IT (2017) Review
You already know what this movie is. You’ve seen the
trailers, maybe you’ve seen the mini-series from the 90’s, or read Stephen King’s
novel upon which this is based. A killer clown terrorizes a group of kids in a
small town. There’s more to IT than
that—“It” isn’t just a clown, it’s everything you’ve ever been afraid of.
I’ll cut right to the chase. This movie is superb. The
acting, writing, directing, everything is on point.
When you have a story featuring mainly child and teen actors,
casting is everything. They nailed it with this cast. There isn’t a single weak
link. Every kid is great, but for me Finn Wolfhard (from Stranger Things) as Richie was the standout. Even Georgie, featured
heavily in the marketing for this film, makes a huge impression for what little
screen time he has, and the adults are often as terrifying, if not more
terrifying, than the monsters pursuing the kids.

The story is familiar, obviously, and scenes you may
remember from the 90’s mini-series are re-done, but this time around, it earns
that R-rating. This movie went places I didn’t think it would go. They push the
boundaries. My jaw dropped several times throughout.

I watch a lot of horror movies, but rarely get genuinely
scared watching them. There were several scenes/moments in IT that had me truly frightened—personally, it’s the scariest movie
I’ve seen since The Conjuring. Tons
of the imagery is straight-up nightmarish, and like The Shining (yeah, I’m
comparing this to The Shining) the scares are varied
throughout. There are gory moments, effective jump scares, creepy visuals,
horrific concepts, and a lot of it doesn’t even come from Pennywise.
But of course you want me to talk about the clown. I don’t
know Bill Skarsgard from any other roles, so I was iffy on him portraying
Pennywise the dancing clown (minor spoiler: he actually does dance at one point),
but Skarsgard is terrifying. The voice, the movements, the subtle elements of
his performance, it all adds up to a compelling and disturbing performance,
aided by the excellent makeup effects.
I can’t say I agree with what some critics and fans are
saying about this being the best horror
movie/movie in general in many years, but I also can’t say I had any big
problems with IT, either. Though it’s
not without a few questionable moments of cgi, or a couple cheap jump scares,
or one or two characters that seem underdeveloped compared to others, overall
it’s really well done, and one of the best movies I’ve seen this year, which is
actually saying a lot.

If you are a Stephen King fan or just a horror fan in
general, though, you can’t miss this
movie in theaters. If you liked the mini-series, you’ll like this adaptation,
too. If you didn’t like the
mini-series, you probably will like
this interpretation. If you don’t know anything about IT and just want a scary good time with compelling characters and a
well-written script, you’re in for a real treat, because you likely won’t see
some of the most-horrific scenes coming. Basically, any and all viewers who
want to see IT should be satisfied.

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