It Review: This Latest Stephen King Adaptation Definitely Floats to Success

I don’t think there is a name that get’s more mixed reactions when an adaptation of his work is announced than Stephen King. On the one hand, you have a large group of absolute classics such as “The Shawshank Redemption”, “The Shining” and “Stand by Me”. On the other hand, you have complete and utter misfires such as “Maximum Overdrive”, “Thinner”, “Dreamcatcher” and this years incredibly disappointing “The Dark Tower”. Which brings us to “It”, both the latest Stephen King adaptation and remake to the 1990 miniseries of the same name. While the mini series may be iconic, I would argue that it hasn’t aged well due to dreadful pacing and completely crapping the bed in the third act. Luckily though, you never have to go back to the old “It” anymore, because Andy Muschietti’s “It” improves upon the original in very way by telling its own unique story and providing enough scares to make anyone’s nerves float.

Set in the year of 1989, “It” takes place in the town of Derry Maine and follows the adventures of The Losers Club, a group of social outcasts among the kids of Derry. After many people in the town go missing, including the leader of The Losers Club’s brother, the kids begin to be haunted by a clown named Pennywise, played by Bill Skarsgård. They realize that Pennywise is a force that comes to haunt Derry every few decades and because no one will believe them about this, it becomes their job to stop it. Now I know what your thinking. “Well that’s a great synopsis of the first half of this book, but what about the second half where all the kids are all adults?” Well, that’s one of the best parts of this movie, and that’s that it decides to only focus on the child story and not get overly jumbled. You never jump to the adult focus of the book, and instead are left in the 1980’s as you watch these characters become developed. A great part about this movie is that Derry feels like a character in of itself. We see why no one wants to live in this town as we see that everything inside it was awful even before Pennywise showed up. The main purpose of this movie was to set up this great ensemble of young characters as we see them go on this creepy adventure. And each of the kids are thankfully heralded by great performances, because this is one of the best collection of child actors I have seen in a long time. Jaeden Liberher is great as the leader of the Losers Club in Bill, who due to losing his brother one year a go, is determined to stop Pennywise and save the town. Liberher plays the stuttering characteristics of Bill extremely well and you get why this group of kids has chosen to follow him. Finn Wolfhard is excellent as Richie who very much serves as the comedic relief for the film. Most of the jokes in the film come from him and they are surprisingly funny, mainly due to the fact that they seem like jokes that kids that age would make. Most of the kids in the Losers Club tend to tolerate Richie more than like him, and you see why through Wolfhard’s endearing but somewhat annoying performance. My favorite character and the best performance of the movie however is Berverly, played by Sophia Lillis, who is the only girl in the Losers Club. Beverly easily has the darkest past of kids due to her uncomfortable relationship with her father that is shown subtly through out the film. We are never told exactly what goes on between these two and are only given clues through Lillis’s performance. Lillis plays the character of Berverly as both an outsider, and as someone who doesn’t lose hope, and the combination of these helps you understand why she doesn’t fit in with other girls at her school. The other performances by the other kids are good too, though their characters aren’t quite as well developed. Obviously Bill Skarsgård had to live up to the iconic Tim Curry performance, and in my opinion, completely surpasses the old Pennywise. Unlike Curry’s performance which was very much played for laughs and really not that scary, Skarsgård is an incredibly creepy clown as he gives off uncorfortable and creepy vibes. In the first scene of the movie where we see Pennywise talking to Georgie in the sewer, we understand why a kid would be both scared and intrigued by this thing due to Skarsgård’s performance. You can tell he was having a lot of fun while filming this movie, mainly in part to his over the top but chilling performance. This movie has big cast and other than Nicholas Hamilton who plays Henry Bowers, who I just thought was cliched bully character, they all help move this nostalgic and horrifying story along.

Now with this movie being a horror movie, you may be asking yourself one question. “Is this movie scary?”. And to that I say “yes and no”. This movie is undeniably creepy due to the atmosphere and setting. Whether it’s the fast edits this movie often pulls or the excellent and ambient score, you will at most points during this film feel at the very least unsettled. But I wouldn’t say I was ever really scared throughout this movie. Pennywise uses the each kids individual fears to haunt them, so obviously the points in this movie that are supposed to be scary are their to put the kids in danger and not necessarily scare the audience. While it does give you a worrying feeling seeing kids in danger, unless you get scared very easily, I don’t see this movie leaving you terrified. As I mentioned before, this movie has an excellent atmosphere to it, often balancing the lightheartedness of these kids going an adventure and the disturbing implications of many children going missing throughout Derry. However, there are parts in this film where it loses its tonal balance and becomes a little to cute. For example, the character of Ben, played by Jeremy Ray Taylor, has an odd obsession with the band New Kids on the Block. This obsession is brought multiple times throughout the movie for comedic effect and it rarely ever works. It wouldn’t be such an issue except for the fact that they keep on calling back to it through out the movie. There is even a point where Ben is looking at Beverly in an obviously affectionate kind of way, then it immediately cuts away to a New Kids on the Block poster and does record scratch. There is also a point in this movie where one of the bullies yells at Beverly in slow motion saying “YOUUUU BITCHHHH!!!!” causing Richie to scream rock fight commencing the kids to throw rocks at each other. These sudden tonal shifts were definitely my biggest issue with the film and for me kept the film from being amazing. Other than these scenes however, the rest of the film is directed extremely well. Muschietti certainly knows how to create tension within a scene, and you see that through the due to the foreboding atmosphere in this film. Without spoiling anything, there is a scene that involved a projector that made my veins crawl up inside my intestines it was so creepy. Also, the scenes where he shows us Pennywise terrorizing each kid individually is especially creepy, with special mention going to the scene in Beverly’s bathroom and the one that involves Eddy, played by Jack Dylan Grazer, walking home from school. While this movie is set in the 1980’s, it doesn’t hang its hat on the decade quite as much as you might think. There is barely any 80’s music as the film instead uses its fantastic score, and the kids talk like your every day kids, with maybe a couple of 80’s slang thrown in there here or there. With amount of 80’s nostalgia we see in movies and TV now a days, I’m happy that this movie doesn’t hang its hat on it to much. Now, despite this movie being only part one of the entire “It” story, it still clocks in at two hours and fifteen minutes. I feel like this run time is earned because aside from a part near the end of the second act where our characters split up due to a stupid misunderstanding. And that is in very large part to Muschietti’s fantastic direction as he not only focused on the kids as characters, but also the town of Derry as character in and of itself. We understand that this town is small, awful, and absolutely no one wants to stay here, and this an important bond to have with this location as we will be returning to it in chapter two.

It’s uncommon for a good horror movie to come out now a days. It’s even more uncommon for a good remake to come out now a days. But low and behold, not only do we have a horror remake in theatres right now that has made boat loads of money, but it’s also just a really good movie in its own right. While this may not be my favorite King adaptation, what Muschietti does with this film is take a TV movie that hasn’t really held up, cut it in half, and make it stand on its own, which only makes me more excited for “It: Chapter Two” in 2019. In the end, “It” is a great horror movie that is presented through it’s wonderful young cast and its excellent direction, which can honestly best be described as “The Goonies” but R rated. If you don’t like horror, I don’t see this movie changing your mind. But if you are fan of being scared , then I would definitely recommend seeing it in the theatres. This is one movie that after watching, will definitely leave craving more of it.

 

Final Score: 8.5/10 (Great)