Stephen King’s ‘It’ Trailer: For Those Who Haven’t Read The Book

It has been nearly three weeks since the trailer for the upcoming film adaptation of Stephen King’s It hit the internet, and to say the internet is excited about it is an understatement. It was by far the most viewed movie trailer of all time after just 24 hours of release, and the Inquisitr noted previously that it has even inspired a wave of people to pick up Stephen King’s lengthy horror fiction masterpiece.

The main reason people who loved the trailer want to read the book is because the 1990 miniseries that brought Stephen King’s story into the pop culture limelight left many integral plot points out. The trailer highlighted this fact, as many of the scenes it shows are totally new to those who have not read the book.

As mentioned above, Stephen King’s work is quite long — over 1,100 pages, in fact. And although many soon-to-be Stephen King-heads have elected to read it, it is understandable if one cannot bring themselves to dive into such a sprawling tome. Those unexplained scenes in the trailer are still just as curious, though, so we at theThe Inquisitr want to explain some of them quickly and provide some context in preparation for the movie, due out September 8.

• The Haunted House – House On Neibolt Street

About halfway through the trailer, as the main children are revealing they have all seen a clown and chilling tones begin to ring out, a classic-style haunted house is shown off. Gothic architecture, crumbling wood, boarded-up windows — this house definitely means business. Stephen King used the house as the titular monster’s way of entry into Derry (the town in which the story is set) and its “home base.”

It contains a few terrifying scenes set in or beside the house, including Eddie Kaspbrak being chased by a leprous hobo and the entire gang of children confronting the monster in its werewolf form.

King did not give the house a name per se, but the book’s characters refer to it simply as “the house on Neibolt Street.” The location is totally absent from the 1990 miniseries adaptation of Stephen King’s novel, but it is though of by King fans as one of the most iconic images from the book.

• Black Hands Behind the Door – Fire At the Black Spot

The miniseries did not touch on the topic of race, but it was a semi-major theme in Stephen King’s vision. At one point, the father of Mike Hanlon, the only African American member of the gang of children, tells mike a horrific recollection of the time a large crowd of African American party-goers were burned alive inside a bar he had run. The bar was called “The Black Spot,” and Stephen King does an excellent job of using the story to illustrate Derry’s bloody and mean-spirited history.

In King’s work, Mike never actually encounters anything involving the fire at the Black Spot, but it looks like Andres Muschietti, the director of the upcoming movie, will attempt to kill two birds with one stone by having the monster scare young Mike with a vision of the story. After all, the shot is obviously a direct reference to the fire Stephen King described so vividly in the pages of It.

• Pennywise’s Many Forms

You might have noticed that this article has been referring to the main antagonist as “It” or “The Monster” rather than “Pennywise.” That is because, in Stephen King’s work, Pennywise is only one of the many forms It takes. Yes, Pennywise is the monster’s “default” form, but it can shapeshift into most anything that will be especially scary to its victim. In King’s book, for instance (and hopefully the movie too), it takes turns as a mummy, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, a giant eyeball, a giant carnivorous bird, and many more. It does not even limit itself to a single entity; it also becomes a swarm of flying leeches, a group of drowned children, and a school of piranhas.

In the miniseries, the monster pretty much always appeared as Pennywise, who was played extremely well by Tim Curry. The trailer and other marketing materials for the movie, however, confirm that It will be taking many different forms. Whether they will all be taken directly from King’s novel or some of them will be original concepts created for the movie is still unknown, but Pennywise will definitely be moving beyond “all clown, all the time.”

Are you excited for the 2017 adaptation of Stephen King’s It? If you have any more questions about parts of the story that were not included in the miniseries, head over to the Stephen King subreddit to inquire.

[Featured Image by Redhumv/iStock]