Andy Muschietti’s IT was as true to the source material as possible, but it left out a very important part of the story, which not only adds to the drama of the events but also to the evil of IT. Back in 1986, Stephen King triggered a wave of coulrophobia (fear of clowns) with the novel IT, which has terrorized generations of readers and horror enthusiasts. The story follows a group of kids self-named “The Losers Club” who are haunted by an evil, shape-shifting entity they call “IT” and whose preferred form is that of Pennywise, the Dancing Clown. The Losers are forced to confront the creature one last time 27 years later, and with that, they also had to face all their childhood trauma, not only the one caused by IT but also by their families and the town of Derry.
IT has been adapted to film and TV a couple of times, the most notable ones being the 1991 miniseries with Tim Curry as Pennywise and the two-part film released in 2017 and 2019. The films made some changes to the novel, setting the first part in 1988-1989 instead of 1957-1958 and 2016 instead of 1984-1985, and changing other details to better fit these settings and allow the audience to relate. Given that the novel is over a thousand pages long, many other elements had to be left out – but there’s one that, had it been kept and added to the movies, it would have elevated them.
IT: Chapter Two showed the Losers living their own lives far from Derry, with Mike Hanlon being the only one who stayed and thus the only one who still remembered who IT was and everything they went through. When the rest left the town, they forgot about IT, all those events, and even the rest of the Losers, and it wasn’t until Mike called them that they began to remember. However, at the end of the movie, they all left Derry again (including Mike) and retained all their memories, whereas in the novel it was completely different. The Losers went back to their respective homes and gradually began to forget again, with Mike also forgetting even though he stayed in Derry, as the town collapsed following IT’s defeat (which triggered a really bad storm). Mike’s records he had written down also began to fade, and he considered starting a new life somewhere else. Having the Losers forget everything again (and for good) might seem irrelevant to those who haven’t read the novel, but it actually holds a lot of meaning.
One of the themes addressed in IT is trauma, and how the mind tends to lock those painful memories away as defense, which is what happened to the Losers when they left Derry for the first time. As soon as they returned, their memories came back and the scars on their hands became visible, as a reminder of how their mission was not over yet and of all the trauma they never dealt with. All adults in IT (in both the novel and the movies) are oblivious to what’s going on with the Losers and the town in general, which is part of IT’s influence. Adulthood represents a loss of innocence, which is also why IT doesn’t go after adults – except, of course, for the Losers. The Losers forgetting what happened is also a representation of IT’s manipulation and later of how they’re finally released from it, but it also adds a mystical quality to the whole issue.
The Losers forgetting again the second time they leave Derry also adds a lot of drama to the story, as they won’t remember the bad stuff, but also the good things and their friends won’t be part of their memories anymore. Keeping this in the movie would have added a lot of emotion to the story, especially after the reveal of Richie’s feelings towards Eddie, and while it’s understandable why it was cut (as Stan’s letter wouldn’t have fit had they kept it), it would have done more good than harm to IT: Chapter Two.