Movie Review: It

It  **** / *****

Directed by: Andy Muschietti.

Written by: Chase Palmer & Cary Fukunaga and Gary Dauberman based on the novel by Stephen King.

Starring: Jaeden Lieberher (Bill Denbrough), Jeremy Ray Taylor (Ben Hanscom), Sophia Lillis (Beverly Marsh), Finn Wolfhard (Richie Tozier), Chosen Jacobs (Mike Hanlon), Jack Dylan Grazer (Eddie Kaspbrak), Wyatt Oleff (Stanley Uris), Bill Skarsgård (Pennywise), Nicholas Hamilton (Henry Bowers), Jake Sim (Belch Huggins), Logan Thompson (Victor Criss), Owen Teague (Patrick Hockstetter), Jackson Robert Scott (Georgie Denbrough), Stephen Bogaert (Mr. Marsh), Mollie Jane Atkinson (Sonia Kasprak).

 

If Stephen King’s It was just about a scary clown, it likely would have be a half remembered story, like much of (even very good) King stories – he has so many after all. Yet, It has endured, and in the minds of some (like myself) it is King’s masterpiece – the best distillation of all of King’s themes into one, 1,100 page masterwork. Sure, some stuff in it is goofy (King, like many horror authors doesn’t always find interesting explanations for the supernatural elements of his work – which work better until they are explained) or, um, misguided (?) problematic (?)/sexist (?) (if you’ve read the book, you know what I’m talking about – and if not, it doesn’t appear in the movie) but King’s portrait of the horrors of small town/suburban life, friendship, abuse and terror remains one of the best books of its kind ever written. They’ve been trying to make it into a film for years – the 1990 TV movie version I think remains terrifying only to those who experienced it as a child (it is the reason my wife doesn’t watch horror movies) – when I first saw it, as an adult about 10 years ago, it was fine nothing more. But how do you make that epic novel into a movie? Can you? The new big screen version of It probably does the best job you can do in terms of the structure – saving all the adult stuff for a probably part 2 (giving how the film is expected to do at the box office, there definitely will be a part 2) – and focusing on the childhood stuff – which is both horrifying, nostalgic and incredibly sad. The film is instantly becomes one of the best King adaptations ever – a film that captures the feel of King’s novel, while shrinking the action down to a more manageable size.

 

The film’s scariest scene is its first – where poor little Georgie ventures out in a rainstorm, and chases the boat his big brother Bill (Jaeden Lieberher) made for him, as its gets swept down a sewer. That is when he, and we, meet Pennywise the Clown (Bill Skarsgard) – who is both instantly creepy and terrifying, and yet somewhat goofy – enough that it makes sense that he’s able to drawn Georgie to him. It’s a terrifying, and surprisingly bloody, sequence - and it hangs over much of the rest of the action. Most of the movie centers on Bill and his friends – The Losers Club – as they try to figure out what happened to Georgie – and all the other kids, who seem to be going missing. No one else is looking into this – so they’ll do it themselves. (The presence of Finn Wolfhard, the lead from Stranger Things, as the profane Richie highlights just what a huge debt that series owes to King and It)

 

King has always excelled at combining supernatural terror with real world trauma – and with It, he hit his peak. The film doesn’t back away from that real world trauma, as I assumed it might. The Losers Club is full of kids whose lives would be miserable even if there wasn’t a demonic clown stalking them – Eddie (Jack Dylan Grazer) a victim of his mother’s Munchhausen by proxy, the lone girl Beverley (a wonderful Sophia Lillis), who it is strongly hinted is being sexually abused by her father – and on and on. They all have to deal with the bullies – led by Henry Bowers – who go above and beyond where most bullies stop. While the film is nostalgic for the 1980s time period it evokes, it doesn’t see things through rose colored glasses – this is a dark, dark film in many ways.

 

The film was directed by Andy Muschetti, who does a remarkable job for the most part. He takes his time with the early scenes – after the big scare of the opening, he can afford to – as he carefully sets up the characters, and their friendship (it feels very Stand By Me). He builds the terror slowly – he doesn’t overdo it on the smaller set pieces sprinkled through the film (he does rely too much on jump scares – but it works). He also gets good performances by the entire cast. The screenplay makes many wise decisions on what to cut - the controversial scene already alluded to being one, but it’s also smart not to delve too deep into the mythology of what Pennywise is. As Pennywise, Bill Skarsgard delivers a weird performance, not scary as much as sadistic – he’s enjoying the pain and fear he inflicts on everyone. The film, oddly, isn’t particularly scary after that first scene – no matter how well-crafted the scare scenes are. But it’s definitely creepy.

 

King is not an easy writer to get right – cinema history is littered with bad movies made of even some of his best novels (and the best ever, Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining is, of course, the one King hates most). Maybe it was the success of last year’s Stranger Things that emboldened the filmmakers (and more importantly, the studio) to not make It into one scare after another – to take its time, and build the characters slowly. It isn’t It with the kids as adults – the story needs that for many reasons, so I really hope the second one comes – and soon – to complete the arc. What we have so far is great – we just need the second part to complete It.