Pennywise: The Story of It

If you are a fan of the original TV series IT, then you must watch this fascinating 2 hour insight, I'm not going to say anymore, just watch it. It contains a lot of information you may or might not know and it's great to see how the cast have aged over the years, or in some cases it barely seems like they have.

This is a documentary that I meant to watch last October for a horror movie challenge I do every year, but life and time got away from me. I decided to sign up for Screambox for a year as they have interesting new horror movies and documentaries that I wanted to check out. This was one that I watched while working.

Now I wasn't old enough to remember when the television mini-series hit. When I started to expand my horror film base, Stephen King adaptations and reading his works was where I started. My sister and I rented this from the video store. I believe we also bought the VHS soon after. A slight problem is that I think I watched this out of order the first time. That didn't bother me too much though as I fell in love at that young age with this story.

This is a great documentary. They interview so many people behind the scenes like Tommy Lee Wallace, Lawrence D. Cohen, Bart Mixon and Richard Bellis. That is just scratching the surface. What I like here is that they give trade secrets and the issues they endured getting this made. This gets coupled with the on-screen talent like Tim Curry, Richard Thomas, Seth Green, Dennis Christopher, Richard Masur, Tim Reid and Emily Perkins. Again, that isn't everyone. We learn about how the children became friends and how they bonded with the adults to make this work seamless. It was interesting to hear the casting and the issues that they had with the network to get this to show how Wallace intended.

I would also say that this is a well-made documentary. They do well at splicing in clips, both from what aired and showing behind the scenes footage. It gives you a deeper understanding and for those that loved this mini-series, appreciation. Having checked this out now, I'm even more curious to revisit now that I know. I enjoyed my time with this quite a bit and worth a watch for fans for sure.

My Rating: 8 out of 10.

I had the opportunity to sit down and watch the 2021 documentary "Pennywise: The Story of It" here in 2024. And needless to say that I did so in a heartbeat. I needed absolutely no persuasion to sit down and watch this, as the 1990 movie "IT" is a horror classic, and a mini-series that I still love very much.

If you enjoyed the 1990 version of "IT", then you most certainly have to sit down and watch this 2021 documentary. The documentary is just a treasure trove of insight into the mini-series, the characters, the design, the actors and actresses, etc. There is just an abundance of enjoyable information being shared throughout the 126 minutes that the documentary runs for.

"Pennywise: The Story of It" has a lot of good interviews with members of the cast, people having worked on the movie in one way or the other, and everything in between. And they definitely offer some great insights into their individual and collective experience of working on the classic "IT" mini-series.

This is a MUST for fans of the mini-series, no doubt about it. And it certainly is a documentary that I warmly recommend you to sit down and watch.

My rating of "Pennywise: The Story of It" lands on a seven out of ten stars.

With someone that's always had an interest in Stephen King's works, IT was always a story that intrigued me the most. This documentary covers everything from interviews with the original cast, Tim Curry's make-up tests and behind the scenes footage. It's a documentary well overdue and surprisingly it took 22 years to make. Highly recommended!!

I've been waiting on this documentary for an age. I don't know why it took so long, but boy, it was worth the wait! I've seen many photos of behind the scenes but never any film so this was a treat. I much preferred the kids' stories in the first part (Tommy Lee Wallace) but I think that the second (Larry Cohen) suffered more for some reason even though in its day it was much easier to get away with adults being harmed. There's also a great section on John Ritter but not much of a mention of Harry Anderson but that's probably down to him sadly passing away a couple of years ago so around halfway through this production. All in all I'd highly recommend this to anyone who has an affinity to the 1990 mini-series. A great watch!