Random Horrifying Things That Happened In Book 'IT' Way Too Awful for Movies (10 items)

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  (#1) Patrick Hockstetter And Henry Bowers Are More Evil In The Book

  Hockstetter and Bowers are bullies in both the movie and the book. However, the book goes into much more detail about just how sadistic these two are capable of being. In the book, Hockstetter suffocates his five-year-old brother, Avery, to death with a pillow and is even sexually aroused by his murderous actions. He even tortures animals by starving them to death and keeps their corpses in a refrigerator at a junkyard. Hockstetter is an unlikeable bully in the film, but we don't get the full picture of just how evil he can be, and he's killed off in the film fairly early.

  There's also an omitted sequence in the book where Hockstetter gives his friend and fellow bully, Henry Bowers, a handjob, and offers to perform oral sex on him. At this, Bowers punches Hockstetter in the mouth. Bowers also kills Mike's dog in the book and almost kills Mike himself. All these examples of the sadistic nature of Bowers and Hockstetter were left out of the film adaptation. 
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  (#2) The Movie Is Missing A Weird Scary Turtle That Teaches Them How To Defeat Pennywise

  In what is by far the most out there aspect of Stephen King's book, the Losers Club meet Maturin, an ancient turtle who created the cosmos and explains to them what sort of demon Pennywise is and how they can defeat him by performing the Ritual of Chüd. Confused yet? 

  This storyline, while technically integral to the book, is what makes It borderline fantasy in addition to horror. Maturin is also a character King fans will recognize from The Dark Tower series. In order to keep the movie more grounded, and far less confusing, it makes sense they'd leave out any mention of this odd entity. Though true fans will notice in the movie that when the Losers go swimming in one scene, one of them calls out that they've seen a turtle. A nice little easter egg reference to the ancient being of the book.
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  (#3) The Controversial Sex Scene Is Nowhere To Be Found In The Film

  There's a rather controversial chapter toward the end of the book where the group of 11-year-old kids participate in an orgy of sorts. The scene is led by the only female in the group, Beverly Marsh. An argument broke out amongst the group of kids, and Marsh realized that It was using his powers to cause the group to fight. She rationalized that the only way to unify the group was to have sex with each of her six friends.

  Thankfully, this scene was not included in the movie. The filmmakers decided to just stick with the kids making a blood oath. Of course, a blood pact was made in the book as well, but the filmmakers thought the oath alone was enough.
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  (#4) Beverly Marsh Becomes A Damsel In Distress In The Film

  Beverly Marsh’s film portrayal was pretty accurate to her book character. She had to deal with bullies from school, which was mentioned in the novel, but seemed to go a bit more in depth in the film. She also had to deal with her creepy, perverted father in both the book and film.

  One of the drastic changes that the film made regarding Marsh’s character was her getting kidnapped by Pennywise. In the book, Marsh was brave and never was a "damsel in distress." However, in the film, she gets taken by It and needs the boys to rescue her. She even has to receive a kiss to wake up, which really takes away from the feminine strength seen throughout the film up until that point. 
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  (#5) In The Book, The Kids Get High In Order To Understand Pennywise

  Rightfully left out for numerous reasons, not least of which is children on hallucinogens and cultural appropriation galore, in the book the Losers Club kids try to gain insight into their foe by getting high. Ben does some research and learns about Native American spirit quests where tribal people would smoke until they hallucinate and are shown visions. The kids build a smoke hole and all but Richie and Mike pass out from all the fumes. 

  They are, however, successful in discovering that Pennywise is actually an ancient creature feeding off of Derry. The movie shows the kids getting to know Pennywise on a less, uh, deep level.
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  (#6) Bill Denbrough Knows Georgie Is Dead In The Book, But Not In The Movie

  In the novel, Bill knows that Georgie, his little brother, is dead from the beginning. However, in the film, Bill isn't sure whether Georige is alive or not. In fact, Georgie's body is never recovered - although his detached arm is - and he is still considered a missing person. This sets a vastly different tone for the film. Thus, Bill's main focus in the movie is trying to locate his little brother. 
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  (#7) Mike Hanlon's Parents Are Alive In The Book, But Dead In The Movie

  In the book, Mike Hanlon learns a lot about the town of Derry from his father, who was dying from cancer. Hanlon also learns about It from his father. In the 2017 movie, you never meet Mike's father because both his parents died in a house fire. Mike lives with his grandfather on a farm, who is a hardened, tough love kind of guy.
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  (#8) The Racial Tension Was Removed In The Film

  In the book, racial tension is prevalent - especially between Mike Hanlon’s and Henry Bowers’s families. The ongoing feud between these two families went on for an at least one generation in the book. Henry’s father, Oscar “Butch” Bowers, would often call William Hanlon racial slurs. He even graffitied the Hanlon house with a swastika and killed all of their chickens. Hanlon retaliated by threatening Butch with a gun, which seemed to make Bowers leave him alone. All of this was left out of the film.
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  (#9) The Different Timeline From The Books Means Pennywise Will Visit Modern America In Part 2

  In the movie It, the timeline is linear with the story being driven by characters who are children. There are no flashbacks into time and the movie takes place in the present. In the book, the story focuses on the characters as adults in the 1980s, with flashbacks to the 1950s when they were children and dealing with It.

  Thus, one of the most noticeable differences between the novel and the movie is the decades in which they take place. The book takes place between '57 and '58, and the movie takes place in '88 and '89. This decade change is sure to help the characters seem more relatable amongst a newer generation of fans. There are a few '80s references thrown in for good measure in the 2017 film adaptation, including New Kids on the Block, Street Fighter, and Gremlins.

  All in all this means that Part 2 will take place in our modern timeline, making it all the more horrifying to see Pennywise in today's world.
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  (#10) The Slingshot Weapon Was Changed To A Bolt Gun In The Movie

  When the Losers Club face It in the house on Neibolt Street, they are armed with weapons. In the book, the kids use a slingshot with silver slugs, believing that silver would work best for killing monsters. In the movie, Mike brings a bolt gun, which is much more violent than a slingshot.
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  (#11) The Monsters Are Missing In The Movie

  King set the book It in the 1950s, and during that decade, B movie monsters were extremely popular. The Mummy, Frankenstein’s Monster, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, and the Werewolf all play integral parts in the book. The movie monster references fit the '50s era well. 

  However, because the 2017 movie was based in the '80s, the monsters were mostly left out. The closest we come to seeing anything like the B movie monsters in the film is a theater marquee advertisement for A Nightmare on Elm Street, which, of course, is very fitting for the '80s.

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