IT: Movie Review
“In the film, there were some laughs, some jump scares, however; it was a fairly scary movie overall and overly-hyped,” says an anonymous sophomore. “Performance-wise, this film was better than the 1990 version with a better ending,” says junior, Emanuel A. “It was my first horror movie to see in the theaters. I hate horror, but this was a really good movie,” says sophomore Matthew McGrath.
Yes, everyone is talking about the scariest movie on the block: It. Based on the 1,138-page novel by the “master of horror,” Stephen King, It is about a group of kids called “The Losers’ Club” who live in the fictional town of Derry, Maine in the 1980s. The movie features a stuttering hottie named Bill (played by Jaeden Lieberher), a heavyweight, New Kids on the Block-loving sweetheart named Ben (Jeremy Ray Taylor), an awesome female lead named Beverly (Sophia Lillis), an asthmatic neat-freak named Eddie (Jack Dylan Grazer), a pop culture-loving, wisecracking geek named Richie (Finn Wolfhard), a scaredy-cat named Stanley (Wyatt Oleff), and an animal loving kid named Mike (Chosen Jacobs). The group of kids are harassed by a messed-up bully named Henry Bowers (Nicholas Hamilton) who sees murder as his only option. And if that wasn’t enough, the kids are also tormented by an out-of-this-world shape-shifting clown named Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård), who feeds off of the losers’ fears and eats kids every 27 years.
Pennywise tortures each kid one-by-one. Bill’s little brother named Georgie (Jackson Robert Scott) is killed by Pennywise early in the movie, and Pennywise now uses Georgie to torture Bill. Ben loves to research on Derry and is tormented by Pennywise that he is in fact a fat nerd. Beverly has an extremely creepy, alcoholic father, who worries too much and doesn’t want his little girl to grow up and move out which is her perfect scaring tool. Beverly also gets choked by her own hair after she cuts it and is splattered in blood from the tortured souls that Pennywise claimed (yeah, she got it the worst out of everyone else). Eddie is constantly being chased by a really scary leper (someone who has leprosy). Richie is scared of clowns so… you could probably connect the dots from there and Stan is scared by an abstract flute lady which scared me the most. Meanwhile, Mike has an encounter at the meat factory where his parents blew up. Together, “The Losers’ Club” decides to kill this thing once and for all, while trying to avoid their parental figures who are overbearing.
Most people thought this movie was going to be terrible because Stephen King movie and miniseries adaptations are known to be terrible, in particular the It miniseries, which had Tim Curry as Pennywise. Especially since Tim Curry played a sweet, singing alien transvestite in probably the best movie-musical ever made, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which is why it is easy to imagine he was not very scary. In addition, with the recent butchering of The Dark Tower, it is even easier to imagine the critics not going head-over-heels for It. But, it was awesome!
Everything was perfect! The story, the action, the perfectly natural comedy! The best part of all is it was actually scary. The main problem with the It miniseries was that instead of being scary, the miniseries was hilarious. However, the new remake keeps the audience on the edge of their seat, waiting for the next scare. And it’s not just jump scares. All of the makeup and monsters are scary-looking, even with the CGI. However, what really scared me was when the words “Chapter One” appeared at the end of the movie. The best part of the book was the part with the losers. In addition, the movie ignored that Pennywise turns out to be a big spider at the end. What a letdown. Let’s hope “Chapter 2” is just as good, but I am lowering all expectations.
GRADE: A-
