Two Of Stephen King’s Best Adaptations Are Dominating Max

Many of us will never forget the immense trauma that we still carry with us, thanks to Tim Curry’s portrayal of the killer clown more than 30 years ago. Pushing the stakes a bit higher on his take as one of Stephen King’s most fearsome characters in It, Bill Skarsgård appears in both titles as Pennywise the Dancing Clown. Boasting an impressive lineup of both Hollywood mainstays and notable up-and-comers, each movie delivers the drama by way of top-tier acting.

Following the outline penned by Stephen King in the book that started it all, It follows the harrowing story of a group of kids growing up in the fictional town of Derry, Maine. Known as The Losers’ Club, the youngsters face down evil itself when the bloodthirsty clown rolls into their town by way of the sewers, bringing with him buckets of blood, gore, and pain as he affects their lives forever.

The first movie in Muschietti’s film series featured performances from an ensemble that included Jack Dylan Grazer (Shazam!), Finn Wolfhard (Stranger Things), Jaeden Martell (Mr. Harrigan’s Phone), Sophia Lillis (I Am Not Okay With This), and more. Stephen King fans can be a hard group to please, but It proved to be a slam dunk with critics and audiences alike. At the box office, the movie raked in an impressive $704.2 million against its $35-40 million production budget. 

Of course, with a financial gain like the one the first movie saw, it was a no-brainer for Warner Bros. to push forward with a follow-up. So, in 2019, the second half of Stephen King’s beloved book received its big screen telling when It: Chapter Two laughed its way into cinemas. Yet again, the casting team earned their paychecks in a major way as, along with the return of Bill Skarsgård as the villainous clown, the movie also featured performances by Jessica Chastain (The Help), James McAvoy (Speak No Evil), Isaiah Mustafa (Boy Kills World), and more. 

Picking up more than two decades after the first film left off, the sequel sees the surviving members of the Losers’ Club now in adulthood. Riddled with the trauma that afflicted them in their younger years, the group returns to Derry to put an end to Pennywise once and for all. As always, the follow-up film reminds us that while monsters that go bump in the night are terrifying, Stephen King uses It’s Pennywise and many of his other bad guys as metaphors for the deep traumas that we carry as humans.

There’s never a better time of the year to catch one of Stephen King’s most beloved pieces of writing, especially since fans can stream both It and It Chapter 2 in one place on Max.