As has been reported a few times in the lead up to the release of It, the adaptation of Stephen King’s classic horror tale that turned clowns into a horror fixture, a very controversial scene was left out of the movie. It involves the members of The Losers’ Club all having sex with each other in the sewers as a way to connect each other and keep them together throughout the events of the book. It was left out of both adaptations of King’s story for obvious reasons, though his original intentions seemed to be less about children having sex and more about the meaning behind it in that instance.
That’s going to be difficult for anybody to get across in a movie, no matter how you try to spin it, but King did try to explain it in a 2013 post that confirmed his original intentions and also showed some regrets:
Times have changed since I wrote that scene and there is now more sensitivity to those issues.
Screenwriter Gary Dauberman explained to Entertainment Weekly why the scene was excised from the latest adaptation, pointing out how the scene has become one of the more iconic parts of the book alongside its opening with Pennywise luring Georgie into the sewer and how “it’s such a shame” given how the scene doesn’t define the entire story.
Stephen King seems to feel the same way, at least in terms of how people view the scene compared to the rest of his book. Vulture reached out to the author’s agent for confirmation on the 2013 statement and received a bit of an addendum to hold a mirror up to the viewers and readers:
“That sounds like my statement.” He added: “To it I’d just add that it’s fascinating to me that there has been so much comment about that single sex scene and so little about the multiple child murders. That must mean something, but I’m not sure what.”
It’s certainly something to think about, though it’s also unlikely to change any minds about the sex scene. It is generally something that you don’t cover for fairly obvious reasons. That said, society does seem to have an easier time stomaching violence over sex in a general sense, especially when it comes to the movie. It’s doubtful anybody would protest It’s scene being left out of the film, but King does add an interesting wrinkle to the discussion.
(Via Vulture)
