stephen king's IT

In October 1957, an evil shape-shifting entity known only as "It" awakens in the town of Derry, Maine. Taking the form of a clown named Pennywise, It encounters six-year-old George Denbrough when his paper boat is swept into a storm drain. Pennywise, standing in the drain, entices George into attempting to retrieve the boat. However, Pennywise rips off his arm and kills him.

The following June, on the last day of school, overweight Ben Hanscom flees a gang of local bullies led by Henry Bowers. Ben escapes into the Barrens, where he meets and befriends Eddie Kaspbrak and Bill Denbrough, George's brother. Over the course of the following summer, the three boys befriend Richie Tozier, Stan Uris, Beverly Marsh, and Mike Hanlon. The children, all outcasts, establish their circle as the "Losers Club."

The children gradually realize that they have encountered It in its various forms, as a mummy, a syphilitic homeless man, a possessed statue of Paul Bunyan, and a werewolf. Beverly heard the voices of dead children coming from her bathroom sink drain, while Stan encountered with the water-logged corpses of children when he became trapped atop the town's water tower. After Bill and Richie find a living picture of It in George Denbrough's old photo album, Bill steals his father's Walther handgun and goes with Richie to the abandoned house, 29 Neibolt Street. At the house the boys are attacked by It, each perceiving a different form of the creature: Bill sees It as Pennywise and Richie sees It as a werewolf. Both barely escape with their lives on Bill’s bicycle. Mike then retells his encounter with an enormous bird, which he had fended off by throwing a chunk of tile in its eye.

The Losers are not the only persons to encounter It; various children vanish to be found dead and mutilated days, weeks, or months later, if they turn up at all. The Losers determine to destroy the supernatural being and seek out means to that end. After some research in the town library, Bill discovers an ancient spell known as the Ritual of Chüd, in which a shapeshifting monster called a "talus" and a human shaman lock tongues and tell jokes; the first to laugh is devoured by the other. Bill believes this ritual will allow them to defeat and kill It. While the seven are building an underground clubhouse in the Barrens in mid-July, Mike Hanlon brings his father's photo album and shows it to them all. The group discovers that Pennywise has existed for many centuries in the Derry area. In one photograph, Pennywise again appears and threatens to kill them all, appearing to them all as their worst fears. The Losers are demoralized and uncertain how to proceed. Ben gives them the idea to perform an Indian "smoke-hole" ritual to receive spiritual guidance from whatever forces stand against "It". After a heated debate about whether or not the boys will allow Beverly to attend the ritual, she lashes out at them and they decide to draw lots to see who must stay in the fresh air on the chance that one of the Losers will collapse during the ritual. Beverly lights the head of a match, blows it out, and each of the boys select a match while proclaiming their love for her. She is left holding the last match and discovers that no match heads are burned. The Losers take this as a sign that they are all supposed to participate. They use their now completed underground club house and green wood to cause a blinding smoke, forcing most of the Losers into fresh air. Richie and Mike are the only two to withstand the smoke, and witness a vision of It arriving on Earth in prehistoric times. When the visions end, the Losers express still further doubt over their ability to battle the monster.

A few days after the smoke-hole ritual, Eddie goes to a pharmacy to pick up his asthma medicine. The pharmacist, Mr. Keene, reveals that the medicine is actually a placebo, and Eddie is not actually sick; his "asthma" is an invention of Eddie's mother, Sonia Kaspbrak. Eddie leaves, disbelieving, and, on the way home, is attacked by Henry, Victor, Belch, and a psychopathic boy named Patrick Hockstetter. The bullies break Eddie's arm and spit in his face in retaliation for the rock fight. Eddie convalesces in the hospital, and though the other Losers attempt to visit him, they are sent away by Eddie's overprotective mother. Mrs. Kaspbrak is cast as an unwitting agent of It, the creature attempting to use her maternal concern to split the Losers. Eddie stands up to his mother for the first time, and earns a small amount of autonomy from her ministrations.

As Eddie recovers, Beverly stumbles across the Bowers gang (including Patrick) in the landfill, literally with their pants down, lighting farts with fire for fun. She hides behind a junked car, afraid they will see and attack her, and waits for the gang to depart. After Belch and Victor leave, Patrick (who, in a back-story, is revealed to have murdered his baby brother) masturbates Henry, and offers him oral sex. In response, Henry threatens to reveal Patrick's secret: besides killing his brother (of which Henry knows nothing), Patrick has been trapping animals in an abandoned refrigerator and leaving them to suffocate. After Henry leaves, Patrick decides to dispose of the animal corpses, but when he opens the refrigerator, he is attacked by It in the form of dozens of winged leeches, his worst, and only real, fear. Before he loses consciousness, It appears in the form of a man with a melting face and drags him to It's lair. Patrick wakes up as It begins to feed on him. After Beverly's escape, the Losers (sans Eddie) return to the refrigerator and discover a message from It written in Patrick's blood, warning them to stop before It kills them, which sends Bill into a fit of maniacal rage. At Bill's pleading, the others agree to help him.

After Eddie is released from the hospital, Ben makes two slugs out of silver, believing the cinematic convention that silver will kill monsters. The group test fires slingshots and determine Beverly to be the best shot, and so the slugs are put into her care. The Losers return to 29 Neibolt Street and enter the house, its interior made magically huge and vertiginous by It. In a run-down bathroom, It attacks the Losers in Its Werewolf form, primarily focusing Its efforts on Bill, hoping to destroy the head of the Losers. After It injures Ben, Beverly injures It with one slug, but loses the other; however, the Losers chase It away by convincing It that a final slug is ready to be released upon It. The Losers realize that their united belief is the strongest weapon against It.

In August, It turns to Henry Bowers, whose sanity had been eroding throughout the summer, as Its minion. It provides Henry with a switchblade, with which the boy promptly murders his crazy, abusive father. Henry recruits the unsuspecting Victor and Belch and takes them into the Barrens, where they drive the Losers into the sewers. Under Derry, It attacks the Bowers gang in the form ofFrankenstein's monster, decapitating Victor and ripping half of Belch's face off, though Henry escapes. Wandering aimlessly for hours in the sewers, Henry ultimately falls into the Canal and drifts back into the Kenduskeag, where he falls unconscious for several hours. When he comes to, Henry returns home to find the police there waiting for him; as it turns out, It has framed Henry for most of the people that It killed both before and during the summer of 1958 (including Patrick, Victor, and Belch).

The Losers press deeper into the sewers and confront It in the form of a giant thing, which Eddie defeats using his asthma inhaler, proclaiming it to be battery acid. Finally the Losers come to Its lair, a chamber deep below the heart of Derry. On a small door leading the inner chamber, is a symbol which is Its name spelled a strange way, so that It can be interpreted as being a picture of whatever thing that a person fears the most. Once entering, the creature appears as a giant spider. Bill enters Its mind through the Ritual of Chüd and comes to a darkness beyond the universe, where Its true form resides: a mass of floating orange light. With the help of a galaxy-spawning entity called the Turtle, Bill defeats It and the monster retreats, grievously wounded. The Losers decide that It has been destroyed and attempt to leave the sewers, but find themselves lost. As the Losers panic in the dark, their mystical bond begins to fray. In order to keep the bond, Beverly has sexual intercouse with each of the boys. The Losers finally escape from the sewers, emerging at sunset. Stan cuts their palms with a shard of a coke bottle and the seven make a blood oath to return to Derry if It ever resurfaces.