"It" Review
*I have not read the novel or see the miniseries. I also like clowns.*
Stephen King adaptations -there have been bad ones, good ones, and great ones. "It" is one of the good ones.
We follow seven kids- yes, seven!- who all individually encounter this inexplicable extra-dimensional creature who seems to be very fond of terrorizing children and manifesting itself as a clown. Right off the bat, I thought that maybe seven is a bit too many to follow within a two-hour duration. After watching it for the first time (I do intend on seeing it again!) my thoughts have remained unchanged. Out of the seven protagonists, six of them had dramatic weight to them while the last one is kind of left in the dust only to serve as a plot device towards the end of the movie, kind of. The second and third acts all seem a bit formulaic and cliche along with its scares. But bear with me -this movie is very good and there are a myriad of things that I enjoyed.
For starters, this film features a relentless onslaught of scares. Having over half a dozen kids while there's an evil child murdering Lovecraftian creature on the loose means that we get, half a dozen more scares per minute (that's like 7 spm... I think I've worked out the math). Sure, each scare has an obvious set up but they're done in the most spectacular way imaginable. Hats off to the movie for making some of the most creative scares in horror movie history!
The dialogue and performances are all very sharp -Sophia Lillis in particular with her mature and badass take on Bev and Bill Skarsgård as the eponymous "It" creature -holy shit, that's a wacky performance.
Watching "It" is a lot like going to the circus. You get to see an assortment of feats and it wows regardless of how obvious the formula or set ups are. It's fun and highly memorable and serves as the crowning achievement of contemporary big-budget horror. If it happens to actually scare you in the process, then it succeeds at a higher level than it already did for me.