It’s odd that Stephen King’s works have so consistently defied interpolation into the big screen. Sure, there have been some successes, but for every “Carrie” or “The Shining” you have a “Christine” or (sadly) “The Dark Tower”. Something about his longer works has resisted decent screen presence for quite some time now. Luckily, the new “It” movie avoids this problem entirely and delivers a hell of a good time.
A horrible, shape-shifting clown is terrorizing a small town, specifically the children of said town. What it does is lure them in under the anglerfish pretense of Pennywise the Dancing Clown, and then devour them completely. Stephen King’s book is probably one of his best (and the one that had the most effect on me; when I was young, I would check under bridges to make sure that a balloon-wielding hobo wasn’t down there waiting for me), with almost 1,000 pages of spooks. I have to say that the Loser’s Club is my third favorite set of characters in King’s oeuvre (behind only “The Dark Tower”’s Ka-Tet and Duma Key’s residents). The original 1990 TV adaptation didn’t capture the sense of camaraderie and friendship the book had, and the characters were muted. Here, they shine. Each of them is excellently cast, and each has a killer set of lines to work with. Eddie Kaspbrak turned out to be my favorite of the lot, with his adorable little-kid hypochondriac nature and his eventual stand against his mother.
But let’s talk about spooks. It delivers spooks to spare. At least the first 35 minutes are all various scares where the clown takes various forms. Not only does this allow the writers’ and special effects guys’ creativity to show (as each incarnation is totally unique and usually only appears once), but it plays into the beating philosophical heart of the film, which is that Pennywise feeds off of fear. I initially disliked the approach because of the sheer volume of jumpscares, but I came around when I remembered that this is literally Its thing. It scares people, feeds off it, then retreats to return later. The movie doesn’t touch on this aspect much, but I’m fairly certain it’ll be explored more in the sequel (and this is one of the rare times I’m legitimately excited for a sequel). Not only that, but the spooks are fun. The audience I was sitting in was so dynamic. They screamed with each jumpscare, then laughed nervously together when the scene changed. They laughed hysterically at all of Richie’s jokes. To the writers’ credit, Richie’s jokes were actually funny. In the book, he’s an endless funnyman who misses more than he hits, but that would have been annoying on-screen. I was on the edge of my seat, giggling to myself from the sheer exhilaration of sharing an experience with so many people.
Even that fact that it wasn’t actually all that scary isn’t a bad thing. Sure, a horror movie is meant to scare you, and yes, it does get a few good licks in. But what “It” does is make the horror more about bad things happening to characters you like, rather than have something assault the cameraman. I didn’t flinch with fright once, but I relished each scare as the appearance of a creative new monster and feared instead for my little Loser’s Club’s safety. This is the kind of horror movie that can make it big, and deserves to, because it’s a good movie independent of genre. Admittedly, it won’t draw in the hardcore fans, who might complain because Pennywise isn’t all that scary or there are too few deaths for the stakes to be high. I was spoiled by having read the novel, so I knew what was going to happen, and even then I enjoyed it.
“It” is the kind of horror movie that only comes along once in a while; a scary movie that isn’t so deeply rooted in the genre that it takes someone willing to see it for its true beauty to shine (“The Witch”, “Wolf Creek”) or a throwback that foregoes innovation for intense understanding of its subject matter (“The Void”, which is still a good movie). You can take anybody to see this movie, and they will enjoy it. “It” finally captures that most rare Stephen King balance of loveable characters, slightly cheesy hijinks, and an overcoat of horror. The box office is recording a record high for this bad boy, and my only advice to you is this; if you want to see more quality horror films aimed at everybody, help contribute to this and go see the movie in a theater ASAP. We may be on the cusp of a horror renaissance on the big screen (foretold by “Stranger Things” and “American Horror Story”), and I really want to see it come to pass.
5/5
Prayers to dark gods 