Stephen King’s 1986 masterpiece, It, is a massive book. It’s a thousand-plus pages of cosmic horror, childhood trauma, and the kind of Maine atmosphere that feels damp and heavy. Most people remember the clown. They remember the red balloon or maybe the terrifying Georgie scene at the sewer grate. But if you’ve actually read the uncut novel, you know there is one specific moment that stops readers dead in their tracks: the it orgy scene. It’s arguably the most controversial passage in the history of modern horror literature.
Honestly, it catches you off guard. You’re deep into the tunnels under Derry, the Losers’ Club has just faced off against a trans-dimensional spider-god, and they’re lost. They are terrified children who have just survived the impossible. Then, suddenly, King pivots into a ritualistic sexual encounter involving Beverly Marsh and the six boys. It feels like it belongs in a completely different book.
What actually happens in the tunnels?
Let’s be clear about the mechanics of the plot here, because context is everything, even if the context is bizarre. The kids are exhausted. They’ve defeated Pennywise—or at least they think they have—but the psychic bond that kept them together is fraying. They can’t find their way out of the pitch-black sewers.
Beverly, sensing the group is literally falling apart, decides that they need a "bridge" to stay connected and find their way home. She initiates a sexual sequence with each of the boys. In King’s prose, this isn't written as a smutty thrill; it’s framed as a transition from childhood to adulthood, a way to cement their collective power through a shared physical act. It's meant to be a literal loss of innocence to gain the strength of maturity.
The problem? They’re eleven years old.
Even for 1986, this was a massive swing. King has talked about this quite a bit in the decades since. He famously told Bloomberg that he wasn't really thinking about the sexual aspect in a "predatory" way, but rather as a rite of passage. He’s also admitted that he was in a very different headspace back then, often struggling with heavy substance abuse during his most prolific years in the 80s. That doesn't "excuse" the scene for many readers, but it explains the fever-dream quality of the writing.
The total absence from the movies
You won't find the it orgy scene in the 1990 miniseries. You definitely won’t find it in the 2017 or 2019 Andy Muschietti films. It’s the one part of the book that is universally considered "unadaptable."
👉 See also: Is Heroes and Villains Legit? What You Need to Know Before Buying
Cary Fukunaga, who was the original director attached to the 2017 remake, actually had a version of it in an early script, but it was heavily modified. Even then, the studio knew it was a non-starter. You can have a clown eating a child’s arm on screen, but you cannot depict a group of pre-teens in a sexual ritual. It’s the hard line of modern cinema.
Muschietti opted for a "blood oath" instead. It serves the same narrative purpose—binding the kids together—without the radioactive controversy. It makes sense. Honestly, the movie works better without it because the scene in the book is so jarring that it pulls you out of the horror and into a state of "Wait, what am I reading?"
Why King wrote it (according to King)
If you look at King’s larger body of work, he’s obsessed with the boundary between being a kid and being a "grown-up." In It, that boundary is porous. He wanted a "counterpoint" to the horror. In his mind, the monster represented the death of childhood, so the act of sex represented the messy, complicated entrance into the adult world.
He’s on record saying: "I wasn't really thinking about the sexual aspect of it. The book deals with childhood and adulthood, the 1950s and the 1980s. The fans have always had a strong reaction to it."
That’s a bit of an understatement.
Literary critics have torn this apart for forty years. Some, like Grady Hendrix, who wrote Paperbacks from Hell, see King as a writer who always pushes things too far to see where they break. Others view it as a massive failure of editing. If you’ve read the book, you know there’s a lot of "weird" stuff that didn't make the movies—like the Turtle (Maturin) who vomited out the universe—but the it orgy scene remains the primary point of contention.
✨ Don't miss: Jack Blocker American Idol Journey: What Most People Get Wrong
Cultural impact and the "Internet Lore" effect
Social media has given this scene a second life. On platforms like TikTok and Reddit, there’s a constant cycle of "New readers discovering the It sewer scene." It has become a piece of internet lore, a "you have to see it to believe it" moment for Gen Z horror fans.
