Kaleidoscope Home Entertainment are set to release Pennywise: The Story of IT on Digital Download from 3rd October and Blu-ray & DVD from 24th October and is a two hour documentary that takes a look at the 1990s two part mini series  based on Stephen King’s iconic novel. Whilst IT is a hugely popular mini series which to this day still seems to be one of the main modern reasons why people fear clowns, the series is an unusual project to base a feature length documentary on, but let me explain why I think that way.  With many documentaries about film, there is usually a ‘hook’ of chaos about the films production, think Waterworld, think Blade Runner, think Apocalypse Now. All those films have the myth stories that talk about the hardships of the production and that does make for a really interesting behind the scenes documentary. With IT, there was no chaos that I knew of, there were no super hardships (that I knew of) and it did puzzle me why this was a focus for the filmmakers to put together a feature length documentary about the 1990 series. 

 

BUT.

I was wrong. Pennywise: The Story of IT is a really interesting documentary that gives me a look at something which is rare, a feature length look at a television production that wasn’t as easy to get off the ground as I thought it was and by speaking with so many of the key players in the series,we learn about the on set antics of some of the cast, the battle to keep a running time that was planned, previous directors who wanted to tackle the project, designing the make up and even the battle with censors once the series had been filmed.  Pennywise: The Story of IT is a genuine gem of a documentary that features a ton of behind the scenes photos and video that I haven’t seen before. There are also lovely sections about the late Jonathan Brandis, and late John Ritter which are both great to see and also sad to see, knowing they are no longer with us. 

 

Pennywise: The Story of IT, co-directed by John Campopiano and Christopher Griffiths lets you spend time with lots of names from the series including director Tommy Lee Wallace (Halloween III, Fright Night II) and cast members Tim Curry (Rocky Horror, Hunt For Red October, Congo, Home Alone II), triple Emmy Winner Seth Green (Family Guy, Robot Chicken, Austin Powers), and Emmy Winner Richard Thomas (The Waltons, The Americans, Wonder Boys).

 

The UK DVD and Blu-Ray release will also be packed-full of bonus material, with the Blu-Ray containing more than 45 minutes of special features and exclusive limited edition art poster.

 

So if you are a fan of the 1990 IT, then I do highly recommend this doc, it will education you, it will keep you interested and some of the stories that you’ll hear from the cast, It will charm you.