It - This Week At The Movies

Finally, it’s here: the big screen adaptation of Stephen King’s much-loved horror novel It (previously turned into a TV mini-series in 1990 starring Tim Curry). In the small Maine town of Derry in the summer of 1989, a group of outcast kids called "The Losers Club” battle an immortal, shape-shifting entity. Most often taking the form of a clown to attract its preferred prey of young children, “It” plays with its victims by appearing as their worst fears come to life. In short: it’s pretty messed up.

Pros:

Bill Skarsgård is superb. Still probably best known as being the son of Stellan and the brother of Alexander, Bill is electrifying as Pennywise the Dancing Clown, oozing dread as he jumps, slinks and bounces around the screen. The sewer-grate opening sequence is particularly disturbing, but he’s excellent throughout, bending and tearing his voice as he glides out of the shadows, cackling distressingly as he reveals his seemingly never-ending rows of teeth. You’re going to love hating him. Or just love loving him.

As you may have guessed – what with this being a horror film about a shapeshifting clown and all – It is scary. Scary in a haunted house way, with every room having another scare, punctuating getting to know the characters with bursts of OH GOD NO ARGH before settling back to the mystery of it all. It’s dark, but not so dark to put you off. It’s… exhilarating, like a well-designed fairground ghost train. Yes, there are jump scares and all the other overused horror tropes, but it’s all delivered so slickly you’re too busy enjoying yourself to mind. Something to note is that IT is rated a 15 in the UK, which is a good watermark for the level of terror you should expect.

It’s also fun. All the kids are very well cast, delivering believable performances as the utterly unbelievable swirls around them, and their natural charisma lifts the film. Newcomer Sophia Lillis deserves a lot of the praise, tackling some very difficult scenes, but you’ll probably walk out the cinema talking about Finn Wolfhard (great name, great guy), who spits out some truly disgusting lines as the kid with a mouth so filthy his mum probably washes it out with soap and water on a weekly basis. He also plays Mike Wheeler in Stranger Things, Netflix’s science fiction-horror series that owes so much of its ideas to IT and Stephen King’s other work, but don’t let that distract you. You will have a good time, promise.

Cons:

They really throw everything at you in It. This is partly because the book is so huge – they’ve split it into two parts, so expect an It sequel sooner rather than later – and partly because each character requires his own phobia to be shown on screen. The film is 135 minutes long, and with a polished blockbuster horror you might have wanted It a little shorter.

Die-hard Stephen King fans may end up disappointed because nothing will ever live up to the book itself, something that means so much to so many people. Approach it as a total newcomer, however, and It delivers.

There are a lot of digital special effects, and if you’re hankering for something more distinctly retro, this doesn’t deliver, say, the practical puppetry you might be hoping for. This is very much a 21st century take on the quintessentially 1980s story, and the frequent use of CGI isn’t for everyone.

Three word review: Scary, slick FUN.