as quickly as possible.
Stan’s Decision
One of the more harrowing and dramatic reveals in It is that Stan took his own life as soon as he discovered that their childhood demon was returning. In the film, we get the closure of his letter, which explains why he did what he did. As it happens in the film’s opening moments, it probably wouldn’t have been well-received if we ended up learning basically nothing about it.
In the books, however, none of this closure is really provided. Stan dies, and that’s about it. No note, no explanation and no return to his story. This leaves a strange air of uncertainly around the situation.
The Final Moments
As they are massive Hollywood blockbusters, the It films had to satisfy as many crowds as they possibly could. Those who wanted horror were covered throughout, but comedy was everywhere and love reared its head. People also crave a happy ending.
As such, It 2 ends with the gang remaining friends and remembering all of their experiences. Stephen King obviously doesn’t care so much about that sort of thing, and ended his book by implying that they all forgot about it once more and drifted apart.
George’s Fate
The opening scene of the first It film depicts George being sucked into a drain by a creepy clown with a red balloon, and we never really see him (alive) again. It is implied from this that It himself just swallowed him whole, effectively killing him instantly.
This might well have been another way for the films to slightly decrease the brutality of King’s original work, because the books actually mention George’s corpse, with one arm gone. This suggests that It played with his food a little.
The Ritual
One of the big problems with horror films is the explanation. All of the tension and build-up is brilliant, but at some point, the writers have to explain what is going on. Typically, it is some loosely connected tale of demons and mythical magic, and that is exactly what is suggested in It.
However, in the films, the so-called Ritual Of Chud doesn’t work at all, the characters waste their time preparing for it, and then they carry on as if nothing ever happened. The book actually shows the ritual working, though a lot of crazy stuff happens soon after.
The Turtle
As mentioned, Stephen King is a pretty weird guy with a lot of incredibly creative but very weird ideas. It’s length arguably gave him too much space to be creative.
During one of his more dramatic bouts of weirdness, he sent Bill on an adventure through time and space, during which he meets a… turtle! Apparently this turtle created the universe. Very interesting but certainly a welcome removal from the films.
It’s Transformation
Another issue of creating a film comes in the depiction of It when he transforms his shape a multitude of times when down in the sewer. On-screen, you sort of have to keep your audience aware of what’s happening.
If It had suddenly gone full-spider, someone who looked down to grab some popcorn might look back up and think an entirely new villain had appeared on-screen. As such, the films make sure the spider version still has a clown face, while the book didn’t bother.
Richie And Eddie
In King’s original book, there are a couple of hints here and there of a certain chemistry between Richie and Eddie. Who likes who and if anyone acted on anything is never confirmed in any way, and by the time they’re adults, everyone seems to be firmly straight. However, the films take a different approach.
In It: Chapter 2, Richie’s backstory is built on the fact that he is gay and was certainly in love with Eddie. His jokes are simply reflections on his own attempts to cover his sexuality. Tragically, Eddie dies before Richie gets the chance to say anything.
