Mandatory Movies for Halloween, Part 1: IT

I’ve been meaning to watch the DVD of It. We got this years ago, but this is one movie my now-grown kids won’t go anywhere near, not even as a joke. (You should’ve seen their faces when this got unwrapped that Christmas morning. Priceless!) 

Ah, Tim Curry. From playing Dr. Frank N. Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show to a young Shakespeare (saw this on PBS) to the devil-villain in Legend to the 1990 TV Movie That Ruined Clowns for an Entire Generation. Reportedly Curry was so creepy as Pennywise the Clown the film crew gave him a wide berth while working on the set. For all Curry has done, this is the role he’ll be remembered for — even more than that sweet transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania. There’s a vibe Tim Curry broadcasts through all that makeup and costuming that yanks, rings, and buzzes every fight-flight alarm in one’s nervous system.

Consider: Curry was in this three-hour miniseries for 

Even recut as a “family-friendly movie” trailer, it’s still unnerving. As a 1990 made-for-TV movie it doesn’t have much, if any in the way of ultraviolent gore, but you could do worse.