It has been a world-renowned movie when first released in 2017. The title of the movie does not give an obvious picture of what it is about. “It” in the movie refers to something that scares people the most. However, do you know that the movie is actually an adaptation of Stephen King’s 1986 horror novel of the same name? Although both versions bear great fame worldwide, Movies which are adapted from a novel will usually make some changes to the story given that time is limited or other reasons. It is no exception. Three main differences between the film and the adapted movie was embedded in: the time period, the backgrounds of characters, and some scenes

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    First of all, the time period of the story in the film differs from that in the book. The former is in the 1980s while the latter is in the 1950s. With the change of time period comes other changes. For instance, their contemporary issues differ respectively. In the 1950s, right after WWⅡ, the American society was filled with racial discrimination comments, surrounded by Hippie Culture. By contrast, in the 1980s racial-related issues had dwindled quite a few. In addition, the change of time has an effect on the transformation of It, either. Because something that was scary in the 1950s probably would not remain as scary in the 1980s. As a result, a change in the time period leads to other changes in context of the story and in choices for “It” to transform.

    

    Another difference lies in some changes of the characters. There is a major re-write in Mike Hanlon. In the film, he survived a fire while his parents did not. The fact that he was the only survivor of the family haunted him and was further taken advantage of by Pennywise (the name of "It" ); thus his vision of "It" involved the death of his parents. In the book, however, did not lose any of his parents until his father died of cancer in 1962. Ben, another re-written character, was not the one who catalogued the weird incidents of the town in the book. it was Mike Hanlon. The fact that Mike’s interest in history was inspired by his father in the book leads to the inevitable change in the quality of the characters in the film. As has been noted, the changes in the characters are another discrepancies between the book and the movie.

    

   

 

 

 

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    The last difference can be easily spotted from some scenes. In the opening of the film, you can notice that Georgie’s body is never found. in the novel, his body was found and confirmed dead. This change explains why Bill never disbelieve that Georgie might still be alive in the sewer or out in the Barrens where he presumed his brother could have been after the storm. In addition to that, the final scene is also a big difference from the book. In this scene, Bill smashed a glass bottle and conducted a blood oath among The Losers Club. In the novel, however, it was Stanley Uris who did this. By and large, one can notice that certain scenes in the movie are inconsistent with that in the book.

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    There are three differences between the movie version and the book version of It, lying in the time period, some changes in characters, and the scenes. Movies that are adapted from books often contain some changes as needed. If you have not watched It, maybe you can watch both versions and think about the percentage of the book that has been changed. Although some people are sensitive or insistent that adaptation should follow the original, I view it otherwise. The way I see it is that both versions hold their own uniqueness that creates varied experiences for audiences.