Hah, I'm a little tougher these days when it comes to horror movies, so maybe I'll give it another shot! I love the weirdness and occasional silliness of horror movies, especially older ones. And tbh Seth Green, even when just starting out, is always a fun watch.

That is a pity! The book has so much in it that I understand how hard it is to pack everything in and do it justice on screen.

I've never actually seen the Tim Curry version all the way through...I saw part of it and something about the shower with the drain stretching around him as he clambers out really haunted me. (Am I remembering that correctly? I have no clue, it's been decades.) I was living alone over winter break in a college dorm--there were probably other people in the building but I never saw them--and stopped showering until people started coming back onto campus, and had to time my showers to be when other people were in the bathroom lol.

Agreed! I guess I view It as a history of Derry, which can only exist in Pennywise’s shadow. So the Losers Gang and the final battle against Pennywise is less about the humans and more about the destruction of Derry.

Though, you know… >! Pennywise Lives! !<

I agree in general about Stephen King, but not for It.

I loved reading about Derry and the way it breathed menace over the centuries...for me, it enhanced how unfathomably powerful Pennywise was, how deeply entrenched the evil was in the town, and how little chance the Losers Gang had. It also made the later scenes where the adults in the town turn their back on the kids almost...unsurprising, or even something that I was already resigned to by the time it happened. And the amount of history that Derry has imbues its occasional appearance in random books with a lot of tension and anxiety.

TL;DR: I liked reading about Derry and its inhabitants, so it didn't feel like too much, but if you weren't into that, I can understand why it would feel bloated.