It is my most anticipated film of the year. Yeah, Last Jedi, I know. But back when I was a kid and the world had not yet crushed my spirit, I wanted to be a writer and I idolized Stephen King. Starting in third grade, I read everything that he wrote. I read books about his books. And It was my favorite. I first read it when I was around ten years old, years after I had seen the miniseries when it first aired on tv. In the interim, I had rented the VHS several times until I finally got my own copy. I had a Pennywise t-shirt in high school. Even now, I have a picture of Pennywise signed by Tim Curry hanging in my home office (it is right next to the Killer Klowns from Outer Space poster in the evil clown corner of the room). I absolutely love this story and these characters. Therefore, it is with much regret that I must say that I am disappointed with this. It is not a bad movie and there are great things about it, but it is not what I had hoped for.
The things that work in this work really well. The kids are excellent, both in how they are written and how they are performed. I don’t recognize the young actors (I’m told they have prominent television roles) but they are all excellent (especially those playing Beverly and Richie). Unlike most modern portrayals of kids, they act as I remember kids acting. They curse constantly, make crude sexual references and frequently mock each other in a kidding way. It reminds me of something like Stand by Me or The Monster Squad and it’s both refreshing and really funny (I laughed out loud several times at their interactions). But there is also a strong emotional component to their friendship and the love triangle between Beverly, Ben and Bill. It all feels genuine in a way that I haven’t seen in a movie in a long time. The film wisely ignores the more bizarre, cocaine and whisky-fueled elements of King’s novel (in case you read it and are actually wondering, no, the boys don’t run a train on Beverly in the sewer) to focus on the core theme of childhood friendship.
The film also nails the time period (it logically moves the story from the 1950s of the book and miniseries to the 1980s). The theater marquees, arcade games, cultural references and the Anthrax and Metallica t-shirts worn by the bullies are all period-perfect (though the latter might be a bad example for me since I’m still wearing the same band t-shirts). Much care went into creating these characters and time period and the results are fantastic. And Dark Tower fans will notice multiple turtle references, which is enough to qualify this as the better Dark Tower film of the year.
As much as it pains me to say this, the biggest problem with this movie is Pennywise. His portrayal here just doesn’t work for me. I don’t like comparing people to Tim Curry because he is one of my favorite actors if not my absolute favorite, but the tone here is just off. One of the more unsettling things about Tim Curry’s Pennywise is that he often looks and acts like he is a normal clown. It is not until you are past the point of no return that the fangs come out and you see him for the demon that he really is. The character here is one-dimensional; he is always in full-on evil mode. There is no disturbing dichotomy between the clown and the demon because they are never separated. There are no layers to this performance and, in trying to make Pennywise more scary, they inadvertently made him much less so. Also, I know that I have said this a dozen times, but I hate computer effects in horror movies and this is fucking full of them. Pennywise’s movements are constantly augmented with CGI, as are all of the monsters that he transforms into. The fangs that are scary in the original are here transformed into an elongated mouth of razor-sharp teeth that never once looks real. Any fear is removed because the villain constantly looks like he is being run through a computer program. It is not only distracting, but pissed me off that over-reliance on technology has created a product inferior to something produced 27 years ago on a shoestring budget for a fucking tv miniseries.
There is also a major change to the plot in this version that I find completely unforgiveable. There are spoilers in this paragraph, so plan accordingly. In the book/original, the seven kids all collectively decide to go into the sewers as a team to fight Pennywise. This film makes the inexplicable decision to instead go the damsel-in-distress route and have Pennywise kidnap Beverly, forcing the boys to go to rescue her. This is fucking asinine for several reasons. It completely diminishes the character of Beverly, changing her from an equal to a girl that needs saving. For fuck’s sake, she is even supposed to be the one that kills Pennywise. Considering that everyone is offended by everything these days, I don’t understand how this eluded the millennial outrage radar because I would actually agree with them for once. Also, it completely eliminates the entire fucking point of the strength of the group. The kids are supposed to be able to defeat Pennywise as a collective of seven (7 being a number of theological and mystical importance) and they must make a conscious pact to go fight this thing together. All of that is pissed away by turning it into a rescue mission. It’s a baffling choice and shows a lack of understanding of the source material.
This is a horror film that is oddly held back by the horror elements. It is a great coming-of-age story that keeps being interrupted by a subpar horror film. It is not bad, but when I am flipping through the guide on my tv years from now and see It pop up, I will still hope it is the 1990 version. On the plus side, though, the adult storyline was by far the weakest part of the original film and there is vast room for improvement there when It Part 2 arrives in a couple years.
Image By: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5a/It_%282017%29_poster.jpg
