Movie Review: It (2017)

It is a 2017 supernatural horror film directed by Andy Muschietti. The movie stars Jaeden Liberher, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Sohpia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard, Wyatt Oleff, Chosen Jacobs, Jack Dylan Grazer, and Bill Skarsgard as Pennywise. The movie is an adaptation of the 1986 novel by Stephen King. Going into this film I was super pumped; this was one of my most anticipated movies of 2017 and I've read the entire novel, which I also thought was amazing. Then there's the miniseries which although I've not seen in a few years, remember mostly and enjoying and finding it effectively scary. This movie is a surprisingly hilarious, enoyably scary, heartfelt horror movie that I, in short, loved. The film follows a group of kids known as the losers club, constantly bullied and ignored by the adults in their lives, these kids band together after becoming targets of Pennywise the dancing clown, played by Bill Skarsgard. Every kid performance in this movie is nothing short of excellent. Finn Wolfhard as Richie Tozier was amazing and had some of the funniest one - liners in the entire film. Not to mention Jaeden Liberher who had a surprising level of range and, to my highest of expectations, isn't hard to sympathize with. My favorite amongst the losers was Sophia Lillis who plays Beverly Marsh. Her performance was exactly how I pictured her in the novel and I felt like she was easily the best in terms of emotion and feeling. Bill Skarsgard cannot escape from the Tim Curry comparison as Curry's version of Pennywise is so iconic and very very scary. Skarsgard was great and even though I wasn't as terrified as the last on-screen incarnation of this clown  (mostly due to the lack of the miniseries budget) he was amazing when it came to portraying such an inhuman force that comes upon this small town. The jokes in this film and the comedic writing were entirely on point. It is a hilarious movie at times and the gags blend perfectly without being a blatant distraction. Now a lot of critics have said how 'scary' and 'horrifying' this movie is. This isn't that scary..it's a creepy, very haunted house-esque horror film, but I didn't find the film to be as intensely scary as I thought it would be. When the scares go down though, this film gets really fun and once those credits rolled I felt as though I had just been on a fantastic roller coaster of great scary content. The film is also extremely emotional and heartfelt which was great to see since this was the last horror movie I'd really connected with (character - wise) in a long time. The score by Benjamin Wallfisch is tremendous with a hint of fantastical and magical realism. The ending effectively sets up a wonderful new series of movies with a true understanding and depth into Stephen King's original novel. Overall, 'It' is quite funny, relentlessly entertaining, and ranks as one of the best King adaptations yet. Three stars= A-