Filmmaker John Campopiano had the amazing undertaking of filming a documentary about how the 1990 It miniseries was created with his film Pennywise: The Story of It.
Growing up in Bangor, Maine the name Stephen King is well known. The author both grew up in the State of Maine and owns a very appealing house in Bangor. His West Broadway home is a popular tourist attraction from those King fans visiting from around the globe. In addition, us Mainers take pride his writing work, but also those films based on the source material. This includes the It miniseries which aired on ABC.
As a film fan I often wonder why something like It ends up on the small screen where there are far more rules, regulations and guidelines to uphold instead of a theatrical release. This along with many other questions are answered in Campopiano’s Pennywise: The Story of It documentary.
Pennywise was released on October 3, 2021 to the streaming service ScreamBox as well as for digital download purchase. On October 24, 2021 the documentary released on Blu-ray and DVD around the world.
The film interviews classic actors from the original series, as well as those who worked on set. Going behind the scenes and learning from those who made the ABC series back in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Campopiano and his directing partner Christopher Griffiths are able to capture the feelings of each actor with outstanding interviews and discussion. The pair adds fitting clips, shots and b-roll footage to really give you the additional information you seek when watching a documentary.
Being one of the few people in the world to have never read the book It, only recently watched the miniseries, and the reboot films, adding information to my viewing experience of those projects improves my overall experience. Some documentaries tend to give you only the information you may already know and just dub that over footage from the original source material. The people behind Pennywise: The Story of It gave you in depth information adding to my now love for the It franchise.
Campopiano has a real eye for making documentaries and Pennywise: The Story of It is a definitely must-watch for any horror, King or It fan.
You can watch the documentary via a free seven-day trail on ScreamBox or purchase it on Amazon.
