IT (2017) review

I finally had the opportunity to sit down and watch IT with my family.  I could have watched earlier in the week but then I would have been tossed into the sewers by the family for doing that.

The short, version: 

I absolutely loved IT.  It had everything that a PROPER horror movie needs.  The right amount of gore/violence, sense of dread, humor, intelligent writing, and plenty of atmosphere.  If you are big ole scaredy cat, you need to seriously avoid this movie because it will fuck you up.  If you are already fucked up like me or love a good scare, you need to see this and you need to see this on a large format screen to truly appreciate this in its full glory.

The long version:

This is not your dad’s IT from 1990.  While Tim Curry was amazing as Pennywise the Dancing Clown, the TV miniseries overall was poorly executed.  Bill Skarsgård brings something completely new to the part and comes across so much more creepy and menacing.  Maybe I am physiologically damaged or callused but the movie did not frighten me in the slightest.  It could also mean I have seen WAY too many horror movies in my life and I KNOW that it is fake and it did not scare me like it has many other people.  However, I did recognize that it was a truly frightening movie to many others.  To be honest, I was actually giddy like a school child watching the horror unfold on the screen.  If you are one of those babies that needs a stupid trigger warning, you might as well just save your money,  stay home in your safe space and play with your stuffed animals because this movie is NOT for you.  Again: me giddy, you trigger babies probably curled up in the fetal position and sucking your thumb holding your blankie.  There was one thing that I did find to be truly disturbing and it was the adults of Derry. They were so much more truly disturbing than the clown himself. Therefore, I may not be as damaged as I stated because I know that there are real monsters like them in the real world.

I may have not read the original book but I do know the story well enough through osmosis from the biggest Stephen King fan I know out there…who I happened to be married to.  Over, this movie is fairly true to the book with some very minor changes and it also had a character or two that did not fully get fleshed out as they should have been. Other than that, it hits every mark including the gruesome deaths.  Do not think that because there are children in the movie that the director and producers of the movie will shy away from any harm to them on screen.  They depict that horror on screen as close and viscerally as they could from what was written on the page.

Even though the movie was somewhat long for a horror movie, it moved at a pretty decent pace.  I felt slightly that it did not have enough breathing room to help build up the dread as much as it should between each scare.  However, the movie still was able to build up the enough needed dread in the short space between each scare.  Kudos to the director, editor and writers on that. On top of that, the writers and director used a clever trick of having well placed humor in the dialog with the kids, especially with Finn Wolfhard (also of Stranger Things) who played Richie.  Besides the humorous dialog with the kids , there was a great dynamic with the kids which felt oddly familiar, especially if you had seen STAND BY ME and /or STRANGER THINGS.  They only kid I felt that was not given the proper screen time was the character of Mike played by Chosen Jacobs. 

Lastly, for those that are going to brave the crowds or just the movie itself, I strongly suggest that you spend the extra money and see it on an IMAX or any other large format screen.  That just helps you get more immersed into the movie.  I saw IT on my IMAX screen which had a highly aggressive sound mix with an amazingly deep low end that rattled the building.  The other large format screens have a similar aggressive as well.  

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed IT and I am sure that you King fans and fans of horror in general will be very pleased with this first part of what will be a two part movie.  For the rest of you that are scared of clowns or are one of those people that needs a trigger warning for everything, do not bother showing up.  It only feeds IT more of what it wants...delicious fear.