‘Nope’ Star Keke Palmer Says This Stephen King Series Scarred Her for Life
Everyone has that one horror title that scared them to death as a kid. Maybe you imagined vampires at your own window after seeing Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot. Perhaps you saw The Texas Chain Saw Massacre at way too young of an age, eyes wide open as Leatherface went to work with his trusty chainsaw. Whatever the film, you can likely still recall the terror it inspired at the time.
For me, that movie was the 1990 miniseries based on King’s IT, currently streaming on HBO Max. The moment when Pennywise pops up in the gym shower and shows off a mouth full of fangs…I used to run out of the room screaming during that scene. To this day, I have Tim Curry and his performance as the supernatural clown to thank for my lifelong fear of those pale performers. I’m far from the only one, though, as revealed in recent comments by one of today’s hottest stars.
But First, What’s IT About?
Adapted from King’s novel of the same name, the two-part series centers around the small town of Dairy, Maine, and the group of childhood friends that must return there to face an ancient evil. We watch in 1960 as the group first comes together to battle the child-eating clown, Pennywise, a malevolent being that can take the shape of their greatest fears. Thirty years later, Pennywise returns, and the friends must reunite to finish him off once and for all.
The Killer Clown that Changed Our Perception of Clowns
While speaking with Dread Central’s Josh Korngut in a recent interview, actress Keke Palmer discussed her new anthology horror series, Dread Manor, in which she plays the host, Madame of Dread. The star of films such as Nope and One of Them Days was asked about the horror movies that scarred her as a kid. Her response? “It was definitely the original IT miniseries. Tim Curry is incredible. It changed how we felt about clowns in the same way that Jaws changed how people felt about sharks.”
She’s not wrong. Killer clowns had appeared in plenty of films before, such as the 80s cult classic, Killer Klowns from Outer Space. But writer/director Tommy Lee Wallace (Halloween III) and actor Tim Curry brought the terror of the red-nosed entertainers to another level.
King’s concept of a child-eating monster that takes the form of a clown inspires plenty of fear on its own. Wallace’s atmospheric direction and Curry’s spine-tingling performance only amplify that horror in every way possible. Ask any millennial horror fan what role they best know Tim Curry for, and they’ll likely mention IT (or Rocky Horror, of course). The same goes for movies that scared them as kids.
To this day, IT remains not just a great adaptation of a Stephen King novel, but a prime example of the fact that made-for-TV horror movies can be scary, actually. Find out why by firing the film up on HBO Max. Just be warned…you may never look at clowns or Tim Curry the same way again.
Categorized: News
