The 2017 remake of Stephen King’s IT finally hit theaters, but even the R‑rated version left out a handful of the novel’s most unsettling moments. Below we count down the ten disturbing aspects that were sliced from the film, from gruesome murders to twisted teen dynamics.
Disturbing Aspects You Missed in the Film
10 The Death Of Eddie Corcoran
In the movie the Losers’ Club merely mentions a missing kid named Eddie Corcoran, but King’s book drags us into a night‑time nightmare. Eddie ventures out to a Derry park alone, clutching a report card that threatens to expose his stepfather’s cruelty. The darkness is already thick, but the real terror begins when a shadowy figure stalks him.
When Eddie finally reaches the park’s front gate, he trips over a bench, lands in the damp grass, and turns to see the creature that has been hunting him. It’s not the clown Pennywise at all, but a hulking monster straight out of the Black Lagoon. The beast clamps its hands around Eddie’s throat, and the boy convinces himself it can’t hurt him. The horror culminates when the monster rips the boy’s head clean off his shoulders.
Even though that fate is gruesome, the book hints that Eddie’s decision to go to the park alone may have spared him an even worse fate at home, where his younger brother’s story is far more horrifying.
9 Eddie’s Corcoran’s Little Brother
When Eddie wanders into the park, the apparition that haunts him is none other than his own little brother, Dorsey. IT, being a shape‑shifter, takes the form of whatever scares you most. For Eddie, the memory of Dorsey’s brutal death is the ultimate nightmare.
Dorsey was found at the hospital with a fractured skull. The stepfather claimed a ladder accident, but the medical examiner called his story a lie. Evidence showed the child had been beaten nearly to death with a blunt instrument—most likely a hammer—and then dumped at the hospital to die.The stepfather eventually broke down and confessed to the hammer‑blow, saying, “I don’t know what came over me.” When asked if Dorsey said anything before he died, the man recalled the boy whispering, “Stop Daddy, I’m sorry, I love you.” The father’s chilling reply? “Eventually.”
8 Henry Bowers, The Racist
The 2017 film reduces Henry Bowers to a mullet‑wearing bully with a short fuse. King’s novel, however, paints him as a truly vile human antagonist, complete with a litany of racial slurs aimed at his African‑American victim, Mike Hanlon. Young Henry is disturbingly well‑versed in every imaginable epithet designed to wound.
The 1990 miniseries kept two of those slurs on screen, but modern sensibilities have pushed the newer film to omit them entirely. While the omission spares contemporary audiences from the most offensive language, it also softens the picture of just how evil Henry can be.
7 Beverly’s Mother
In Muschietti’s adaptation, Beverly Marsh (Sophia Lillis) lives with a creepy, predatory father. The book adds another layer of horror: her mother, who witnesses the abuse, turns a blind eye. Instead of stepping in, the mother watches as the father’s lecherous comments and lingering glances become a daily nightmare for Beverly.
The mother’s inaction amplifies the terror because someone who should have protected her daughter is complicit by silence.
6 The Leper
Fans of the movie will remember the grotesque leper that stalks little Eddie near the gates of the Neibolt Street house. The film captures the leper’s repulsive appearance, but King adds a disturbing personality trait: the leper masturbates in his pants while chasing Eddie and repeatedly begs the boy to let him “suck his c—k for a dollar.”
The combination of skin‑crawling sores and a lecherous, pest‑like predator makes this character one of the book’s most unsettling creations.
5 Henry And Patrick
In the film, Patrick Hockstetter is a pyromaniac with little depth. In the novel, he’s a far darker presence, and his interactions with Henry Bowers get truly unsettling. Beverly wanders into the town junkyard, expecting a slingshot‑filled afternoon. Instead, she discovers Henry and Patrick huddled together, their pants down, lighting farts—an odd, juvenile act that quickly turns menacing.
When the other bullies depart, Patrick starts to sexually molest Henry. Henry initially seems to go along, but then violently rejects Patrick, berating him for his “homosexual impulses.” The scene blurs the line between teenage cruelty and outright sexual violence, leaving Beverly to wonder how quickly the boys might assault her if she were caught.
4 The Death Of Patrick Hockstetter
Patrick’s comeuppance is as bizarre as his crimes. After Henry storms out of the junkyard, Beverly follows Patrick into the woods where he keeps an old, busted‑up refrigerator. Inside, he discovers… flying slugs. These insects have long, mosquito‑like proboscises that pierce skin and suck blood.
One slug latches onto Patrick’s arm, filling it with blood. Another darts onto his face, pierces his closed eyelid, and drains his eye fluids. As he screams, a third creature flies into his open mouth, sucking the gunk from his tongue, forcing him to swallow it. The grotesque tableau ends with Pennywise dragging the still‑living Patrick into the sewers for a final feast.
3 Patrick Hockstetter’s Pets
Patrick’s cruelty extends to animals. Early in the novel, he’s known for trapping flies in his pencil box. Later, he discovers a forgotten refrigerator deep in the woods and begins stuffing it with pets—a puppy, a kitten, and progressively more neighborhood critters.
The sequence is deliberately omitted in most readings because of its sheer brutality. It hints that Pennywise may be grooming Patrick to become a kind of junior horror‑agent, mirroring the clown’s habit of making children disappear.
2 Patrick Hockstetter’s Baby Brother
Patrick grows up as an only child, keeping his dark impulses in check. When his parents welcome a second child, his behavior spirals into truly horrific territory. One stormy afternoon, after his school bus drops him off, Patrick sneaks into his baby brother’s room while the mother naps nearby.
He methodically murders the infant, taking several attempts before succeeding. The father later uncovers the truth but deliberately chooses to bury the secret, never revealing the atrocity.
1 Love And Desire
This is the most controversial cut of all. In the novel, after the Losers’ Club defeats Pennywise in his lair, they find themselves lost in a pitch‑black tunnel beneath Derry. With no light, they risk perishing.
Beverly proposes a radical solution: she takes each of the six boys to a secluded corner of the sewer and has sex with them, one after another. King describes the scene in explicit detail, calling it “Love & Desire.” The bizarre act somehow re‑energizes the group, allowing them to navigate the darkness and emerge back into the world.
Whether you view the chapter as a twisted expression of childhood intimacy or as an exploitative shock, it remains one of the most disturbing—and omitted—moments from the film.