Review of It (2017) by Tanner F — 25 Sep 2017

First thing's first: this movie is not very scary. 'It' itself is scary and creepy to the highest degree imaginable, but the movie as a whole is not. It's barely a horror film at all, it would be better classified as an adventure/coming-of-age film.

.. with a freaky-ass clown. There is very little suspense or tension built throughout the movie, and the scares it does achieve are mostly jump-scares. But that doesn't mean it isn't good... it's actually very good indeed and is a huge amount of fun - think "The Goonies" with a little "Nightmare on Elm Street" thrown in.

The 80's throwback setting, music, and references are reminiscent of the series 'Stranger Things', and it all works just as well in this movie as it does in that series. The story is well written, well acted, and well told, with a surprising amount of heart and humor (it's actually more funny than scary).

Bill Skarsgard does Pennywise proud, adding just enough to Tim Curry's iconic role to honor it without duplicating it. He is more sinister than Curry's creation, which works for the film, though I did find myself missing the humor inherent in Curry's Pennywise.

The kids are mostly well-cast and inhabit their roles with varying degrees of success, from Eddie (yeah! That kid is awesome!) down to Mike (*sigh*... poor Mike, he'll never get a fair shake). Then there is the problem in the casting of Beverly.

.. while the actress is good in the role, she looks at least 5 years too old for the part, and the fact that these little boys (and some grown men) are drooling over her is just skeevy. She is supposed to be 11, for Christ's sake, and the obvious age difference is made even more apparent by how her character is sexualized in the film (it's worth noting that the boys are all treated as children).

But what's infuriating to me about this movie is that with a few small tweaks, it could have been brilliant. There are some missteps that take it down a notch... for instance, the inclusion of the over-the-top murderous sociopathic bullies.

I mean, come on!! Even in the 80s, bullies weren't like this. If there is one thing this movie does not need, it's another villain, as Pennywise is perhaps the most evil and petrifying villain ever conceived.

I also didn't think there was much realism in how the kids' reacted to the things that they experience in this movie. They seem scared, yeah, but none of them captured how pants-shittingly terrifying it would be go up against a monster like 'IT'.

They all do things that no person, adult or child, would ever do in the situations in which they find themselves... it's cheap and so typical of horror movies, I was really hoping for better. Regardless of the flaws, I did really enjoy it.

There are enough nods to the book and original miniseries to make those of us who grew up with IT happy, without being beholden or restrained by them. IT is not for kids (there are f-bombs galore and scenes that would give kids nightmares for ages), but for those of us who were kids in the 80s, it's a real treat.