Budget: $35 million
Directed By: Andy Muschietti
So we finally get the redo of the 90s
adaptation of one of Stephen King's
greatest books IT. People were very
weary of this due to a number of reasons.
A few being the initial look of Pennywise,
rose tinted glasses over the original and just
plain old it's a horror movie being made
in this day and age so is it going to be any
good?
Right off the bat I will say this is going to include
spoilers for the movie so if you want to stop
reading here I'll just say this in short:
It's a great film with awesome coming of age
aspects, amazing kid acting seriously some of
the best I've seen, brilliant setting, they pull off
the 80s perfectly. The 135 minute running time
goes so fast it does leave you wanting more,
additionally they wait time we have till the
sequel considering it's not even cast as of now
is bad as I want more!
Now the bad stuff, the actual horror is VERY
hit and miss as in it works 50% of the time
well, the other 50% it's a little to goofy and
yes silly CGI. Goofy? I hear you cry? But he's
a clown surely it's meant to be silly?
Yes I get that and Pennywise is awesome in this sorry Tim Curry for blasphemy but you were best aspect of the 90s version you know that! But when as mentioned you get some silly CGI rotting guy, what happens to Georgie or headless boy wobbling at you it just seems so I don't know removed from the rest of the story. Now don't get me wrong this doesn't mean it's not needed I just think that could have been done practically for the guy and looked better, also a little less comically for the boy, Georgie is to spoilery to add here. With a modest budget it had some more practical effects would I have been nicer. I'm sure this isn't spoiling anything as it's not in context but when you do see it I'm sure you'll agree.
Now on with the spoilers I'm going to be breaking down the film here so don't read on any further unless you want to know more about the film!
The film starts with the typical opening of Bill making his little brother Georgie a paper boat to take advantage of the heavy rain outside. He sends his little brother to get sealing wax from the basement (their mother is playing so really tune in the pain too) Georgie is clearly scared and does does get freaked out but conquers his fears with a torch.
Completing the boat for his brother Bill watches as Georgie gleefully run's from the house to use his new toy. Unfortunately after a bump on the head Georgie is unable to keep up with the boat and it flows into a street drain. He is then greeted by a very dribbling freaky looking Pennywise, was so amusing to hear so many people gasp and squeal at this I just though it was funny because being afraid of clowns is just absurd to me at least. I did love his design and can see why people would be scared though.
Pennywise gains Georgie's trust through talking about fun things (an old woman comes out to see the rain and sees the kid kneeling at the drain eluding to the fact the townsfolk know that there's something going on with the town) luring him closer to the drain with the boat he then proceeds to bite Georgie's arm off.
Now this was shocking as it's a kid and you see him trying to crawl away in pain missing an arm, here's one thing though was it needed? I think just in my opinion something more subtle as just him vanishing would have worked just as well here, not that didn't like it it was visually gruesome and nasty but was it to just bump up the rating?
Anyway Georgie is dragged into the drain by the clowns extending arm, the woman watching on from the shadows of her porch step forward a bit just to see the kids blood mixed in with the rain in the street.
Cut to a few months later with Bill in school talking about checking out an area he thinks his brother might be, he doesn't believe Georgie could be dead despite everyone else thinking so, brilliant child naïvety. His first three friends are also shown here too. Richie, Eddie and Stanley who are leaving the school for spring break. We are then introduced to the school bullies the main one being Henry Bowers, who says he let bill have a free ride because of his brother but now he's going to make their spring hell.
We also see Beverly being bullied by other girls for being a slut, a young girl heavily hinted at to being abused by her father.
She runs into the 'new kid' Ben who despite being chubby and cumbersome seems to win over her heart. We also learn he's being bullied by Henry too. Lastly we see Mike who is home schooled as his grandad hates the town trying to dispatch a sheep with a boltgun, when he can't his grandad reprimands him, we learn Mike's parents died in a fire later on, he strangely enough is also bullied by Henry whenever he comes into town delivering meat to the butchers.
So one by one through either bullying by Henry or something scary happening to them they all meet up and become friends over the holidays.
Beverly helps them steal supplies to tend to a bullied, wounded Ben when they can't afford it. It's just great to see them all bonding and funny to see how googly eyed they get over Beverly as young teens.
Each kid is authentically different in attitude at style even in home life. Bills parents hate it that he won't drop it that his brother isn't dead, Richie is the funny one though we don't really see his home life and he seems the least effected and normal of the group apart from his nerdy appearance. Stanley is a young Jewish kid picked on for that also looked down upon by his father for not being able to learn his Hebrew properly.
Eddie is a mother's boy to a forced extent by his overweight mother who keeps him dosed up on many placebo's in an effort to keep him scared and dependent on her.
Ben is a new kid in town with no friends initially bullied for being overweight and new, it's very nasty what Henry does to him. Beverly and Mike I have already explained.
Anyway the kids bond making friends and experience life with each other, Ben has done research on the town as the new kid so he knows about disappearances over the years. Most of them are skeptical or at the least unable to believe that there's some kind of entity haunting Derry. Then each one of them have a run in with Pennywise making each of them believe to some degree, though some choose to not believe.
The biggest shove to believe is when they are all together and the clown attacks them all from out of a set of slides. They confront the clown a number times which tests some of their friendships even to breaking point, ultimately they find that together and being not afraid is their main strength against the evil clown demon. When Beverly is taken by Pennywise the kids regroup and go to save to her despite earlier confrontations.
I'll end it there so I don't completely spoil the film, at least it's ending, which as you know we rarely do here on THN unless the films a real stinker. In final words I really enjoyed IT and to see that a R rated (though only 15 rated in UK) has done so well is another good sign, especially seeing that it gives a green light to the sequel too which I personally would have loved to seen cast by now (Amy Adams would make a perfect older Beverly she look JUST like her) Spoiled only by for me at least by some iffy horror at times also jump scares never work on me but they were brilliantly timed and I always watch the reaction of the audience to which was funny and genuine.
If I could give IT a 4.5 stars out of five I would i'm really really split I didn't like the CGI, headless easter egg boy being all wobbly and wiggly and the whole Georgie thing. Bugger it Stephen Kings IT Chapter 1 Gets a full 5 out of 5 Stars from THN!
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