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This Slate Spoiler Special is meant to be played after you see the movie being discussed.

Hello, this is Dana Stevens, Slate's movie critic, and I'm here with a Slate Spoiler Special podcast on It, the new Stephen King adaptation directed by Andy Muskeetti, and starring a whole host of talented teen Thespians.

So joining me in the Slate studio to Talk It are Aisha Harris. Aisha is a culture writer at Slate and the host of the Great Slate podcast represent. Hey, Aisha. Hey, I'm glad this is back. Yeah, me too. And I'm glad you guys are here for it. I'm actually really happy about the reinstatement of the spoilers. It's one of my favorite Slate things to do. And I'm joined by Sam Adams, who is the editor of Slate's culture blog, Brabaudit.

Hello. about the reinstatement of the spoilers. It's one of my favorite Slate things to do. And I'm joined by

Sam Adams, who is the editor of Slate's culture blog, Browee. Hello. Hey, Sam. So I'm going to go over

quickly with you guys what your qualifications is a strong word, but what your interest was and coming in

for this It spoiler. So I just want to know about your history with this property It, which was a

1986 novel by Stephen King.

It was one of its most successful novels, I think. And very long, it's like an 1100-page tome, which has already been adapted once as a TV miniseries with Tim Curry as It, who will get into who it is in the 90s.

So what is your background with It and why did you want to

come in and talk about this new version? I went through a pretty big Stephen King phase, I guess,

probably mostly in high school and on into college, which would be when I read It along with a lot

of other things. And it definitely made it a big impression on me, perhaps an 1,100 page impression or so. I mean, I think it was before I'd gotten to the stand. So it was the first of these kind of enormous, like Stephen King mega novels that I'd read, which I guess he's, he's only done a few that really fall into that. The stand is one I remember reading. And is one of the scariest books I've ever read. And for a book to be scary, you know, especially if you're a movie person, is kind of going some. I remember sort of like screaming, you know, like turning the pages and squealing over developments in the stand. Certainly the first one of his that I read before reading The Dark Tower, something of, which kind of moves into more kind of fantasy

and extra-dimensional realms.

But I think this was the first time I've encountered something like this in Stephen King

where it really just kind of goes off the rails.

And it's no longer just about like, you know, a killer car or a rabid dog or something

of that, but gets into this really kind of weird, sprawling cosmic territory. Right. And it's true, as we'll get into, really psychological horror in the, in the true sense. Aisha, what about you? I've never read a Stephen King book. I'll just admit this right now. I don't know why. I just haven't. Something on my to-do list. But my first encounter with it was when I was

nine years old, I was at a 10th birthday party for one of my classmates. And she was like a very big

horror buff, even at 10 years old. And her parents... She's now a goth somewhere. Maybe, I don't

know. I haven't spoken to her in 20 years. And her parents, for whatever reason, were also the type of parents who would just let their kids watch whatever they wanted. My parents were not like that. So a bunch of nine and 10-year-old girls watched the first cassette of it, because it was like two cassettes and it was too, like, it was a mini-series. And I remember I was already scared of clowns to begin with. And then when this came on, it terrified me. I did not sleep for weeks. I had dreams. Even though you only made it through cassette one. Well, it is there. I had no idea what was coming. I've never heard of this book. I was nine years old. And so to see him,

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