IT Isn’t Clowning Around With The Scares
Readers, understand that I have read Stephen King’s IT and saw the two-part television special many moons ago. I tried reading Stephen King novels and his books start out well, full of great moments of horror. But the seem to stumble midway through the plot and always end poorly. IT, the novel, follows the same pattern. IT has a great beginning, interesting middle, and the most stupid, nonsensical ending. It needed to end better. Mr. King, seriously, what were you thinking?
The television adaption wasn’t terrible but wasn’t great either. Tim Curry was fantastic as the Pennywise the clown but television censors held back too much of the gore and horror.
But 2017’s IT was great.
Both the book and the television adaption told two stories, taking place from when the teens first meet the monster and then twenty-seven years later. But this new movie adaptation was only half the novel or when they first met IT and the months following.
For those of you not familiar with Stephen King’s IT and not tempted to read the synopsis on Wikipedia, the children in Derry, Maine, are disappearing. Teenagers are seeing their fears coming to life and a murderous clown stalking them.
The cinematography of this movie is amazing. And the writers (Chase Palmer, Cary Fukunaga and Gary Dauberman) do a great job in putting together the best parts of King’s story and taking out the weird non-essential sub-sub plots (not a typo) that would have confused viewers. The scares are good and there are plenty of them. Sometimes the characters do catch “stupiditis,” like splitting up in a haunted house, but the acting from everyone was good enough for me to forgive those scenes.
One of the strong themes in this film is about losing someone suddenly and dealing with loss. If you have lost someone close to you recently, or are sensitive to child abuse themes, or have a fear of clowns, this movie may not be for you.
Overall, if you want to see a horror film that will scare the crap out of you, with funny moments, good acting by an almost entirely unknown cast and a gripping story, IT is for you. Fans of the novel will love this movie.
IT (New Line Cinema, R, 135 minutes) 4.5 balloons out of 5.
