In terms of film adaptations, “IT” is a relatively faithful adaptation of Stephen King’s 1986 novel. However, there are a few deviations. Some characters have been slightly changed, and others have a different plot. If you have not seen the film or read the book, I recommend not to continue reading! Also, as I have started writing this article when I have not finished reading the novel yet, it may be expanded and modified as I get closer to the end of the book. This blog, therefore, contains a spoiler for both the book and the adaptation of it from 2017. In the first part of the article, I’ve talked about all the similarities between the book and the movie. In this article, I’ll focus more on the differences – let’s check them out!

 

Differences Between the Novel and the 2017 Movie

  1. In the movie, the Pennywise murders occur in 1988, if I remember correctly, while in the novel, they happened in 1958.

 

  1. In the film, we are shown that Mike Hansom was a cattleman when he was young, while in the novel, we are not told of any event in which Mike had to tend sheep.

 

  1. In the film, we are not shown at any time that Beverly has a mother or at least that she is alive, while in the novel, we are told this.

 

  1. In this first chapter of what will turn out to be a trilogy about the novel “IT”, no mention is made of the levee that Ben and his friends build in the Barrens, unlike what happens in the book.

 

  1. The novel tells how Richie and Bill go up to Georgie’s room to look at the latter’s photo album to see the photo in which Georgie’s blood came out of one eye. That does not happen in the 2017 adaptation, or it occurs in a pretty different way.

 

  1. The story of the Black Spot local fire and the deaths that Mike Hansom tells are very different from those in the novel.

 

  1. In the novel, Mike Hansom is presented with the clown through a huge bird that wants to devour him, while in the 2017 adaptation, this does not happen.

 

  1. How Eddie Kaspbrak meets the clown at 29 Neibolt Street in the movie is very different from what is narrated in the book. While Eddie decides to enter the basement of the house in the novel, and that is where the clown turned into a tramp “attacks” him, in the 2017 film, Eddie does not enter the abandoned house but is the homeless man who comes out of it – to attack him by surprise when the child has dropped the pills on the floor.

 

  1. In the novel, we mix moments from 1958 and current moments in which children are already adults. However, in this first chapter of the “IT” saga, the story takes place entirely only during the summer in which the protagonists are children. This difference between film and novel is voluntary since it has been decided that in 2019 a second episode of the film will be released, focusing exclusively on the history of children once they are adults and deciding to return to fight “IT Again”.

 

  1. In the novel, three of the “Losers Club” members go to the cinema to see horror films, while in the movie, it does not happen.

 

  1. The first appearance that the clown makes to Stan Uris in the 2017 film is different from what occurs in the novel.

 

  1. “IT” appears to Ben Hanscom in the Derry library in the form of Count Dracula in the novel, but in the 2017 film, this scene did not occur.

 

  1. In the novel, an older neighbor sees how someone or something has attacked Georgie from the sewer, while in the 2017 adaptation, it is an old lady.

 

  1. The way the blood comes out of Beverly’s sink in her bathroom is different both in the novel and in the two adaptations so far.

 

  1. In the novel, there are far more characters of all ages than those who appear in the 2017 adaptation.

 

Stay tuned for the third part of this article for more differences.