IT 2017 | Movie Review

*SPOILERS*

Author: Stephen King
Published: 1986

Miniseries: 1990
Movie adaptation: 2017
Director: Andrés Muschietti

The first time I watched IT was back when I was a teenager, it gave me nightmares and put me off of clowns, I wouldn't dare tell people my fear of them because they would purposely try to scare me. Tim Curry played the original IT clown, he is a phenomenal actor and brought IT to life so well he gave kids and even adults nightmares, the original IT was released back in 1990 and is based on Stephen Kings novel from 1986. The latest adaption had a lot of hate thrown at it even before it was released, some people aren't fans of remakes and don't see the point and I do see why they feel this way because it's usually hit or miss much the same with sequels, there have been so many times I was proved wrong when I thought a sequel couldn't top the movie. I wanted to give the IT remake a chance, the cast alone looked like they would do it justice especially with Finn Wolfhard who played Mike in Stranger Things, his role in that show was fantastic and his acting never felt forced.

The movie gets straight into the horror, it was a scene people found sickening due to how graphic the murder scene with poor little Georgie, that scene alone freaked me out a little but I knew what I was getting myself into from watching the original one so I don't know why I was so surprised about it. IT is set in 1988, a young boy named Bill makes his little brother a paper boat so he can play in the rain with it, but asks his little brother Georgie to get the wax so they can make the boat float, float being the important word here as it's heard a lot throughout the movie. Georgie does as he is told and Billy seals the boat with wax, off Georgie goes outside to chase after the boat on the road whilst the rainwater helps it sail along. I guess back then people weren't too worried about their kids playing in the road even when it was pouring down with rain! 

Whilst playing outside Georgie's boat floats into a storm drain and Georgie runs after it, there he meets a clown who introduces himself as Pennywise the dancing clown (from the look of him I would have run away and just left the bloody boat bit Georgie thought his brother would be mad that he lost it) Georgie explains he has to go and Pennywise asks him if he wants his boat and makes him come closer, the next bit was pretty graphic as I said before, he bites Georgie's arm off, poor little guy tries to get away and Pennywise extends his arm and pulls him into the storm drain leaving behind his blood.

The movie flashes forward, more and more children in the town going missing, parents and residents are becoming increasingly concerned, I mean who wouldn't be that would scare me shitless and I wouldn't want my kids to leave the house. Since Bill's brother has gone missing he has become obsessed with finding him and thinks he has a lead, he believes Georgie's body washed up in the marshy wastelands called the Barrens but when he tries to tell his father this theory he doesn't want to hear it. Bill ends up telling his friends and they set out to see if Bill is right,  I don't know about you but this reminded me of the movie Stand by Me where the boys set out to find the body of a young man in the forest (great movie by the way).

Whilst out looking in the Barrens they bump into their friend Ben who has been targetted by the Bowers gang, Ben recently found out that this isn't the first time kids have gone missing on such a big scale like this, in fact, this had been happening for centuries and people still had no idea why. Whilst in the Barrens the boys find a shoe belonging to a missing girl, which freaks them out, to say the least, one of the Bowers gang members was still pursuing Ben and was caught by IT inside the sewers, so that was another name to add to the list of missing children. At first, I didn't feel bad for the gang member Patrick but as time went on I did feel dread for his family and felt his death was very bittersweet.

I found the boys to be very likable, they have such a friendly and approachable demeanor about them, yet they were such an easy target for bullies, this is why the nickname the losers club perfectly fit them as it's how other people viewed them, I personally didn't find them to be losers, they were smart enough to look after themselves and learn more about IT. The boys are happy enough to have a girl join their gang, Beverly, there were a lot of rumours going around about her but she has a very troubled and awful upbringing which this movie was able to approach in a very clear way, although we didn't see the abuse she suffered at the hands of her father his character made it very clear that he was a disgusting excuse for a father.

Bill and Ben are very much in love with Beverly or so they think, they take her kindness as a sign that she likes them more than a friend which is a typical thing for a lot of people, I know how some people seem to think that being kind is a signal of flirting. Along with Beverly, another boy joins the losers club called Mike who has had a lot of abuse from the Bower's gang, what better way to piss them off than becoming mates with people they hate. By this point, IT has targetted all 7 members of the losers clubs and wants to feast on them but those kids are stronger than they look. Each member of the group have their own issues going on but as a gang, they are able to push these issues aside and work together as a group in order to survive, I would say out of all of the gang is Bill and Ben are my favourite, both boys seem very sure of themselves and are very headstrong at times, Georgie's disappearance leaves Bill with a lot of guilt, he loves his brother a lot and now has to face life without him but he won't not until he finds out what has happened to him.

The kids work out themselves that IT awakens every 27 years to feed on the children of Derry then goes into hibernation. Throughout the rest of the movie, the gang is able to use their fear and determination to push them to try to destroy IT, but alas that wouldn't happen and we will have to find out what happens next in part 2! The movie was executed well, the horror and gore weren't cheesy and was able to send chills down my spine, Bill Skarsgård who played IT was brilliant for the whole, his whole persona made each scene with him in believable although I did feel he gave IT his own twist rather than trying to be like Tim Curry. I've watched through this version of IT a few times now just to see if I missed any bits the first time, what I didn't notice the second time I watched were the camera angles they used to set each scene, when I studied this in college I loved it and realised how changing the point of view from a camera angle change a scene completely. The original IT terrified me but this 2017 version didn't I'm not saying that's a bad thing but I would have liked to have had a little scare from the movie this is why I gave it a 4/5, Tim Curry's version scared the hell out of me!