It (2017)

IT is one of those novels that people hold in quite high regard. Never read the book but only aware of it because of Tim Curry’s version of Pennywise the Clown from 1990. The film explores the group of friends known as the losers as they are haunted by a creepy looking clown. The film does a good job in establishing each of the kids with a fear. This is the way that Pennywise can get involved in their lives.

The bullies are all completely unlikeable as they should be. Most times they start off evil and over the course of the film either get their comeuppance from the good guys or they meet a grizzly ending but on this occasion they never get much comeuppance but that gets dealt with in part two but in 2017, there was no guarantee that this would have led to a sequel so it was a brave thing not to have the bullies meet a definitive end. 

There are some good effects mainly the blood bathroom scene where Beth gets drenched in what appears to be blood. That scene looked incredible and the idea that her father cant see it and fair play to the actor for pretending that there is no blood. There are some other good effects but they mainly take place inside Pennywise’s lair. 

The performances from the kids are quite good. I thought that they all worked well with each other although I thought Mike was the least fleshed out and I never really thought that he was as involved in the group as the others. I think that Mike has a greater role in the second one. Bill Skarsgård is really good as Pennywise. Of all the roles that you could take on, there are less daunting ones that Pennywise which is arguably one of the most well-known roles in horror. It reminds me of Jared Leto after Heath Ledger played the Joker, but Skarsgård manages to pull of the seemingly impossible. It’s a very different version of Pennywise to what Tim Curry did and yet its still creepy. There is more of a child-like vibe in his performance compared to Curry’s. 

I really liked this film when I first saw it. Having watched it again, I don’t think it’s as good as I first thought. I still enjoyed it and think that its better than the second one but my opinion has changed in just a few years. The final act of the film was very good but that’s because everything went completely crazy and still holds up. Chapter One is the better film.