It (2017)

Stephen King time folks! That means unrivalled brilliance total insanity or both!

It is an adaptation of King’s novel following a group of kids as they take on a shape-shifting clown who is hungry for their fear and for them.

I’ve never understood the fear of clowns until today!

It is so much better than it had to be. This could so easily have been some watered down 12A garbage to capitalise on the recognisability of it being another telling of that clown horror story.

We have a tonne of jump-scares and there’s a bit of a standard cheap 21^st Century horror feeling sometimes. What really sells it though is the film’s authenticity to what it is.

We get properly DARK, imagery and just because our characters are kids, don’t expect it to be held back. Swearing and violence and blood galore.

The kids are great too. I don’t know how it happened, but this current generation of child actors has produced some real gems.

Our evil clown of the day is <INSERT ACTOR>. While he ain’t no Tim Curry, I do love how creepy he gets. I forget there’s a human present when he’s on-screen, which is exactly what you need.

There are some annoying parts too, however. While I love the creepy imagery, I wish they could have gone just a little bit further into David Lynch territory and not explained as much.

There’s also some really weird quick shifts in tone between horror and 80’s comedy. This isn’t helped by a pace that is way too fast and loose, particularly in the first act. Whole characters go missing for a good half-hour before the film remembers they exist.

The thing that really pissed me off though was the ending. Not to spoil it, but we leave at a “To be continued” as the book is only half-adapted here. That’s not what I dislike really, because it would be cool to come back for part two a few years from now with the same group of actors grown up a bit. I won’t spoil what I really hate about the ending, but it involves a kiss. It really annoys me.

Either way, this is a surprisingly solid horror remake. You might not sleep well afterwards!

Recommended Scenario: Go for a spooky 1980s time!