There’s something sinister and awful about the modern horror movie formula. Take a creepy thing, throw it on the screen for some jump scares and roll it into a film. Often these films can either be awful (“Anabelle,” “The Boy”) or just good (“Mama,” “Lights Out”).
The few times a truly great horror film is made, it often receives little to no audience (“It Follows,” “You’re Next”), apart from “Get Out.” Now, with this big screen adaptation of Stephen King’s novel “IT”, things are going to change.
“IT” is set in Derry, Maine; a town so sinister, characters in other King works talk about it like it’s the portal to Hell on Earth. On the outside, its shown as just a typical American town. Kids get bullied, there’s a bridge and a main street. But for the Losers Club, the town is sinister.
One of the strengths of the film is that while yes, it is about a monster, it also shows the evil of the town itself.
When you’re a kid, it feels as though the adults just want to keep you from being yourself, and the film captures that aspect with a sinister smile. Pennywise is evil and creepy, but so are some of these adults.
This examination also extends to the movie’s treatment of its characters. While not everyone gets equal screen time, a remarkable amount of character development happens for a horror film.
They laugh, play, cry and get to live life when not being tormented. It strengthens the film because it makes these kids characters as opposed to bags of blood ready to pop.
The kids are all excellent; the screenplay successfully captures the foulmouthed glee of being alone with your friends as well as the casual nature of the insults thrown around. It feels and sounds like being a kid.
However, the best performances in the film belong to Sophia Lillis as Bev, the fiery female member of the Losers Club and Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise. Bill infuses a kind of white hot horror into his character.
He isn’t in your face with his creepiness. He lets it boil beneath the surface, saving it for the truly terrifying moments when it breaks forth.
Sophia plays Bev excellently. She is easily the best performed character from the Loser Club. There’s a weight to her performance, and her ability to be nuanced while everyone else is dying is a testament to her skill.
However, the problems with “IT” can’t really be solved without a complete reinvention of the material. It’s an ensemble film, and therefore, not everyone gets equal time to explore their horrors and motivations.
The worst of these is Mike (Chosen Jacobs) who is absent for most of the film. These Losers are great, just more even time between them would have helped.
Adventure film conventions also don’t help, as “IT” becomes predictable in its plot from halfway onward. That doesn’t make it any less scary, just slightly annoying.
That’s also part of the genius of the film. “IT” feels like a horror film due to its monster, but the rest of the movie feels like an adventure film from the 80s, something Spielberg would have made, like “The Goonies,” “Stand by Me” or “Labrynth.”
It’s a story about a group of friends facing an evil, and one of “IT”’s most successful elements is that nailing of that optimistic friendship.
Cinematographer Chung-hoon Chung (“Oldboy (2003),” “Stoker”) and director Andrés Muschietti (“Mama”) make this an incredible looking horror film with some great camera work and visually stunning designs. The camera effect of Pennywise's head movement cannot be described.
Andrés also does the smart thing by showing Pennywise early and often. Because the thing the film wants to get across is that he isn’t the only thing the kids should be afraid of.
“IT” is not only a great adaptation and a great horror film, it’s a horror film that is shot like an adventure movie.
Like mixing “The Goonies” with “Halloween,” Andrés delves deep, delivering stellar emotion and heart, great camera work, a killer script and music and excellent performances that almost make up for its waning predictability and uneven character focus. “IT” will scare you in all the ways you think it will, and more. 4.5/5