Reality check: everybody hates clowns. Not just a few people and not just part of the time. Everybody always hates clowns. And Stephen King’s evil clown Pennywise is the ultimate icon of all we hate, right down to the sharpened teeth, gravelly voice, and implicit pedophilia. The old mini-series is far from perfect, but there are at least a couple of good reasons to watch it, again or for the first time…

Yes, the storytelling is poorly paced, the acting is uneven at best, and the monster at the end is a laughably bad pay-off, but there are plenty of images and performances that still resonate, chief among them Tim Curry’s incredible turn as Pennywise (that still haunts the dreams of millions. Sorry, Tim), and Anette O’Toole’s achingly beautiful performance as the grown-up Beverly. It’s kind of stunning to see Emily Perkins, later of Ginger Snaps fame, as the young Beverly, and even werid to see Seth Green as the pesky kid destined to become a stand-up comic. And there’s more than a little tragedy wrapped up in It, what with the far-too-soon real-life deaths of Jonathan Brandis, Richard Masur, and John Ritter (in one of the best dramatic performances he ever gave, just a few years out of his “Jack Tripper” phase). It’s hard to believe it was made almost 25 years ago, but still, you could certainly do worse on a pre-Halloween Monday. Just remember: beep, beep, Ritchie. It floats. Down here, everything floats.

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