Stephen King's IT (1990 Version) - Blu-ray Review

Stephen King is my favorite author. That’s not to say that there aren't times that he strikes out for me; there have been a handful of his works that I didn’t care for. IT was NOT one of them. IT, the 1986 novel, is a mastodon of a book that, unless you can dedicate a great deal of time to reading it, once you get to the end you’ll probably forget the beginning details. I’ve read the novel upwards of ten times at this point. My first successful read-through of it was in the summer of 2004. I was between eighth-grade and high school, and I simply could not put the book down. It took me three months to finish, but when I was finished I wanted more. The characters were so life-like that it was almost like reading about my own friends. The tell of a truly gifted author is if he/she can make his/her readers care about the characters within the story. Stephen King is fantastic at making his readers fall in love, or at times despise - I’m talking about you Henry Bowers - his characters. As such, IT is my all-time favorite book and I usually find myself reading it at least once a year. Yeah, I read a lot. The thing is, I saw the 1990 miniseries adaptation of the novel before I read the novel itself (I was three when the mini-series first aired on ABC in 1990). Therefore, as a child, I found the film simply terrifying. However, after I read the book I realized that the mini-series was extremely tame and bare-bones to the story. The 2017 remake brings back some of that tension, awkwardness, and disquiet of being a child going through puberty, which was a very important plot-point for the children in the book. The 2017 remake also brought the gore, profanity, and sexual predation that was inherent in the novel, however it did little to stay truer to the source material. But, I’m not here to talk about the remake, I’m here to discuss the Blu-ray release of the original 1990 adaptation of the novel, so blathering over and onward we go.

             Warner Brothers presents the original 1990 adaptation of Stephen King’s IT on Blu-ray in 1080p hi-def in its original aspect ratio of 1.33:1 (full screen). We must remember that in 1990 widescreen televisions weren’t really a thing, therefore television broadcasts were typically in full-frame, 4x3. That means that when you watch this film today there will be black bars to the left and right sides of the screen. Some people find this distracting, but I honestly don’t; it’s an old film that was made for standard televisions. What can you do? That being said, this is the best the film has ever looked! I’ve owned IT on VHS and DVD, and frankly neither can compare. The colors are vibrant, especially Pennywise’s clown suite, the numerous balloons he uses to relay messages, and of course the blood (there was a lot of blood in this film for a television movie in the early 90s, although it probably doesn’t look like much by today’s standards). There is a grain that permeates the entirety of the film, but it’s hardly ever intrusive (except during the close-up of the sink drain when Beverly hears the voices speaking to her from within…creepy!) and proves that Warner Bros. didn’t use any scrubbing to artificially enhance the image. Details are sharp for the most part, and scenes that may appear gauzy are inherent to the quality of the print and no fault of Warner Bros. presentation here. Because of the fine presentation, I happily give this Blu-ray’s video quality a 5 out of 5 rating.

            The audio on this release is a DTS-HD 2.0 stereo, uncompressed, master audio track. My favorite part of this film (other than Tim Curry’s performance as Pennywise) was, and is still, the score. Richard Bellis’ score on this film was the perfect mix of psycho-circus and child terror. The calliope tinged, “someone’s chasing me” score made the film something more than just another made-for-tv-but-wants-to-be-cool film. It gave the impression that we were watching this in a theater rather than in our living rooms on a cable network that required strict censorship. That being said, the audio track on this release is clear and serves its purpose. It never truly blows you away, but it doesn’t disappoint either. The fact is, most 2.0 tracks simply don’t have the punch required to truly wow its listeners, and that’s okay because frankly, the film isn’t likely to truly wow anyone either – at least not if presented to anyone in today’s audience. That’s not to say it isn’t a good film, because it is. Likewise, this audio track is good, and faithful enough to not disappoint. The dialogue is clear at all times, and that’s one of the most important things that an audio track can offer. There is nothing worse than a track that has all the angry crashes and jaw-dropping range you expect in the score and sound effects, but the dialog is so low that it’s inaudible. Therefore, I give this track a 4 out of 5 and am very pleased with it.

            Now comes the disappointing, but not entirely unexpected, part. This release is nearly bare-bones just like the DVD before it. The only special feature it offers is a feature length commentary from the cast and crew. This is the exact same commentary that was featured on the DVD release from 2002, so we’ve all likely heard this track already. Given that this is a made-for-tv film, there might not be a great deal of interesting features for Warner to offer, but you can’t tell me that there wasn’t someone with a handheld camera behind the scenes during the filming. How about a tribute to Jonathan Brandis who played young Bill and died in 2003? A Stephen King interview where he talks about the novel; there are literally tons of them all over the internet. Nothing? Maybe a company like Scream! Factory or Arrow will get the rights to release a special edition in the future and we’ll see some special features then, but for now this is what we get. Special features get a 0.5 out of 5 from me.

            To wrap this all up, while the 1990 version of IT hasn’t exactly aged well, it’s still a fun film to watch, and Tim Curry is wonderful! Also, the child actors were impressive, especially for a film of this low a caliber; I truly believed their performances, and think that Emily Perkins, playing young Beverly, shines here. While I appreciate the limitations of the budget and the format chosen for the film, I feel it could have followed the source novel more closely than it did. Where was the house on Neibolt Street!? I also loved the 2017 remake, but I prefer this earlier version over the glossy new one. Maybe it’s nostalgia? The Blu-ray video and audio quality were fantastic, and at times exceeded my expectations, but the lack of extras is an unnecessary disappointment. I recommend this version on its audio/video performances alone. Overall, I give this release a 3.5 out of 5 rating.