Quentin Tarantino Calls Out Stephen King’s Biggest Box Office Hit as a Rip-Off — Does He Have a Point?

Quentin Tarantino once tossed a grenade into horror nerdland: back in 2019, two years after It crushed at the box office, he said Stephen King basically copied A Nightmare on Elm Street. Bold claim. Let’s unpack what he actually said, why it doesn’t hold up, and where Freddy and Pennywise really part ways.

What Tarantino said

On Eli Roth’s podcast 'History of Horror: Uncut,' Tarantino argued that It is essentially Wes Craven’s Elm Street with the serial numbers filed off.

'He just replaces Freddy Krueger with Pennywise.'

He went further, praising the idea itself like King saw Elm Street and ran with it:

'That’s really clever. That’s cool. Well, let me take that idea and let me do my version of it.' Now, his version of it is going to be a 560-page novel.

The catch: he hasn’t read It

Here’s the twist: Tarantino admitted he hasn’t read King’s book. He was repeating a take he said he’d heard from fans.

'Now, if you’ve talked to anybody who’s read the book … now I’m just repeating what they’re saying. I haven’t read the book.'

Also, that page count? He guessed 560. The 1986 novel is actually 1,138 pages. Not a small miss.

The timeline problem

King started writing It in the early 1980s. Elm Street hit theaters in 1984. It the novel was published in 1986. Could King have seen Elm Street, then written and published a doorstop novel in two years? Technically possible, wildly unlikely. More importantly, It’s DNA doesn’t really match the Elm Street concept once you look under the hood.

Freddy vs. Pennywise: not the same monster

Freddy Krueger is a dead human serial killer who stalks and murders you in your dreams. You can fight him by ripping him into the waking world or, in some entries, by starving him of your fear. He’s a supernatural slasher with a very specific ruleset tied to the dreamscape.

Pennywise is something else entirely: an ancient, shape-shifting entity that feeds on Derry for ages at a time. He doesn’t just spook you; he marinates you. He uses fear to 'salt the meat' and then literally eats children. It’s closer to cosmic horror than a dream boogeyman. Same studio vibe, totally different mythology.

So is Tarantino wrong?

Short version: yeah. The comparison might make sense at a glance (evil thing terrorizes kids, fear matters), but once you get into the details, they diverge hard. One is a nightmare-stalker driven by a personal vendetta; the other is a predatory, almost Lovecraft-y force of nature. And again, he hasn’t read the source material.

Quick numbers: It (2017) vs. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

• Directed by: Andy Muschietti (It) / Wes Craven (Elm Street)
• Cast: Bill Skarsgård, Finn Wolfhard, Jaeden Martell (It) / Robert Englund, Heather Langenkamp, Johnny Depp (Elm Street)
• Release year: 2017 (It) / 1984 (Elm Street)
• IMDb user score: 7.3/10 (It) / 7.4/10 (Elm Street)
• Rotten Tomatoes score: 85% (It) / 94% (Elm Street)
• Worldwide box office: $702 million (It) / $25 million (Elm Street)
• Production house: New Line Cinema for both
• Where to watch: HBO Max for both

Different beasts, same studio, both iconic. If you’re asking me: Freddy and Pennywise might both feast on fear, but only one of them puts you to sleep before the killing starts.