'IT' HAPPENS!
Ten other IT films
So you’re desperate to see a movie. A horror movie. But you want to see one with an “IT” in the title. Having an “IT” in the name normally indicates some kind of nameless terror, and automatically sends shivers up your spine. Easily solved surely. After all, that nice Stephen King has just had one of his best novels adapted for the big screen, and that’s called “IT”. It’s breaking all kinds of records and most people seem to love the movie, even that pesky Rotten Tomatoes. But hold on a minute … you suffer from severe Coulrophobia, a mortal dread of clowns. So you can’t possible see Pennywise the Dancing Clown in all his jittery fanged glory! What to do? What to do? Panic ye not. For we are here to resolve this very problem…
Basically that’s our very dumb way of leading into this listing article. Riding on the shoulders of the massive success of “IT” at the cinema, we thought it would fun to list ten other genre films that have “IT” prominently featured in the title, but have nothing to do with the King-Meister or Pennywise. Some you’ll definitely know, one or two you may not… We’ll even tell you how to get rid of the IT in question, so *Spoiler Alert*.
So come along with YGROY and let the “IT” hit the fan…
“IT!” – Released in 1967
Directed by Herbert J. Leder
Yup. There is another movie called “IT!” (NB: note the exclamation mark). The posters of the time were frustratingly vague as to the nature of the menace in the film. Red-hued promos just showed actress Jill Haworth lounging around in lingerie and actor Roddy McDowall screaming, along with a declaration that nothing could destroy “IT”. The alternative titles give something of an explanation though, being “Anger of the Golem” or “Curse of the Golem”. Yes, it’s basically a remake of “The Golem” from the 1920’s, but it’s a bit of an oddity to say the least. A resolutely British horror movie that tried to emulate the Hammer movies of the day … but with a killer statue. It was written by Leder, who also wrote the killer-brain classic “Fiend Without a Face”. Notably it stars McDowall just a year before he went on to play his most iconic role of Cornelius in “Planet of the Apes”.
In 60’s London, Arthur Pimm (McDowall) finds an ugly-ass statue in the burnt-out remains of a warehouse. After some mysterious deaths, Pimm (a museum assistant) finds a Hebrew inscription that will bring the statue to life and under his control. Revealed to be mentally unhinged, he uses it as an indestructible weapon to gain revenge on those that belittle him, but it predictably gets out of control…
Something of a guilty pleasure for this writer, “IT!” is a tonally weird film but has offbeat attractive qualities. McDowall gives a terrifically nervy performance as always, and there are a couple of really spooky and chilling moments; when McDowall’s boss gets killed, and the workman who is suddenly crushed by the falling (but inactive) Golem. However there’s a weird “Psycho” rip-off sub-plot that has Pimm keeping his dead mother in his apartment (which serves little purpose apart from showing how nutty he is). And whilst the Golem looks a little unnerving when it’s still – like a melted candle crossed with Dan Aykroyd’s “Coneheads” and Edvard Munch’s “Scream” painting – it actually looks a little weedy and far from imposing when it’s moving about … even when destroying Hammersmith Bridge. The ending is ludicrously bomb-bastic as well… Still enjoyable tosh though.
Finish IT! - How do you kill something that’s supposedly indestructible? Well, apparently you chuck a nuclear warhead at it! Actually don’t bother, because even that doesn’t work. Mind you, it WILL vaporise the asshole that’s controlling it … and the Golem will simply bugger off into the depths of the ocean … for some unexplained reason.
