Movie Review: “It” (2017)

The newest adaptation of Steven King’s “It,” directed by “Mama’s” Andrés Muschietti, has gore, terror, suspense and humor dished out by badmouthed 80s kids.

The 2017 film took the premise of the 1990 miniseries and the 1986 novel and made something of its own, independent of its predecessors. While the general concept was retained, the 2017 film decided to focus only on the childhood quest of “the Losers,” consisting of Bill, Ben, Bev, Richie (played by “Stranger Thing’s” Finn Wolfhard), Eddie, Mike and Stan.

Visually, the film was shot using a blue-orange color scheme (commonly used in horror cinematography) which cast a dingy shadow over the vast majority of the film.

The colors seem muted, as if the whole town was under a subconscious spell. The color scheme, in conjunction with a suspenseful and fitting soundtrack, created an atmosphere of omniscient danger.

Pennywise, played by Bill Sarsgård, was quite different from his former depiction. Tim Curry’s Pennywise was straight up frightening, while Sarsgård’s Pennywise is more playful at first, but slowly slips into a more demonic form. His ticks and jitters that progress throughout the film show that something more sinister lies beneath the clown’s surface. He torments the children of the town by making them face their deepest fears, which he then consumes, along with the children themselves. In better terms, he is a demon that feeds of the fear of children who simply wears the skin of a clown.

Amidst the terror and persecution the children experience due to Pennywise, they still find time for comedic relief. This film is riddled with “your momma” jokes, penis remarks, vulgar language and peer to peer violence, keep in mind that these things are all coming from what seem to be 12-year- olds. It just goes to show that not much has changed in the way children interact with each other.

When Bev is taken by Pennywise, the rest of “the Losers” decide it’s finally time to work together to destroy this child-eating demon who lives in the sewers. Once inside Pennywise’s lair, the children work together to overcome
their fears and defeat him.

After all is said and done, the members of “the Losers” decide to make a blood- pact, promising that in 27 years if Pennywise isn’t truly defeated, they will return and finish the job properly. When the film ends, there is text that shows “Chapter One,” letting the viewer know that Pennywise was not truly defeated and there likely will be a
Chapter Two.

Overall, “It” was thoroughly entertaining, there were no stale parts, each character brought something unique to the film and the explicit humor balanced out the gore. The only subpar aspect was the use of CGI, it could have been toned down when it came to Pennywise, he was frightening enough as is.