It (2017)

Review

"I bet I can cheer him up! I'll give him a balloon. Do you want a balloon too, Georgie?" - Pennywise

During the summer of 1989 a group of 13-year-old outcasts confront a monster that has been plaguing Derry Maine for the past few centuries, regularly causing mayhem and snatching the town's children. The group consists of Bill, who has a stutter and is trying to recoup from the disappearance of his kid brother, Richie who is the group jester, Ben an overweight kid, Stanley who is the son of the local Rabbi, and Eddie who is smothered by his mother. Joining the group are Mike, a home schooled black kid and Beverly who has an abusive father. While monsters are bad enough the "Losers Club" also has to contend with Henry Bowers, the local JD who seems to have a pathological hatred of outsiders.

The group, after an apocalyptic rock battle with the Bowers crew, each experience gradually increasing levels of supernatural scares, seemingly out of their worst nightmares, and there's a feeling any one of them could end up on the growing list of disappearances over the weekend. Eventually Bill leads the others underground into the sewers of Derry to face an ancient shape-shifting monster that has fun impersonating Pennywise the Dancing Clown. Can a group of kids survive against ultimate evil or will they float down there as well.

It took me a while to get around to this journey into the Kingdom due the almost hysterical support it was receiving, one of those movies that crosses horror boundaries and appeals to the normal non horror crowds. I'm putting this down to a lethal advertising campaign and the tendency of modern crowds to flock to the latest "in" thing, this movie was more an event than a cinema experience. Still hit it immediately it came out on disc and am not about to fall into the crowd that claims this was a remake of the 1990 incarnation, and hey didn't any one notice it was all most thirty years ago that director Tommy Lee Wallace unleashed his version, Pennywise not being one of those beings who keeps to a strict schedule. Okay up front I'm saying while the movie was cool and all it didn't exactly do things for me that other movies haven't been doing over the past decade or so.

Things kick off in pretty dramatic fashion, Bill is making a paper boat for his younger brother George, Bill being home suffering from the flu, so can't join George for the modern journey. The younger brother has to go retrieve sealing wax from the basement, which provides a sort of introduction to the hijinks we are about to rock out to. Having survived the horrors of small town suburban basement dwelling George eventually gets his reward, a brand new paper boat he can float in the gutters of rain drenched Derry. Apparently neither of his parents has an issue with this, which gets explained in the Stephen King novel but is left up in the air in this movie adaptation. Naturally since all gutters lead to storm water drains, George's boat disappears into the nether regions and the young boy is upset by this natural development. But as luck would have it a clown, Pennywise - in case you think Derry is overrun by the grease painted freaks, is in the drain and offers George the errant paper boat. This doesn't end well for the boy, but I was - hate to admit it - high fiving the resident poltergeists over this development. If you are going to get your movie out of the drain and into the harsh rain filled light then a severed arm is a good kicking off point.

For the rest of the movie fans of the book will be digging the various scenes that are pulled live and screaming from the pages author King laid down. For sure not everything is covered, and people claiming this movie is true to the narrative have either never read the actual book or are conveniently forgetting whole passages and chapters from it. What is shown is pretty well done and is true to the source novel, don't think anything important was missed out, though have a feeling that certain scenes that weren't included should have been due to them informing the major characters decisions and motivations. So don't believe those claiming this movie is 100% true to the novel, it isn't, and perhaps doesn't need to be.

There are of course a few weird changes to the source that were made for no good reason in my poor opinion. Not going to mention them here, spoilers and all, but a major one deals with Mike Hanlon, and a lessor one implies Beverly's relationship with her father might have been a tad darker than either the book or television mini-series implied. What I'm not going to mention is Henry Bowers, who plays far less of a role than I remember, but then again my recollections of something over a decade ago could be at the very least far from the reality.

So to the horror elements and I got to say It pretty much has all your bases covered. Pennywise is well presented, that is one damn scary clown that simply drips with malevolence. Bill Skarsgård is right across the requirements and makes Tim Curry's Pennywise look like a Sunday school teacher. Props to the makeup department Pennywise is now one scevil, trademark pending, clown with an agenda that will have you leaping about. On top of the grease painted one we also get a bunch of other monsters out of the kids nightmares, Pennywise's lair that had me clapping in appreciation, and the inherit possibility of danger from both resident JD Henry and Beverly's father who is certainly a few tinnies short of a six pack. Sorry for anyone thinking they might be getting an easy run here; your horror dance card is full.

For those wondering about sexy moments well I have some bad news for you, nothing going down folks. Pretty much the movie is dealing with younger people hence it would be a tad weird if naked flesh started to happen, though the book does contain that one weird scene after the Losers club successfully wards off Pennywise.

While Bill Skarsgård is rocking it as Pennywise there are also some mean performances coming in from the kids. Finn Wolfhard (Mike Wheeler Stranger Things) amply fills the role of Richie Tozier, though not enough beep beep moments for mine. Sophia Lillis (Beverly Marsh) has the role of hard tomboy who everyone thinks has loose morals. And finally I was digging Jeremy Ray Taylor's performance of the love struck Ben Hanscom. Everyone turns in solid performances that help elevate this movie to a high standard.

What really works with the kids is their relationship expressed in toilet humour, comments about each other's mothers, and ability to stick together in order to stay strong. While Bill is the clear leader, in as much as he seems to make most of the decisions, the rest bring their own strengths to the group, which once united is able to stand against almost impossible odds.

Guess I'm out of room here and I had a hell of a lot more to add to the review, but let's try to be concise and finish it off. I had a good time with It, which works far better for a modern audience than the television series does. You get the horror elements, an excellent vision of the late 1980s which had me reminiscing, and the big bad is one scary mofo. Full recommendation, the hype surrounding this movie was to a degree justified, very solid horror movie that will entertain. Our only problem now is we have to wait for the second half of the movie to arrive, which might be a few years away. Just a final note, no I am not giving this movie full marks, there are a number of problems, so not a classic for mine but still a hell of a good time was had.