It Review

It is the latest adaptation of Stephen King's horror novel that follows the clown Pennywise, a monster that torments and preys upon the fears of many. With this latest film we get a gritty, no restraint take on the clown and it's definitely intense. I was very surprised at how dark it would go and that was fantastic.

It was also not afraid to take the clown out of the darkness for scares during the day and that was surprisingly well done. They brought a solid variety of creatures into this as well with the manifestations of fears being well thought out. The core story is a coming of age as this group of kids is just living their day to day. Each of them has various things going on and hang out as a group of losers.

Throughout the film a couple more come into the fold, but those later ones honestly weren't cared for to the same degree as the core squad. This plays into the minor issue that things just sort of go along and the potential for more mystery was sitting there. That being said, I felt the horror and tension when it was supposed to be there. It was also nice to see a right balance of comedy here as the kids were hilarious taking jabs at one another, but serious whenever was required.

The style of the time piece this film is was well done and I loved all the minor old school references to the late 80's. The town was well done with the many hilarious phrases from the kids being a solid reference to the time. The look of the film was distinct and worked well to horror aspects.

It was nice to see the film not rely purely on cliché scares instead trying to really make scenes feel unnerving. The acting was fantastic with Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård) being truly terrifying. There was a nice mix of realistic areas and distortion through effects that all felt natural. The main cast of kids were all splendid helping to bring this film together without any sort of negatives to the theme.

The Conclusion

I really enjoyed It finding it to be a strong entry in the horror genre and a perfect telling of the story. It brought the terror in a way that didn't feel cheap or played out.

The setting was well developed and it was nice to see these kids develop as they overcame fears to work together against this menacing clown. I was constantly surprised by Pennywise since the clown always had a new trick and I was pleasant to see that they didn't hold back on any aspects of the narrative.

It was straight up dark for the most part and there were definitely consequences for what happened to those that got caught in the mix of this psychotic clown.

It Review at Theater with Standard Viewing
Screening was Provided by Warner Brothers

Rating Overall: 9.0