IT

Source: screenrant.com

Starring:  Bill Skarsgård, Finn Wolfhard, Jaeden Lieberher, Sophia Lillis, Jack Dylan Grazer
Year: 2017
Length:  135 minutes

After recently watching American Horror Story: Cult, I thought I was all clowned out but my curiosity got the best of me and I decided to give IT a chance.  I vaguely recall watching the original mini series when I was much younger, probably too young, and it freaked me out – not enough to put me off Stephen King for life but enough to stay with me for a couple of years.  So I was curious to see how the remake would measure up and how I would experience Pennywise as an adult.  And I have to say, Twisty the Clown from AHS is far more terrifying than Pennywise or any other clown I can imagine.

The film begins on a rainy afternoon in the town of Derry.  Little Georgie is playing in the streets with a paper boat, made by his brother Bill.  A stream of water carries the boat into the sewer and when he gets closer, he is greeted by Pennywise.  I couldn’t help but think of a Drag Race runway with Michelle Visage saying “Oh honey, your contouring and shading is all wrong and that weave is not doing you any favours” (insert finger wag here).  I thought the clown just didn’t seem scary enough.  Anyway, Georgie ignores the stranger danger warning and consequently his arm is bitten off before he is dragged into the sewer.   That’s what happens when you don’t listen to your parents.

Cut to a year later and Betty Ripsom is also missing.  We meet a group of nerds who are being tormented by a group of bullies at school:
Richie (aka Mike from Stranger Things – does he only accept roles as a boy in the 80s riding around on a bicycle looking for trouble?), a smartass with ridiculously oversized glasses who is obsessed with his “pickle”/”wang”;
Bill – a stutterer who refuses to believe that his brother is dead;
Stanley – a boy preparing for his bar mitzvah who is afraid of a freaky painting;
Eddie – a hypochondriac who is afraid of everything;
Ben – a chubby boy who has been nicknamed “Tits” (for obvious reasons) by the older jerks who are targeting him.

Ben finds himself harassed by the bullies but manages to escape.  Meanwhile, the other boys are exploring the tunnels leading from the sewer (gross) in the hopes of finding something that might lead them to Georgie.  Instead, they find Betty’s shoe.  Ben stumbles across them while running from the bullies and they help him by dressing his wounds.  They are also helped by a red haired girl named Beverly (later jokingly referred to as “the Molly Ringwald of the group”), who has had some experience with bullies and gossip.  She soon becomes “one of the boys” although it is clear that Bill and Ben see her as more than a pal, especially when they observe her in her ill-fitting bra and broekies after a day of swimming in the quarry.

Ben informs the group of the town’s dark history and the alarming number of disappearances that have been recorded.  They realise that the “bad things” in the town and subsequent missing persons cases occur in 27 year intervals.

Beverly has a chilling encounter with some hair from her bathroom sink which is followed by an eruption of blood that covers the bathroom – but only she seems to be able to see it.  Until she invites the boys over.  They are able to see the blood and help her clean it.  The kids then compare their respective Pennywise experiences and come to the conclusion that IT is feeding off their fear and that they need to stick together and face IT head-on.  So, despite Pennywise climbing out of a slide show and coming after the group, Bill decides to go to an abandoned house where he believes IT lives.  Of course, the rest of the group follow.  And then shIT gets real.

There are some important lessons to be learned from this film: do not follow red balloons; do not go closer to a creepy voice that is clearing luring you to your death; do not go into dark basements, especially basements without functioning lights and if you are a mean fucker, you are going to die a horrible death.  There are plenty of disturbing scenes and images but nothing that will haunt my dreams at night.  In fact, I took a nap half-way through the film because I felt it was dragging a little.  So while it was fairly entertaining and mildly amusing at times, IT wasn’t the best horror film I have seen.