Since its announcement back in 2015, Andy Muschietti's IT has quite possibly been one of the most anticipated horror movies of the year. For the entire time, it has been teased and trailered in an abundance of promotions, but it didn’t just end with trailers. During San Diego Comic-Con, Warner Brothers had a popular exhibition that showcased full clips from the movie, as well as a VR “Experience” video that is still available on YouTube, and just last month, a fully developed haunted house experience cropped up on Hollywood Boulevard in LA. It’s easy to see that IT’s marketing team had quite some fun with its campaign, and it certainly did the trick for fans.
So after months of hype and anticipation, my co-editor Daniel and I watched IT during its opening weekend. To put our sentiment simply? IT was glorious! IT begins on a rainy day in October 1988, as Georgie is playing with a paper sailboat his older brother Bill made for him. He watches the boat in delight as its floats down the stream of rainwater, but a moment of inattentiveness and his little boat disappears in a gutter. Georgie peeks into the gutter to see if he can recover the boat, only to find “Pennywise the Dancing Clown” greet him. The clown tempts Georgie with promises and sweets, and even offers to return Georgie’s boat. What could possibly go wrong when Georgie reaches out to grab the boat the creepy clown offers? A moment later, Georgie is lying in a puddle of his own blood with an arm missing. Torn from his body by the creepy clown who is not yet satisfied and drags Georgie into the gutter with him. Several months later, Bill has still not gotten over his brother’s disappearance, all the while more and more children are vanishing from the town of Derry. Soon, Bill and his friends Ben, Beverly, Ritchie, Mike, Eddie, and Stanley start getting the sense that something is off. Finally overcoming their fears, they each admit to each other that they had horrific visions that seemed to be manifestations of their worst fears. They band together as the “Loser Club” and vow to put an end to Pennywise’s reign of terror once and for all, which seems to descend upon Derry every 27 years. As you can certainly tell, IT is not a movie to be taken lightly. Muschietti’s take on the Stephen King horror classic is far darker and brutal than Tommy Lee Wallace’s TV adaptation from 1990 that most fans are familiar with. Is that a good thing? Yes, absolutely. In fact, Muschietti’s IT much more accurately reflects the menacing and gritty tone of the original novel it is based on. Although I found the 90s version to be an enjoyable experience, it was never really scary, or even creepy to be honest. 2017’s IT is a completely different calibre! I must commend Muschietti's direction, because there are a number of truly creepy moments in the movie. While there are numerous jump scares, which seem to be mandatory in modern horror movies, IT offers so much more than that. Oftentime, Muschietti chooses to build the horror elements, stacking them on top of each other until the main scare jolts the viewer out of the seat. A personal favorite moment that perfectly captures this was the “Egg-Boy” chase scene. It was the perfect mixture of a creepy gradual build-up using audio and visual elements. But what truly rooted the movie, were the amazing performances by the cast, who all did an amazing job filling the shoes of the citizens of Derry. The kids are simply spectacular! Each and every piece of dialog they utter feels entirely natural and fluent. It never once sounded off or came across cheesy. Each of the kids are perfect fits for their parts, and especially Ritchie (played by Finn Wolfhard) stands out as he continues to make truly hilarious remarks throughout the film, which, in fact, helped defuse some of the incredible tension of certain scenes. The adults were just as good. Many of them appearing like absolute creeps and slightly unstable whenever they’re onscreen—just the way they were meant to be depicted in King’s universe, seen through they eyes of the kids. But let’s not forget the star of the show, Bill Skarsgård and his absolutely amazing performance as Pennywise. Tim Curry did a great job when he took the role in the 90s television version, considering the tone of the entire production. Bill Skarsgård puts it into a completely different league. His Pennywise is every bit as sadistic as he is flamboyant. A true walking menace. From the strangely upbeat voice, the sinister smile and insane laugh, all the way to the spastic movements, Skarsgård embodies Pennywise in ways that Tim Curry never could’ve done. This new Pennywise is ruthless, primal, and, quite simply, absolutely evil. I have no doubt that he will very quickly, and rightfully, claim the crown for modern horror villains. Despite all the praise, the movie is not altogether perfect. Nothing is perfect, and IT is no exception. As I mentioned earlier, although the movie does not make excessive use of jump scares, there was still the odd handful scattered throughout that simply pulled me out of the experience and reminded me that I am watching a horror movie made in the 2000s. Another–albeit minor–complaint I have is that that soundtrack is at times simply a little too overt. Although it did a fantastic job in driving the film forward more often than not, there were a few moments where I felt that the sound design went just a little overboard. I also wished the movie made more use of circus music motifs (which was one of my personal favorite things about the original 90s adaptation). Of course, this is coming from the guy who prefers minimalism when it comes to most soundtracks, so you need to take my opinion with a grain of salt. My other chief complaint would be that the movie actually seemed to completely skim over Ritchie’s greatest fear. While the movie confronts each of the other kids with their innermost fears, for some reason, Ritchie’s werewolf was omitted entirely. Would have been nice to see how the filmakers would have handled it design-wise. I should also mention that I have a personal tick when it comes with the new Pennywise’s appearance at times—namely his eyes. I can’t figure out if it’s intentional or not, but half the time he was on screen, his eyes tended to look rather dopey, staring slightly in opposite directions, something which nearly made me burst out laughing in the middle of the theater on occasion. In the end, however, I have to tell you: Muschietti’s IT remake was great, and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. The pacing never got dragged down, the horror elements were solid, and served the film well. It never got gratuitously gory and it never went overboard with CGI effects. Most importantly, is is incredibly suspenseful and entertaining and offers tons of stingers and shocks, just enough to make you uneasy and jump in your seat. In a word, it’s a great scare, and the perfect movie to lead into the Halloween season. I implore you, if you haven’t seen IT yet, do yourself a favor and check it out. If you hop on over to our local Krikorian theater, you might even be in for a special treat. No, I’m not talking about the defective projection screen in their auditorium, but about the staff adding scares by floating red balloons through the audience halfway through the film. They’re even said to have hired young students to don a yellow raincoat, similar to Georgie’s, and sprint across the darkened room. Quite the experience! Time for me to go back and see it again…
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