Quentin Tarantino’s criticisms of Stephen King literally make no sense

Quentin Tarantino’s contributions to the form are undeniable. “Pulp Fiction is one of the leading examples of the independent cinema boom of the 1990s. “Inglorious Basterds” is one of the great anti-fascist films of the 2000s, and “Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood” is perhaps his best film to date. With all that said, he is a stubborn man who is often known for speaking out of his red apple. No one would deny Tarantino’s obscene wealth of knowledge surrounding the annals of cinema history, however His arrogance often leads to confusing or even completely wrong interpretations of other people’s worklike Stephen King’s song “It.”

King’s 1986 horror book about a group of New England outcasts fighting a cosmic evil in the guise of a clown named Pennywise is often viewed as one of his most famous stories, and rightfully so. It’s a massive script that showcases his best and worst tendencies as a writer, just like Tarantino. But the “Kill Bill” director has a strange opinion about this. In a 2019 podcast discussion about “Eli Roth’s History of Horror: Uncut” Tarantino talks about his belief that King’s “It” is a parody of Wes Craven’s “A Nightmare on Elm Street.” He said:

“He replaced Freddy Krueger with Pennywise. It’s just like he sees Nightmare on Elm Street – ‘Oh, that’s a really cool idea.’ She’s really smart. This is amazing. Well, let me take this idea and let me do it.” for me “Now his version will be a 560-page novel.”

You can draw some surface level parallels to the works of King and Craven by way of a group of kids being tormented by a shape-shifting evil with a loud mouth capable of harming them based on how much fear they show, but that’s about it.

Both Pennywise the Dancing Clown and Freddy Krueger are notorious killers whose negative powers affect their towns, albeit in much different ways. The “Elm Street” movies have played it a bit fast with how Freddy activates his powersbut mostly, the razor-fingered morgue hurts Springwood’s teens through their dreams. Meanwhile, the interdimensional clown hiding beneath Derry’s sewers represents a metaphysical threat all too present in the real world. Freddy is driven by revenge, while Pennywise is just doing it as a way to survive. Even aside from other in-universe details, like adults being intentionally oblivious to these monsters, Tarantino is wrong about “It” as a ripoff based on timeline logistics alone.

The original “Nightmare on Elm Street” movie hit theaters in 1984, followed by “It,” which hit bookstore shelves two years later in 1986. But it’s not that simple. For one, a 1980 profile from Toronto Star It proves that King had actually begun writing his horror epic four years before “Elm Street” came out. Although Craven certainly had ideas about murderous dreams floating around in his head since the 1970s, he didn’t start writing the film until 1981. Each artist worked within their own bubbles, and their work happened to coincide thematically in small ways. No one can confuse Pennywise with Freddy. So why would Tarantino claim that one was a rip-off of the other? The answer is simple: his wrong information.

In the same interview from “History of Horror” Tarantino admits he never did He reads “He-she.” “Now, if you talk to anyone who’s read the book… I’m now repeating what they say. I haven’t read the book,” Tarantino says. It should have been obvious that this was the case, considering that he thought the “order” was about 560 pages when this is about half its actual length. At the time, Tarantino had never seen the 1990 miniseries with Tim Curry, so he was leaving off the 2017 film and what other people had told him about King’s novel. Although he’s not a huge fan of the movie, he expressed interest in watching “It: Chapter Two” to see how it all turns out.

There’s also this weird moment where Tarantino acknowledges King’s support as a great auteur, but claims Craven’s screenplay for “Elm Street” wasn’t well written:

“He’s a great writer in that regard, so he fills it with minute details, and he fills it with his good prose. He fills it with his good writing, which Wes Craven didn’t have. Take all the cake frosting, all the little flowers that go on it, and all of that — it’s basically a parody of A Nightmare on Elm Street.”

And regardless of the fact that King’s story spans decades (and sometimes centuries), I won’t hear slurs directed at Craven regarding his involvement in the first “Elm Street.” It’s one of the best slasher movie scripts for a reason. In terms of making allegations of fraud based on the strong similarity between the two texts, All I can say is the greenhouse, Quentin. Glass houses.

“It” and “A Nightmare on Elm Street” are currently streaming on HBO Max.