The famous horror writer, Stephen King, recently talked about one of his most famous novels, IT. The writer said he does not regret including the underage orgy in the novel. It was recently adapted into two movies, an extremely long novel with 1138 pages. As the movies came out decades after the book which was first published in 1986, there had to be certain changes made. As the novel switches from childhood flashbacks of misfits in a small town in the 1950s to the 27 years older version of them, the movies broke the plot and are divided into two subsequent films. But this was not the only change in the plot.
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Stephen King shares why he did not regret including underage orgy in IT
The plot follows “The Losers Club,” with seven members, who are considered outsiders by the natives of the town, Derry. They become friends over the summers and fight against the evil clown that lives in the sewers of Derry and takes away the young kids. They grow up and their bond fades, and 27 years later, Pennywise comes back. They regroup as the clown provokes them to fight him again.
In the novel, there is a segment the author included to show how “close” the seven were, he included a part where all the six boys have s*x with Beverly Marsh one by one while the rest watch; after the young group has defeated the evil clown. The scene was a little too outrageous and to be accurate, gross.
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But novelist, who is known for writing amazing plots and believable characters, had an explanation as to why he did it. Gizmondo shared that the writer had explained that the scene is a depiction of their transition from kids to grownups. He wanted something that could symbolize it accurately and that is why he came up with it. In his autobiography, On Writing, he confessed that he had some serious drug and alcohol addiction at the time, so that might have clouded his judgment.
The adaptation into a TV show and movies
The novel was first adapted into a series in 1990. The makers of the series found it apt to remove the segment and tone down the violence that was in the novel. This had to be done to make the content TV-friendly and as IT targets kids, as well, it seemed quite necessary.
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Andy Muschietti turned the novel into movies and made it for the big screens. The movies were rated R due to the content being more adult and violent than the TV adaptation. But he too preferred to leave that one segment out as it was too much and added nothing to the plot’s growth.
Source: Gizmondo
