It is directed by
Andy Muschiette (Mama) and stars Bill
Skarsgård (Atomic Blonde), Jaeden Lieberher
(Midnight Special), and Sophia
Lillis. The movie tells the first half of the Stephen King classic and follows
the lives of seven preteens as they navigate through their summer vacation as
they must band together against an evil force terrorizing their home of Derry,
Maine.
It was a film
that I had been excited to see for some time. Although I have never read the
novel the movie is based on, the concept has always intrigued me. But the movie
spent some time in development hell with the talents of both Carey Fukunagwa (True Detective) and Will Poulter (Detroit) seeing untimely exits from the
project. Eventually a trailer was released and I was right back on board.
The best parts of the film lay not with the horror but with
the coming of age aspects. The kids feel like kids in the way that they
interact with each other and their response to the horrific scenarios they go
through on a day to day basis. For me the standouts from the Losers are Finn
Wolfhard (Stranger Things), who was hilarious throughout, and Jack Dylan
Glazer, who was the best at being scared which is surprisingly hard to do in
movies. The group as a whole felt very authentic and it’s kind of disappointing
that the sequel will have to focus more on the adults. The other standout was
Pennywise himself. Although not terrifying in the way that I expected him to
be, he was nevertheless effectively portrayed by Skarsgard. From certain ticks
of the character to his ability to flip a switch from unassuming to killer in a
matter of seconds was impressive. I hope to he gets more of an opportunity to
show his acting chops in the sequel, rather than being negated to only quick scares.
The scene with Georgie from the trailers is the best of the
movie as it sets up what’s to come as well as shows how horrible Pennywise
truly is. Unfortunately, after that the scares stop scaring almost all
together. As a horror movie, It just
was not very scary. My hypothesis for why is that the basis of the entity of It
is that it becomes whatever the character fears most, whether that be Pennywise
the clown or a group of zombies. But that is not going to be scary for
everyone. And when the special effects are done worse than what I can see in an
episode of The Walking Dead, it makes me wonder why I am going to the theater
and paying for a ticket rather than just staying home and using my Netflix subscription
instead.
The themes running throughout It do provide terror on their own. Seeing that sometimes the way
humans treat each other is worse than a flesh-eating clown left me thinking
about the movie long after its runtime. The film portrayed almost all the
adults in the town of Derry in quite a negative light, which I think could lead
to interesting subtext in the next film, as next time around we will be
cheering for the adults as they fight against the creature or whatever It
actually is.
Although I had problems with the movie, it still left me wanting to see a sequel. I think a higher production budget will help to build up the scares that the movie was lacking. Had I gone into It with my expectations of being scared tampered, I may have had a more enjoyable experience with the movie, but the lack of scares from this "horror" movie left a sour taste in my mouth.
Although I had problems with the movie, it still left me wanting to see a sequel. I think a higher production budget will help to build up the scares that the movie was lacking. Had I gone into It with my expectations of being scared tampered, I may have had a more enjoyable experience with the movie, but the lack of scares from this "horror" movie left a sour taste in my mouth.
When should you watch it?
Dollar Theater