Posted in: Movies | Tagged: film, HRL

Stephen King Doesn't Understand People's Obsession With That One Scene In 'It'

Published Wed, 13 Sep 2017 11:16:06 -0500

If you know nothing about It, there are probably two things you've learned since the movie came out: clowns are terrifying and there was a controversial scene from the book that was not added to the film. In the book, the character of Beverly suggests that the only way to save their lives is if she all has sex with all of the boys in the group. It's not a fun scene to read by any stretch of the imagination, and it's not surprising that adaptations have left it out. Stephen King has spoken out about the scene in the past and Vulture traced the comment back to a forum post from 2013:

"I wasn't really thinking of the sexual aspect of it. The book dealt with childhood and adulthood –1958 and Grown Ups. The grown ups don't remember their childhood. None of us remember what we did as children–we think we do, but we don't remember it as it really happened. Intuitively, the Losers knew they had to be together again. The sexual act connected childhood and adulthood. It's another version of the glass tunnel that connects the children's library and the adult library. Times have changed since I wrote that scene and there is now more sensitivity to those issues."

It comes up a lot, though, and Vulture recently asked King about that statement and whether or not he actually said that:

"That sounds like my statement. To it I'd just add that it's fascinating to me that there has been so much comment about that single sex scene and so little about the multiple child murders. That must mean something, but I'm not sure what."

King is basically wondering why the sex is the big deal here and not all of the violence, which is fair. The movie doesn't hold back when it comes to inflicting violence on its young cast, but all anyone talks about in terms of "clutching your pearls" is the omitted sex scene. We, as a culture, are much more "okay" with violence than we are with sex. Your movie can feature ton of murders, but as soon as a guy goes down on a girl, you get a R rating.

A group of bullied kids band together when a shapeshifting demon, taking the appearance of clown, begins hunting children.

It, directed by Andy Muschietti, stars Bill Skarsgård, Jaeden Lieberher, Finn Wolfhard, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Sophia Lillis, and Chosen Jacobs. It's out now.

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