Four Things You May Have Overlooked in IT
Jonathan Barkan
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This week saw the home video release of Andy Muschietti’s IT (review), the 2017 horror smash success that brought in nearly $700 million worldwide, a staggeringly high number for any genre of film, much less horror. Since the film has hit shelves at your local retailer, we wanted to do a fun little post where we highlight four moments in the film that you may have missed the first time you saw it.
In fact, it’s little things like this that keep me coming back to revisit movies multiple times. There’s a certain amount of joy in watching a movie and finding something new, even if it’s small. It gives you a reason to love that film all over again, all because you can appreciate one of those “little things” that are so precious and delightful.
So, without further ado, here are four things that you possibly overlooked when watching IT!
1) The Creepy Library Lady
Alright, this is probably the most obvious one but considering the intensity of the scene, it’s theoretically possible that this one slipped you by.
When Ben is in the library researching the dark and bloody past of Derry, there’s a woman in the background (who is never focused on directly) who stops looking at whatever books are in her aisle so that she can stare extremely creepily at him. She even appears closer and closer with each revisit to a shot of Ben, her presence looming like a shadow who just so happens to be wearing a grandmotherly floral dress, a dark grin adorning her face.
Then, when Ben gets up to investigate the mysterious red balloon that seemingly levitates across the room, that lovely, terrifying old lady is right back at the books, acting like she wasn’t just the creepiest thing to happen in the past few minutes. I’m onto you, Granny. I’m onto you…
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- “Granny, what are you doing? Can’t you see I’m trying to get an education here?”
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- “Look, now you’re getting a bit close for comfort. Can you please respect my personal bubble?”
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- “Seriously? Now you’re infringing upon that other woman’s space. Have some common decency, would ya?”
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- “Oh, you think you can just turn your back on me now like nothing’s happened? Rude…”
2) The Upside-Down Chumash
This is one that many people may overlook simply because they don’t know Hebrew! When Stan is practicing for his Bar Mitzvah, his father chides him for his mistakes, seemingly disgusted that the “son of a rabbi” could do so poorly. Whatever will the townsfolk think of him if his progeny says “Barook” instead of “Baruch”?
Fed up, Stan’s father tells him to take his Chumash to the study, whereupon Stan closes it to reveal a slight and quite humorous goof: the Chumash is upside-down!
As a Jew, I’ll be the first to admit that Hebrew can be a very strange looking language to those who don’t see it with any frequency. In fact, I found this error to be kind of endearing instead of offensive, as some might think. It’s such a harmless, innocent mistake that I can’t help but shake my head with a smile and wish I’d been there to wordlessly flip the book around, pat Wyatt Oleff’s shoulder, chuckle a bit, and walk away.
“No gelt for you this Hanukkah!”
3) Pennywise’s Pyramid
This one falls more into the realm of trivia than something that might’ve been overlooked, especially because we never really got a clear, up close look at Pennywise’s sewer pyramid. However, I can tell you from having been on the set of IT that the tower of clothing and toys has a very cool little gimmick behind it: as you go higher up on the tower, the more you’ll notice that the clothes are cleaner and the toys are newer. That’s because Pennywise has been doing this for so long that he continuously stacks all those belongings on top of the old ones, leaving antiques at the bottom and more modern items at the top. Next time you watch the movie, see if you can spot this in those rare moments where the camera is higher up on the pyramid!
“This better not be some clown pyramid scheme, I swear to God…”
4) Tim Curry’s Pennywise
This one might be me cheating a little since I wrote about this after a trailer for the film had been released. That being said, not everyone who saw the movie saw my post, which is why I’m bringing this back up.
When the kids venture into the Neibolt St. house, there’s a part where Richie is locked in a room with a ton of clown statues and dolls. Filled with coulrophobia, Richie is clearly terrified and haunted by these overly cheerful visions. But one particular design stands out amongst the others because it’s a direct homage to Tim Curry’s design from the 1990 miniseries. Bearing that same elongated, porcelain head and the bright red skullet (it’s a thing, I promise), there’s no denying this nod to Tommy Lee Wallace’s adaptation.
“Is this some kind of weird “Take your kid to work day” thing I’m not aware of?”
You can pick up IT on Blu-ray through Amazon.
