Legendary director Quentin Tarantino isn't afraid to voice his opinions about anything, but his hot-take about one Stephen King classic is just plain wrong. Tarantino was thrust upon the world stage in the early 1990s with his stunning directorial debut, Reservoir Dogs. He would follow that with Pulp Fiction, and he was soon the new cinematic voice of his generation.
Quentin Tarantino's movies are easily recognizable for their snappy dialogue, unique approach to narrative, and abundant use of graphic violence. His films have often skirted controversy, and he is known for pushing the boundaries of taste in mainstream movies. Nevertheless, the Academy Award winner remains a Hollywood icon after more than 30 years in the business.
Stephen King is an author who needs no introduction, and the King of Horror is still one of the bestselling writers more than five decades after his first novel hit shelves. Though King is revered for his ability to scare the wits out of readers, it's actually his character work and deep world-building that have made him such a success.
Naturally, many of King's works have been adapted into movies and TV shows, thus making him a master of horror on the page and screen. Quentin Tarantino and Stephen King's paths haven't often crossed, but the former had some big opinions about the work of the latter. While everyone is entitled to their own opinions, Tarantino was way off base.
Quentin Tarantino Called Stephen King's It A "Ripoff"
Pennywise makes a silly face while holding a balloon in It
While appearing on Eli Roth's podcast back in 2019, Quentin Tarantino got on the subject of Stephen King and director Wes Craven. According to CBR, Tarantino described Stephen King's It as "basically a ripoff of A Nightmare on Elm Street" insinuating that Pennywise was basically a carbon copy of Freddy Krueger.
Tarantino claimed that King essentially said "let me take that idea and do my version of it." King's version became a massive novel, while Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street was a sleek slasher that revitalized the sagging genre in the mid 1980s. It's unclear exactly why Tarantino took pot-shots at one of King's most famous books.
It may have something to do with King's unfavorable review of Kill Bill: Vol. 1, one of Tarantino's greatest films. King called the movie "narcissistic," though he did praise Tarantino's filmmaking as a whole. The author certainly went against the grain with his takedown of the martial arts masterpiece, but King is sometimes known for his controversial takes as well.
Tarantino's assessment of It is quite simplistic, and he may not actually know the story all that well. There are some similarities between A Nightmare on Elm Street and It, but there are way more differences. King's antagonist is an interdimensional creature that feeds on people, while Krueger is a supernatural being of pure vengeance.
The Timeline Just Doesn't Add Up
Pennywise talks to Georgie through the storm drain in Stephen King's It
Quentin Tarantino is an expert on cinema, and his opinions about movies often hold a lot of weight. However, his comments about Stephen King's It show his ignorance of literature, or perhaps his unfamiliarity with the book he was lambasting. Some of what he said on the podcast is factually inaccurate, which undermines his entire argument.
Primarily, Tarantino's claim that Stephen King saw A Nightmare on Elm Street and decided to rip it off can be refuted when looking at the timeline of the novel's creation. According to The Toronto Star, King had the first kernel of an idea for It in 1978, but he wouldn't put pen to paper until 1980.
It would take over half-a-decade for the massive tome to finally be published, which meant the book came out a full two years after A Nightmare on Elm Street. The bulk of the book's writing timeline happened before the movie existed, so it's safe to say that the ideas in Wes Craven's film couldn't have had much of an impact.
What's more, Tarantino described the book as being "a 560-page novel," which is also factually incorrect. This mistake could be chalked up to Tarantino's off-the-cuff comments, but the exaggerated length of It is one of the book's defining features. The novel is actually more than 1,000 pages, double what Tarantino said in his podcast appearance.
Tarantino Is No Stranger To Borrowing Ideas Himself
The Bride stands with her back to men in masks with swords in Kill Bill
It would be incorrect to say that Tarantino rips off his ideas, but many of the smaller details from his movies are directly from other sources. His big concepts are original and fresh, but he peppers them with things he loves from his favorite movies. Neither artist is guilty of ripping anything off, though Tarantino sometimes flirts with the idea.
It's entirely possible that Quentin Tarantino let his love for A Nightmare on Elm Street blind him, or he got caught up in the internet culture of unnecessary hot takes. Either way, he did have nice things to say about King's writing. Tarantino praised King's prose, a quality that can't really be denied by even the hottest of takes.
