🎈 IT (1990 Miniseries) – Balloons Aren’t Scary, Clowns Shouldn’t Be This Easy to Beat


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Lets start by showing y’all the trailers shall we?

📖 Non-Spoiler Overview

The 1990 IT miniseries adapts Stephen King’s doorstopper novel into a two-part TV event. On paper, it covers everything: kids versus Pennywise in the 1960s, adults returning to Derry 27 years later to finish the fight. In execution? It’s neutered horror, goofy scares, and way too much soap opera melodrama.

The premise: a shape-shifting alien demon lives in Derry’s sewers, feeding on children by taking the form of their worst fears. Its signature disguise is Pennywise the Dancing Clown — red hair, chalk-white skin, purple-striped shirt, yellow pants, and a big red nose. Instead of terrifying, though, this Pennywise often feels like a circus reject with bad one-liners.


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👥 Character Rundown

Bill Denbrough (Jonathan Brandis / Richard Thomas) – The stuttering leader, still grieving Georgie.

Georgie – The little brother in a yellow raincoat whose paper boat floats into tragedy.

Ben Hanscom (Brandon Crane / John Ritter) – Bullied for his weight as a kid; grows into a successful architect.

Beverly Marsh (Emily Perkins / Annette O’Toole) – Abused at home as a child, trapped in an abusive marriage as an adult.

Richie Tozier (Seth Green / Harry Anderson) – Loudmouth comic relief. Glasses, orange hair, and more annoying than scary.

Eddie Kaspbrak (Adam Faraizl / Dennis Christopher) – Germaphobic, weak constitution, easily spooked by gross things.

Mike Hanlon (Marlon Taylor / Tim Reid) – The only Black kid in Derry (with a family targeted by racism). As an adult, he stays behind as librarian and “memory keeper.”

Stanley Uris (Ben Heller / Richard Masur) – The Jewish kid whose adult storyline ends tragically.

Henry Bowers (Jarred Blancard) – Racist, sadistic bully turned adult failure.



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⏱️ Pacing & Flow

The miniseries drags — scenes stretch with awkward pauses, and Pennywise rarely attacks. He just pops up, turns into a fear, cracks a joke, and poofs away. There’s no escalation, no sense of dread. And when the adults take over in part two, the pacing slows even more, leaning into melodrama rather than terror.


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✅ Pros

Tim Curry, even when misused, gives an iconic performance.

Practical effects have charm, even when they age badly.

The structure respects King’s two-timeline setup.



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❌ Cons

Balloons everywhere. They never land as scary.

The adult storyline is lifeless, padded, and undermines tension.

Pennywise feels more like a prankster than a predator.

Dialogue that belongs in a sitcom, not a horror story.

The giant spider finale is pure cheese.



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💭 My Perspective

Here’s where I stand: I’ve never cared much about the adult side of this story — not in this miniseries, not even in the later films. The adult portions always drag, weighed down with flashbacks, melodrama, and awkward attempts at scares. Here it’s even worse:

Stan’s fridge head cracking jokes instead of terrifying.

The Chinese restaurant fortune cookie scene is laughably bad.

Richie’s library balloon scene is more clown gag than horror.

The spider finale looks like a rejected Power Rangers monster-of-the-week.


By the time the adults reunite, all the tension fizzles out. The kids’ section has at least a spooky atmosphere; the adult part feels like a bad soap opera with Halloween props.

And Pennywise himself? I don’t find him scary here. At all. He’s goofy — too many bad puns, too much mugging at the camera. I always felt like the Losers could’ve grabbed a baseball bat and just wailed on him. The 2017 film gave Pennywise menace. This one gives him pratfalls.


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⭐ Rating: 4/10


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⚠️ Spoiler Warning

Down here in the sewer, it’s all balloons, spiders, and sitcom dialogue.


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💀 Spoilers

Opening: Georgie’s paper boat floats into the drain, Pennywise appears, lures him with promises… then censors cut away before any real horror happens. Georgie’s funeral follows.

Childhood Encounters: Each Loser faces their fear: Beverly’s bloody sink balloon, Ben’s dead dad, Richie’s werewolf, Stan’s mummy, Bill’s ghostly Georgie. Pennywise snarls, drops a joke, and leaves. No real danger.

First Defeat: The kids use battery acid against Pennywise, forcing him to retreat. They make a blood oath to return if IT ever comes back.

27 Years Later: The adults reconnect after Mike calls them. Stan commits suicide rather than face IT again. At their Chinese restaurant reunion, fortune cookies turn into gross-out gags (an eyeball, random nonsense). Not scary.

Stan’s Talking Head: His severed head appears in the fridge and… cracks jokes about Richie’s nose job and Eddie’s sex life. Terrifying? Nope. It’s basically a sitcom gag.

Henry Bowers: Pennywise breaks him out of the asylum by appearing as a clown with a dog’s head. Yes, a dog’s head. Henry attacks Mike, injures him, and dies pointlessly.

Balloon Mayhem: Richie faces a flood of balloons at the library — they pop into blood splatters only he can see.

Final Battle: The Losers face IT’s “true form” — a giant spider. Eddie gets killed by being picked up, and the others… push the spider over and rip out its heart. Done. Just like that.



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👉 Verdict: The IT miniseries is remembered mostly for Tim Curry’s clown — not the scares, not the story. For me, the adult section has always been a slog in every adaptation, and here it’s practically unwatchable. Pennywise isn’t frightening; he’s goofy. This isn’t horror — it’s Halloween camp with balloons.