"It" Movie Article

The Argentinean director Andy Muschietti, brings a touch of widescreen gloss to King’s enduring horror-adventure. Drawing heavily on such 80s screen favourites as Poltergeist and The Goonies (both of which were co-written/produced by Steven Spielberg), this latest incarnation will resonate with audiences hooked on the nostalgic weirdness of Netflix’s Stranger Things. The chills may be more funhouse than frightful, but Muschietti’s tangible affection for the misfit schoolkids at the centre of this story draws us into their world, lending engaging weight to their (pre)adolescent trials and tribulations.

King said that when he started writing "It," he thought his previous books had earned him the reputation of being a horror writer, so he relied on "It" to be his last "test", in which he would return all the monsters with which he grew up, because Pennywise's image is an expression of our personal and collective fears. King was thinking of the universal monsters, those who were scary in the 1950s, but the screenwriters of "It" chose to situate children's history in the 80s. And although the film has repeatedly poured tensions into the atmosphere, it more often directly displays the horrors born of King's imagination, such as a bloody fountain.

The project first entered development in 2009. The proposed film adaptation went through three phases of planning: initially a single film with screenwriter David Kajganich; then the dual film project, first with Cary Fukunaga attached as director and co-writer, then with Andy Muschietti.

On Pennywise's design, Skarsgard stated, "It's important that we do something fresh and original for this one. It's purposely not going toward that weird, greasy look." He also commented on being compared to Tim Curry, stating that, "Curry's performance was truly great, but it's important for me to do something different because of that. I'll never be able to make a Tim Curry performance as good as Tim Curry."

The movie starts with the poor Georgie Denbrough is dragged into a storm drain by the evil Pennywise (Bill Skarsgard, ably filling Curry’s oversize clown shoes). Riddled with guilt and grief, Georgie’s older brother Bill (Jaeden Lieberher, who shone in Midnight Special), becomes obsessed with finding the lost boy. As the summer vacation of ’89 rolls around, and yet more youngsters disappear, a group of variously bullied “Losers” embark upon a Stand By Me-style quest through the woods and into the sewers, in search of a mythical monster.

Significantly, each of our key characters is haunted by nightmarish apparitions that feed upon their individual fears. Mike (Chosen Jacobs) sees visions of fiery tragedy that chime with suppressed memories of childhood trauma; Stanley (Wyatt Oleff) is distracted from his bar mitzvah rehearsals by a chaotic face that leers at him from a painting; hypochondriac Eddie (Jack Dylan Grazer) is pursued by “a walking infection” that seems to embody his mother’s overprotective fantasies.

Director Andres Muschietti and his writers (Chase Palmer, Cary Fukunaga, and Gary Dauberman) stick close to King’s massive 1,200-page novel, porting in his dialogue where they can, and adding in-jokes and Easter eggs to acknowledge where they skim over King’s bigger, harder-to-convey elements. They ditch the vision-quest encounters with the cosmic turtle who created the world, but as a wink-wink move for audience members in the know, they throw in visual and verbal turtle references.

When it comes to horror flicks, we have seen more haunting and outrageous things in recent years. There are a few jump scares and some scenes are wonderfully unpleasant, but not without a sick little twist of humor every now and then. Pennywise works most of the time, as well. The film really soars in his portrayal of teenage friendship, though. The kid actors are all around great, making for likable yet unlikely heroes. A very entertaining King adaptation, already a smash hit that will find its deserved continuation.

After all, the movie is enjoyable and if you are a fan of the horror genre, the movie is a must-watch. The director did a good job.

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