This creates a weird disconnect between the movie fans and the book fans.
The movies are polished, scary, and relatively mainstream. The book is a sprawling, messy, sometimes brilliant, sometimes deeply uncomfortable exploration of the human psyche. When people talk about the "true" version of It, they’re talking about a story that includes a giant space turtle and a controversial sexual ritual. It's not the sanitized version we see on HBO Max.
Is the scene actually necessary?
This is where the debate gets interesting. From a pure storytelling perspective, the kids need a way to find their way out. They are lost in a metaphysical sense as much as a physical one. King’s argument is that only an act of total, selfless vulnerability could bridge the gap between their fractured minds.
But does it have to be that?
Most modern readers say no. The bond of friendship, the shared trauma of fighting Pennywise, or even the blood oath used in the movies covers that ground perfectly well. The it orgy scene feels like King trying to be transgressive for the sake of being transgressive, or perhaps he was just so deep into the "Macroverse" lore he’d built that he lost sight of how it would land with a general audience.
🔗 Read more: Why American Beauty by the Grateful Dead is Still the Gold Standard of Americana
It’s worth noting that the "Losers" are characterized by their "otherness."
- Bill has his stutter.
- Ben has his weight.
- Richie has his mouth.
- Eddie has his (imaginary) illnesses.
- Stan has his religion.
- Mike has his race (in a very racist town).
- Beverly has her abusive father.
They are already outcasts. The scene was likely intended to be the ultimate moment where they shed those labels and became a singular unit. Whether it succeeds or just leaves a bad taste in your mouth depends entirely on how much you’re willing to buy into King’s "extreme" brand of 80s storytelling.
How to approach the book today
If you’re picking up It for the first time, you’ve gotta be prepared for the fact that Stephen King in the 80s was a different beast. He wasn't just a horror writer; he was a guy trying to write the "Great American Novel" while also trying to scare the pants off people.
The it orgy scene is toward the very end of the 1958 timeline. By the time you get there, you’ve already spent thirty hours with these characters. You’ve seen them bleed. You’ve seen them cry. For some, the scene is a betrayal of that emotional investment. For others, it’s just a weird, dated artifact of a writer who didn't have an editor brave enough to tell him "no."
To understand the controversy, you have to look at the era. The 1980s were the heyday of "Splatterpunk" and transgressive fiction. Writers were constantly trying to one-up each other in terms of what they could put on the page. King, though more mainstream, was part of that ecosystem.
Actionable Insights for Readers and Collectors
If you're interested in exploring this side of King's work or the history of the novel, here’s how to navigate it:
- Check the Version: Every print version of the novel It contains this scene. Unlike some books that get "bowdlerized" or censored in later editions, King has kept the text intact. If you buy a copy at a bookstore today, it’s the same text from 1986.
- Read the Context: Don’t just skip to the controversial part. The scene only "works" (if you can call it that) if you’ve read the preceding 1,000 pages of character development. Isolated, it's just shocking. In context, it’s a strange, psychic climax.
- Explore the "Macroverse": If the weirdness of the sewer scene interests you, look into King’s The Dark Tower series. It explains where Pennywise comes from and why the kids needed a "psychic bridge." It puts the "It" lore into a much larger, albeit still very weird, perspective.
- Listen to the Audiobook: Steven Weber’s narration of It is widely considered one of the best audiobooks ever made. He handles the controversial ending with a level of gravitas that makes it feel less like a "pulp" moment and more like a tragic, inevitable part of the characters' journey.
Ultimately, the it orgy scene remains a permanent scar on a beloved classic. It’s the reason the book will always be more "dangerous" than the movies. Whether you view it as a deep metaphorical ritual or a colossal mistake, you can't talk about It without talking about those few pages in the dark under Derry. It’s part of the legacy. It’s messy, it’s uncomfortable, and it’s pure, unfiltered Stephen King.