It (2017) Review

Year: 2017

Run time: 135 minutes

Genre: Drama / Horror / Thriller

Category: Big Budget

Cast: Bill Skarsgård, Jaeden Lieberher, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Sophia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard, Chosen Jacobs, Jack Dylan Grazer, Wyatt Oleff

Based on the novel by Stephen King.

Director: Andy Muschietti

Screenwriters: Chase Palmer, Cary Fukunaga, Gary Dauberman

Main photography: Chung-hoon Chung

Edited by: Jason Ballantin

Plot: In the Town of Derry, the local kids are disappearing one by one, leaving behind bloody remains. In a place known as 'The Barrens', a group of seven kids are united by their terrifying and strange encounters with an evil clown and their determination to kill It. (IMDB)

A surprisingly good horror movie, with an amazing start that keeps escalating towards the middle, but falls short and forgets its own purpose towards the end. Despite being a masterpiece of horrible imagery and mind blowing jumpscares, overall the movie lacks an appropriate control of its tone.

Before proceeding, I must make a disclaimer: I haven't read the original book by Stephen King; I have only seen the mini-series from 1990 starring Tim Curry as Pennywise. So, I will be making my review as if It was a remake from the 90's version. If not able to rate it or not as a worthy adaptation from the book, I will be able to call it a worthy standalone movie (or not).

A lot of people already have a vague idea of the major plot points of It: a creepy shape shifting clown murders children in a small town on the US, and because of that, this movie had the challenge to present a well known story in a unique way. And there's no question about it: they delivered.

Being as crazy a movie as it is, the plot is well crafted for the most part. The suspension of disbelief is almost never broken, not even in the craziest of scenes (but it is broken in some more mundane moments, but more on that later). The movie's plot is very solid and unnerving, and shows us a more humanized version of some characters which were uni-dimensional on the 90s version (by sacrificing the depth of some main characters, unfortunately). The real problem came at the end, which felt rushed and unoriginal, but this happened mainly because of the conflicting tone of the movie.

All of the movie's marketing and initial 15 minutes make us believe the tone will be gritty and frightening all the way. It's pleasant to realize the movie's not all fear and sadness, but that it has many amazing comedic moments. Children will be children. But, the movie seems to struggle in separating the two, fun and scary, into their own scenes. This results in an uncomfortable mixture of the two within scenes (this is especially notorious at the end). SPOILER ALERT i.e. The character of Beverly was saved by a kiss from Benjamin. It failed to be tender, and instead worked as a comic relief, which seems to me unacceptable in the middle of such an important moment. END OF SPOILER.

But within the movie's scene confutions, the performance from all actors was unmatchable. Pennywise (played by Skarsgård) takes a different approach from Tim Curry's in 1990. This one is a much more elegant, subtle and violent Pennywise. This clown has less focus on funny / frightening dialogue and does more funny / violent actions. Still, Skarsgård makes each one of his lines memorable, and complements them with his incredible body language.

Special praise to Ben, Richie and Eddie, who gave a better performance than many adults on Hollywood give nowadays. Funny and undoubtedly scared all the way through. Still, some aspects of Beverly's character remain confusing, not sure if that's on purpose.

9/10 on the movie's music and sound effects. Watching the movie on surround sound has an incredible effect on the movie's immersion.

The directing on the horror scenes was solid and scary. Andy Muschietti did an excellent job, displaying total mastery of what was happening on screen. Nonetheless, I wonder what could've been if Cary Fukunaga had directed the movie (as original planned). The acclaimed director of Jane Eyre and Beasts of no Nation might've brought so much to the table.

The editing was good enough, as it is on most Hollywood films. At times I felt they could've held onto longer shots to create a more lasting effect on the audience. What's the purpose of having amazing visual effects if no one's given enough time to watch them? But that's an issue with what is expected from studio films rather than incompetence from the editor. Other than that, shots flow naturally. There were also great match cuts in the movie, such as the one following the bathroom blood scene.

Chung-hoon Chung, the photographer from Old Boy, created satisfying, surreal shots with Pennywise in them. His work is notable and amazing from the start to the end. Production design was also pretty great. Pennywise's costume is a good fit for his new personality, and sets and props all serve perfectly the purpose of their scenes.

Special effects are incredible. All scenes with Pennywise are unlike anything in recent memory: funny, upsetting, scary and frightening; the projector scene being exemplary in subtle but brilliant supernatural vfx.

The movie's pace was good, unlike the 90s version of It. The intensity goes up steadily but relentlessly. We get enough time to understand our main characters and we get to see them being themselves without interrupting the plot's progression.

Dialogue was the most memorable aspect, in my opinion. Especially Eddie's dialogue, which is super intense 100% of the time, for both character driven and comedic purposes.

Grading: