Review of It (2017) by Pipec — 25 Sep 2017

A diabolically unlaughable clown.

When children of all ages begin to disappear mysteriously in the small and the acerbic town of Derry, a clan of little boys, self- recognized under the pseudonym of The Losers' Club, will have to face their biggest and most remote fears, coming in the form of saffron hair, creepy nose, accused forehead, manipulative eyes and puffy balloons with great amounts of terror. Now, say hello to Pennywise!

After Will Poulter dropped out, Bill Skarsgård was the one who seized with propriety and promptness of the star antagonistic role. His Pennywise is rogue, disturbing and dreadful, however, having to keep solid his function of film adaptation, the character relegates his duty to produce fear in order to have a preference for a more fantastic vision, utopias that seriously impair the impact it must have in the genre. Most of the jump-scares coming from Bob Gray are discredited by the perceptible and even crappy CGI saturation, however, ingenuity and originality in the introduction of each of his appearances is laudable and is one of the most remarkable and spooky facts as far as horror is concerned. It's disappointing to testify that despite his performance full of strength and magnetism, he never managed to reach the levels of glory of the opening sequence.

After the abrupt and disquieting Cary Fukunaga departure, Andy Muschietti is put behind the cameras impregnating his hoarding touch for horror in every frame, marks revealed by impressive Hollywood debut "Mama". It has to be recognized that Muschietti fathoms the ways to conceive and play with the camera in order to set up an in crescendo atmosphere, Besides having a critical eye to conceive beautiful visuals and moving characters, however, the filmmaker loses control of the film at the instant that sets aside the importance and coherence of the story by cheap and ephemeral scares. It's also worth highlighting a homogeneous mixture of genres and original tension sequences, having the ability to revolutionize the ablatives of the audience in the twinkling of an eye. In addition to being the greatest pillar for the movie, he proudly exhibits clear references to today's horror film; to name just one: "The Conjuring" universe, with the use of infinite horror tricks, in fact, one scene and one character resemble some particulars of the third installment of Wan's world. The under-age actors are, far and away, a mass appeal for the plot, their performances are sparkling and touching in the formation of the audience-characters fundamental link. While the infants will always be much more likely to create a true connection, the young septet achieves a relatively high-performing level, however, many of them do it with sadly stereotyped characters as Finn Wolfhard's big- mouthed comic relief (Richie Tozier), Jeremy Ray Taylor's loving and credulous paunchy (Ben Hanscom) and Chosen Jacobs' tormented boy (Mike Hanlon). But the tradition is broken with tremendously novel characters and zero clichés as the tough-minded and human protagonist Jaeden Lieberher (Bill Denbrough), the incredibly Jewish Wyatt Oleff (Stanley Uris) and, of course, Sophia Lillis' subversive and bad-ass role (Beverly Marsh), who is certainly one of the most fascinating female juvenile performances in recent horror.

Written by Chase Palmer, Cary Fukunaga and Gary Dauberman, of course, on Stephen King's legendary pedestal, the story and script are below average in general terms. They choose to focus attention explicitly on the meetings between the members of the club and the Dancing Clown, giving sub-plots of dramatic weight to the supporting characters, in addition, the self-same main character doesn't get a short mention about his mother and father, it merely presents the moral and emotional conflict with his traumas, comrades and his little brother. Andy Muschietti doesn't disappoint, but sadly he doesn't overwhelm us. His remake/revival of Pennywise tale, which will come in only two installment, provides sufficient amount of fidelity in the visual field, however, the movie clearly fails to show its narrative aspects and horror tools, which fall apart, gradually, because of the sudden ton of fantasy that stifles the last act. For habitual audiences, "It" (2017) will endure breaking records thanks to an efficient marketing campaign, global childhood nostalgia, the sincere literary followers, the great doses of suspense and traditional jump-scares, however, for the most draconian and true lovers of the genre and the works of the author, the film doesn't really explore new horizons, besides, suffers from a lack of true horror nuance, slighting it by drama and suspense experiences that leave us a sense of nonconformity and even sadness when we see rolling down the closing credits, due to the abrupt ending of the story that does not have the same horror dimensions as the acts of its evil villain.