Warning: Spoilers aplenty for both IT movie and Stephen King’s novel.
After months of eager anticipation, the latest adaptation of Stephen King’s IT finally hit screens on September 8 and it didn’t disappoint. The movie manages to capture the tone and spirit of King’s 1986 opus. However, condensing a novel sitting around 1,100 pages into a movie that clocks in at two hours and 15 minutes are always going to be a Herculean task. So it comes as no surprise that there are quite a few deviations and omissions in the Andy Muschietti movie.
Here are some of the major differences between IT (2017) movie and King’s bestseller of the same name:
The Time Period
In the Stephen King classic, The Losers’ Club encounter their fears for the first time between 1957 and 1958. Whereas in IT movie, the story takes place in the late 1980s in order to make it more relatable to present day audience.
Moreover, this shift in The Time period means that the movie’s sequel IT: Chapter 2 will take place in the modern day.
Mike Hanlon
The story of Mike Hanlon has been tweaked the most when it comes to The Losers’ Club members. The book notes that Mike’s parents are actually alive. In fact, the book also mentions that Mike’s dad has a rivalry with Butch, Henry Bowers’ father, which is why Henry despises Mike so much.
On the other hand, the film adaptation shows that Mike’s parents died in a fire mishap and now he works for his grandfather on the Hanlon family farm, reluctantly killing sheep with a bolt-gun.
The Infamous Orgy Scene
In the novel, after defeating IT, the kids get lost in the sewer tunnels on their way out. In order to find their way back, Beverly suggests that the each of the boys should have sex with her.
What follows is a ten-page detailed account of each boy of the gang losing their virginity and entering manhood, through Beverly.
Once all of them had sex, one of the boys immediately remembers the way out and the kids finally escape. However, in the movie, the gang manages to safely get outside the sewer system without getting lost; and it’s not hard to figure out why the moviemakers decided to leave out the entire scene.
In 2013, Stephen King had released a statement through his fan site regarding the controversial scene. “I wasn’t really thinking of the sexual aspect of it… The sexual act connected childhood and adulthood. It’s another version of the glass tunnel that connects the children’s library and the adult library,” he writes on stephenking.com.
“Times have changed since I wrote that scene and there is now more sensitivity to those issues,” he adds.
Beverly Marsh
The book portrays Beverly as Bill, Eddie, Richie and Stan’s close friend since childhood - so the boys don’t go weak in the knees when she’s around. The only guy who is head over heels in love with Bev in the story is Ben. On the other hand, the movie shows a love triangle between Bill, Beverley and Ben.
Also, the film adaptation shows that Pennywise abducts Beverley. However, in the novel, Bev remains with the group throughout the story, even after Henry chases them into the sewer.
The climax of the film is “prompted by IT capturing Beverly and taking her to its lair. From there, it’s a classic tale of a damsel in distress,” states a Vulture.com report.
“The boys eventually get her down… And just as in Sleeping Beauty, Ben kisses her and she awakens. She exists first and foremost as an object of their desire,” it adds.
Patrick Hockstetter
While the movie shows Patrick's character as a generic bully who is one of the earliest victims of IT, the boy’s character is more fleshed out in King’s novel.
He is portrayed as a psychopath serial killer who kills animals by stuffing them in a discarded refrigerator at the dump. The book also mentions that he keeps a creepy collection of dead flies in his pencil case.
IT’s Final Manifestation
IT or Pennywise the dancing clown is a shape-shifting entity that exists outside our universe. The malevolent creature’s actual form is nothing but a mass of evil lights — known as "the deadlights"
In the movie, the children meet Pennywise once they reach the lair in the sewer system. While in the novel, the children have an encounter with a grisly spider, upon reaching the lair. The arachnid is the closest manifestation of IT’s real form possible in the human world.
“Chances are the script-writers are saving this reveal for the second film, which is why they stuck with the clown form for now,” says Mashable.
Henry Bowers’ Fate
Henry Bower appears to die in the film when Mike pushes him down a well after a fight. However, Bower's character doesn’t die in King’s novel. In fact, he reaches adulthood and is locked up in a mental asylum after he’s blamed for all the child murders committed by IT.
Since Henry’s character is pivotal to the second part of the story, it’s possible that he survived the fall after all and might make a comeback in IT: Chapter Two.
