Why Stephen King Loves The New IT Movie

Pennywise It

Many of Stephen King's novels have been adapted for the screen, but many of them don't necessarily turn out well. However, the creator of Pennywise has nothing but praise for the upcoming adaptation of It. The author says that the new movie makes you care about the characters, which is the key to making the scares work. King believes that the movie is so good it's worth seeing more than once. According to King...

I had hopes, but I was not prepared for how good it really was. It's something that's different, and at the same time, it's something that audiences are gonna relate to. They're gonna like the characters. To me, it's all about character. If you like the characters... if you care... the scares generally work. I'm sure my fans will enjoy the movie. I think they're gonna really enjoy the movie. And I think some of them will go back two or three times and actually savor the thing. I went back and saw it a second time, and I felt I was seeing things the second time through that I missed the first time.

Fans of Stephen King have their choice of film adaptations to pick from as many of the author's works have been adapted to the screen. This is even the second King adaptation in as many months, as The Dark Tower isn't even a month old. It is one of the most popular novels that King has written and so we're guessing that the author isn't the only one who has high hopes for its quality. The book is massive which makes it difficult to include everything that makes the novel great. The film has overcome that issue by only making the movie based on half the book. The book takes place in two parts and the movie will only deal with the part that takes place first, chronologically, anyway. If the first film is a success, which it sounds like Stephen King thinks is likely, a second film telling the rest of the tale is expected.

While Stephen King tends to be generally complementary to the movies based on his films, he certainly will be honest when he doesn't like something. Just look into his feelings on Stanley Kubrick's The Shining if you want to see him give a blunt response to an adaptation he thinks is bad.

These comments from Geekztor, however, are unequivocal in their praise. He's not simply being polite. If that was the case he probably wouldn't have seen the movie twice. King's comments seem to follow those of the film's early reviews, which are all calling the film terrifying. All signs are pointing to It being as good as fans are hoping.

It arrives in theaters September 8.

Dirk Libbey
Content Producer/Theme Park Beat

CinemaBlend’s resident theme park junkie and amateur Disney historian, Dirk began writing for CinemaBlend as a freelancer in 2015 before joining the site full-time in 2018. He has previously held positions as a Staff Writer and Games Editor, but has more recently transformed his true passion into his job as the head of the site's Theme Park section. He has previously done freelance work for various gaming and technology sites. Prior to starting his second career as a writer he worked for 12 years in sales for various companies within the consumer electronics industry. He has a degree in political science from the University of California, Davis.  Is an armchair Imagineer, Epcot Stan, Future Club 33 Member.