23. IT (#42)

Clowns. Scary, right? Well this week on The Rotten Horror Picture Show, we’re spending some time floating with the granddaddy of scary clowns, the monstrous Pennywise, as we head into the sewers of 2017’s IT! The second adaptation of Stephen King’s sprawling love letter to childhood and the horrors of nostalgia, It is a raucous roller coaster, and a pretty darn slick studio monster movie that’s already on its way to becoming a modern day classic!

Seven young outcasts in Derry, Maine, are about to face their worst nightmare — an ancient, shape-shifting evil that emerges from the sewer every 27 years to prey on the town’s children. Banding together over the course of one horrifying summer, the friends must overcome their own personal fears to battle the murderous, bloodthirsty clown known as Pennywise. He of the balloon carrying variety.

Join Clay and Amanda as they get into the finer points of a literal new kid on the block who likes The New Kids On The Block, creepy-ass clown church, Munchausen by proxy, munch-GEORGIE by proxy, headless easter egg hunts, and…well that seems to sum it all up, no other things to really cover here in this sectio-PSYCHE! Of COURSE there’s questionable parenting, Stephen King refuses to leave home without it!

Tasked with taking a very long novel that spans two time periods and distilling it down to a slick, scary, summer blockbuster is no easy task, but the filmmakers behind IT managed to pull it off admirably. Focusing on the kids, the heart of the story, and giving you some solid scares, backed by a classic monster performance from Bill Skarsgaard as Pennywise, IT definitely made its mark on kids young and old. So make sure your hair to winter fire, January embers, and let your heart burn there with us too…if you DARE!