NFL
By: Rick O’Donnell
From the twisted mind of Stephen King comes the next franchise with a cult following. The bringer of fear and the reason most people have a real fear of clowns, IT is one of the classic Halloween Horror films. Why do we love this classic franchise?
IT started as a 1986 novel by King, coming in at just under 1200 pages, a bit long for a novel, but with King’s ability to dive deep into these thrillers, you can understand why. He’s an author who knows how to lay it on thick and create a deep and unsettling depiction of the horror on the page, so naturally, this one was longer than some of his other works, such as Carrie or The Body.
In 1960, seven preteen outcasts fight an evil demon that poses as a child-killing clown. Thirty years later, they reunite to stop the demon once and for all when it returns to their hometown.
While it is still a small property in terms of a full franchise, the popularity is at an all-time high, while the horror genre makes a comeback. From a book to a movie in 1990, IT became a classic horror film that resonated with a younger generation of fear. The creepiness of the killer clown Pennywise, played by Tim Curry, recognized from The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Home Alone 2, was a milder and grounded version of the character. The original film would go on to be the stuff of nightmares to people with coulrophobia. Just Google “What is the fear of clowns called?” and you’ll see a picture in the AI box of none other than Pennywise.
In 2017, with the IT: Chapter 1 reboot, director Andy Muschietti leaned a bit more into a supernatural and much more sinister version of the character to lean on fears just a bit harder. Horror had evolved, and so too must the character of Pennywise. With IT: Chapter 2 in 2019, Muschietti returned to the franchise to tell the second half of the original story. Fast forward to 2025, and HBO Max has just aired its prequel show Welcome to Derry.
Not only is IT a classic piece of the horror genre, but it also represents a relatable part of life most people can connect with, chasing down the fears and things that have haunted us for far too long and finally putting them to rest. What was once just a novel in the long library of Stephen King has now spanned 40+ years of the horror genre, proving once again why King is one of the masters of horror.
