IT ★★★
FIRST, let’s be clear – IT is half a movie.
While the writers of this remake have done a good job of giving it a conclusion of sorts, this is a split version of Stephen King’s full story.
The 1990 original was a two-episode television mini-series, later spliced together for DVD release. It followed a group of adults in 1987 interspersed with extended flashbacks involving the same characters 27 years prior.
The remake concentrates solely on the events when they were young teenagers (updated to 1980). They don’t clearly state that it’s Chapter One until the end credits. We’ll have to wait until next year for Chapter Two when presumably we follow the same characters as adults.
Does it matter? I think it does, if you don’t know going in. The film-makers claim they needed time to tell the full story, hence two films. Of course the fact it would earn 20 bucks per head instead of 10 never entered their heads.
Putting all that aside, it’s well-made, strongly-written and generally engaging and entertaining for the two-hour running time. There are a few moments mid-way when I felt the story was repeating itself, but the acting from a young, energetic and relatively-unknown cast For those who can’t bear the sight of clowns, the additional gore is further reason to stay away.
It is set in the small fictional Mid-Western American town of Derry, Maine. Along with a couple of other locations, it’s featured many times in Stephen King’s novels and short stories.
The main character is Billy, the unofficial leader of a bunch of average teenagers, including Ben, Richie, Eddie and Stan. In the early part of the film these five are progressively joined by Mike and the only girl, Beverley.
They all have two main things in common – they are being terrorised to varying degrees by the school bullies and separate horrifying apparitions that seem to be rooted in their individual fears but controlled by a malevolent clown called Pennywise.
We know that Billy’s brother is already missing along with many other children and adults. As the audience we actually know that Billy is dead at the hands of Pennywise (that’s in the first few minutes).
As the group delve into the mystery they reach the conclusion that Derry is being targeted every 27 years by Pennywise whose ongoing strength is gained from feeding on the bodies and souls of children. While also battling the bullies, the group decides to confront Pennywise in his lair within the town’s sewer system.
All the young cast are good but I would single out Jaeden Lieberher as Billy, Jeremy Ray Taylor as Ben, Sophie Lilis as Beverley and Finn Wolfhard as Richie. The role of Pennywise was made famous by Tim Curry in the original but Bill Skarsgård, son of Stellan, does a good job of scaring a new generation.
The main strength behind the camera is the formidable, balanced writing team that comprises a horror specialist, Gary Dauberman (the two Annabelle films and soon-to-be-released spin-off The Nun), one of the creators of the brilliant first season of True Detective, Cary Fukanaga, a first-timer and King himself.
Director Andy Muschietti was previously responsible for the ghost horror film Mama from 2013 with Jessica Chastain. I preferred the originality of that film, but the It remake is another strong point in his resume.