Filmmakers John Campopiano and Christopher Griffiths explore the power of the 1990 hit miniseries, with their new documentary Pennywise: The story of IT. The documentary was featured at Panic Fest 2022, and contains interviews from stars Seth Green, Richard Thomas, Tim Reid, Richard Masur, Emily Perkins, Tommy Lee Wallace, Larry D. Cohen, Bart Mixon, Victoria Burrows, and Tim Curry.
Pennywise: The story of IT isn’t the first horror documentary from the filmmakers. Griffiths previously directed You’re So Cool, Brewster! The Story of Fright Night and Campopiano helmed the doc Unearthed & Untold: The Path to Pet Sematary. Now they have teamed up to tell the story behind the clown that scared a generation.
Ask anyone who grew up in the 90s which movie either made them a lifelong horror fan or frightened them away from the genre entirely, you’ll usually hear the IT miniseries. It was event cinema right in your home, and because it was on TV, most parents figured it would be acceptable to let kids watch. Thus making an entire generation of kids fear clowns forever.
Told in a series of chapters, the documentary explores the monumental task of bringing this 1200-plus page behemoth to the small screen through the teleplay, casting, directing, and score and making it the success it ultimately became.
Lawrence D. Cohen, coming off his successful adaption of Carrie, was approached to pen the teleplay for IT. After reading the first chapter, he stated that he was committed to the project. Then a little filmmaker named George A. Romero (Dawn of the Dead) was attached to direct an eight-hour version. When the studio got cold feet and cut it down to 4 hours, Romero walked, and Tommy Lee Wallace (Halloween 3: Season of the Witch) was brought in.
Casting was done by Victoria Burrows, and she speaks about how actors like Harvey Fierstein and Malcolm MacDowell were initially approached to play the role of Pennywise. But after a screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, they knew they needed someone who could portray the energy and fearlessness of the main character. So Tim Curry was offered and accepted the role of Pennywise the Dancing Clown. It’s hard to imagine IT without Curry, as he made the character legendary and a household name.
Pennywise: The story of IT dives deep into the cast of the “Losers Club” and how the studio wanted network stars for the roles. As they needed each to bring a specific characteristic and emotion to their characters. John Ritter brought a sense of humor, Tim Reid had the gravitas, and Richard Thomas brought the natural-born leader quality to Bill’s character. Jonathan Brandis was the first of the young actors cast in the original miniseries, and there is a lovely tribute to him through Brandon Crane, who played young Ben.
Seth Green talks about his love of King‘s books and how the adults and the child actors had to go through a boot camp. There they were tasked to create ticks or character traits that would carry from young to old, giving the audience a sense of recognition to bridge the years.
One of the biggest complaints about the IT miniseries is the terrible Space spider in the final sequence. I was happy to see it get an entire segment during this documentary. Through conceptual art, we get a glimpse of what could have been. Seeing the VFX guys working on the creature, who all had an affinity for the novel itself, being so excited was a joy to see.
As we see IT take shape, with the amount of movement and effects that were built into the puppet. You begin to feel sorry that their talents and efforts were not fully presented in the final edit. I gained a lot more respect for the Spider and the talented FX crew that brought it to life than I had previously. One of my favorite images of the documentary is John Ritter and Harry Anderson using the remote to make the head and face move while giggling like schoolboys. It was a bittersweet moment that I’m glad was included.
Through old interviews of Stephen King, the cast, crew, production stills, and new interviews, Pennywise: The story of IT is a two-hour-plus dive into the highly successful phenomena. With over 30 million viewers, IT launched careers and green-lit other King classics like The Stand, Storm of the Century, and The Shining remake. Richard Bellis won the Emmy for his incredible score as well. IT still holds a place of nostalgia and fondness because of the performances and practical effects, and Tim Curry will forever be a generation’s Pennywise. Because down here, we all float…. 4/5
We watched Pennywise: The story of IT as part of the 2022 Panic Film Festival. The film is not yet available in the US but Deadline recently announced that Cinedigm picked up the North American rights for release on TVOD platforms including Apple, Prime Video, Google and VUDU, as well as on horror streaming channel Screambox, this summer. Stay tuned to ScaryNerd for all things horror, sci-fi, fantasy and everything in between.
K.B. O’Neil is an artist, writer and musician living in Cincinnati, Ohio. He loves movies, books, video games, snuggling his two pups and all things Horror. When not working he can be found getting into adventures with his wife and their new daughter.