It

     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.

When should you watch it?
Dollar Theater