Review of It (2017) by Mariela S — 18 Dec 2017

Scary Movie? This One is IT!

If you're a horror fan, then you most likely know about the famous novel "It", published in 1986 and written by one of the best (if not the best) authors of horror and supernatural fiction, Stephen King. This award-winning novel was listed by Publishers Weekly as the best-selling book in the United States in 1986, and is well known by many horror fans in America. Its popularity grew so much that in 1990, the novel was adapted into a two-part miniseries directed by Tommy Lee Wallace. This miniseries won 3 awards, 2 nominations and was watched by 30 million viewers in it's premiere. This movie soon became one of the best and most known horror films from its time, which led movie producers to create a new adaptation in 2017. This new movie was released on September 8 of 2017 and has already won "Best Horror, Golden Trailer" award of 2017 and has been nominated for 11 other awards. With this said, the 2017 movie "It" had very high expectations because of the novel's popularity and did a great job at going beyond the expected.

This movie tells the story of seven children in Derry, Maine, who are terrorized by a being that takes the appearance of a clown and each kid's worst nightmares. The first appearance of the clown happened when Georgie, Bill's seven-year-old brother went out to play with a paper sailboat that Bill had made for him. The paper sailboat went down the stream as Georgie ran along by it. The sailboat then fell down the storm drain and when he tried to retrieve it, he encountered a clown who was inside. He introduced himself as Pennywise the clown and asked him if he wanted to join him and the other kids. The little boy said no. Pennywise understood, but told him to reach out if he wanted his sailboat back. When he reached out, the clown turned into a scary monster and ate the little boy. This scene is the most iconic of the whole film, since the novel, the miniseries and this movie start out like this. Just like Georgie, many other kids went missing. Nobody knew where they had gone or what was going on until horrifying things stared happening to Bill and to his six other friends. In the movie you get to see each kid's individual experience with the being, see them work as a team to stop the vanishings of the kids and to eliminate the evil clown that was terrorizing and killing the children of Derry.

Although this is mainly a horror movie, this film has bits of drama, personal situations of the characters and also has a comedic twist to everything. One minute you'll be super scared, the other you'll be laughing out loud and then be brought to tears with the situations of the characters. This is one of the things I enjoyed most about the movie. It doesn't just explore one feeling on the whole film. It makes you feel many different emotions. That's something that is not so easy to achieve in a movie and I feel that they accomplished it flawlessly.

The scary moments of the movie were mostly with the being transformed into a scary clown. The clown was loud and his faced changed from normal to frightening in seconds! He changed to a monster looking clown with huge sharp teeth and red glowing eyes. Apart from looking creepy as a clown, the monster also transformed into the kid's worst nightmares or things to lure them to him. To lure Bill to him, for example, he transformed into his little brother who had died and to scare one of Bill's friends, Stanley, he made himself look like a creepy creature from a painting the boy feared. This of course made the kids very scared, which is exactly what the clown wanted. These parts of the movie were horrifying, the special effects were great, and the creatures were some of the creepiest I've ever seen in a movie. There were also jump scares that of course add more spook to the film. With all this said, if you were looking for a good horror, this one will terrify you from the beginning until the end.

Apart from being horrifying, this film had me in tears several times. Two of the most emotional things for me were scenes where Bill mourns his little brother Georgie, and the relationship between Beverly (one of Bills friends) and her father. Bill of course feels terrible loosing his brother and even worse, knowing how he died and who killed him. We can notice his sadness and grief all through movie and it's a sentiment in which we can all relate to. Another thing that made me feel so sad and angry was the trauma between Beverly and her dad. Their relationship was very abusive. There are scenes where he says very strong things to her, he is physically abusive and seems to make comments implying that he has sexually abused her before. These scenes are very sensitive and will make anyone drop some tears.

Although most of the movie is dramatic and scary, there are also many funny times in this film. You laugh a lot with the interactions between Bill and his friends. There's one kid in particular, Richie, who is the funniest in the group. He has a comment or joke to say even in the worst situations, so his characters always finds how to light up the mood in the movie. What I really enjoy about this is that even though there's so much things going on in the film, the creators of the movie found a way to lighten it all up from time to time.

In summary, I would rate this film 5 out of 5 stars. I enjoyed everything about this movie. It's very similar to the novel and the mini-series, but I feel like you get so much more than just your typical horror story. I would definitely recommend this movie to anyone that can handle a good horror film and is in search for something a little different from the usual.