written by Juan Ayala
By now, many of you have already seen one of the most anticipated films of the year, Stephen King's IT. Millennials all over the world were traumatized as kids seeing a razor-sharp toothed, shape-shifting clown referred to more as IT than Pennywise. The first adaptation of Stephen King’s terrifying novel was in 1990 with a two-part miniseries with Tim Curry taking on the role of Pennywise the Dancing Clown, as well as the likes of Richard Thomas, Annette O’Toole and Tim Reid among many others. The mini-series was generally well-received by critics and audience alike, praising Curry’s menacing performance.
Talks of a feature film adaptation began as early as 2009 with a screenplay by David Kajganich (Blood Creek, Invasion). In 2015, a two-film adaptation was planned with Cary Fukunaga (True Detective, Beasts of No Nation) set to direct and co-write the screenplay. Andy Muschietti of Mama fame eventually signed on as director with Fukanaga remained attached as a co-writer, along with Chase Palmer and Gary Dauberman. The film also went through several casting changes as Will Poulter (The Maze Runner) was originally attached to portray Pennywise and Ty Simpkins (Insidious, Jurassic World) considered to play one of the members of the Losers Club.
IT stars Bill Skarsgard as Pennywise, as well an incredibly talented young cast featuring Jaeden Libherer as Bill, Finn Wolfhard as Richie, Jack Dylan Grazer as Eddie, Wyatt Oleff as Stanley, Chosen Jacobs as Mike, Jeremy Ray Taylor as Ben, Sophia Lillis as Beverly and Nicholas Hamilton as Henry Bowers.
Personally, I loved this film. It was visually stunning, the score was equally beautiful as it was chilling, Skarsgard and the young ensemble cast were phenomenal and Muschietti’s direction was clear and bold.
THE REMAINDER OF THIS REVIEW CONTAIN SPOILERS!!!
Let’s start with the cast. Jaeden Libherer portrays the leader of the Losers Club, Bill Denbrough, who goes through the tragic loss of his brother, missing but assumed dead by his parents. He enlists the help of his friends to find him and the many other missing children from Derry, an epidemic that the adults in the town seem to ignore. Jaeden portrays Bill as a soft-spoken, young teenager in mourning who refuses to believe this his little brother is dead. He breathes new life into this character, with his quiet but determined nature and character’s stutter showing a sincere and genuine vulnerability.
Sophia Lillis plays the tormented yet sweet Beverly Marsh who goes through physical abuse from her father and endless bullying in school from other girls that call her a slut. Word even gets around to the adults who seemingly shun the girl based on the rumors.
Finn Wolfhard's (Richie) constant goofing off and one-liners combined with Jack Dylan Grazer's (Eddie) frantic monologues keep you laughing plenty in between scares and they share some of the best moments in the film. The other, for some reason less talked about antagonist of the film is Henry Bowers, played by Nicholas Hamilton. The charming young Australian actor really flips the script as the knife-wielding, mullet-wearing bully constantly on the hunt for the Losers.
Now onto BILL FREAKIN’ SKARSGARD. Tim Curry’s performance as the dancing clown is forever iconic but Skarsgard brings a whole new level of terror and different tone. His Pennywise can be wacky and goofy then turn sinister and creepy in an instant. What’s worse is that IT will shape shift into your biggest fear, whether it’s clowns, mummies, a leper or the subject of a creepy painting that you’re utterly terrified of. Pennywise is also a contortionist as you find out in one scene and his layered teeth and piercing blue, sometimes yellow, eyes are downright chilling.
Muschietti’s direction deserves serious praise for getting a young cast to have so much chemistry and for creating a coming-of-age tale that is laced with enough suspense to have you on the edge of your seat. His cinematographer Chung-hoon Chung captured so many brilliant shots throughout the film, one that I loved particularly is when Stanley straightens out the painting on the wall, the camera straightens out along with it. Small detail some may have missed that I found really cool.
As a huge music nerd and film score lover, I really liked the score of IT. Filled with sinister undertones and crashing moments at each major scare, without it the film would probably be much less scary. This however, leads to one of my few gripes with the film: the sound. The scares got to me more because my best friend’s reactions, who was sitting right next to me during the movie. At each deafening surge of music at the film’s biggest scares, we all had an jerking reaction as instruments crashed when Pennywise or one of his alternate forms would pop up on screen.
My only other gripe is some of the editing. Not so much the flow or pace of the film, but the amount of time we saw Pennywise, his ‘crooked lady’, leper or other shape-shifting appearances. We all know that Jaws, Alien and Halloween are some of the most iconic horror films ever made. What made them so scary was how little they showed and what you saw as the ‘monster’ was left to your own imagination. The shark in Jaws isn’t seen until the very end of the film. The Xenomorph in Alien is seen in brief glimpses. Michael Meyers terrifying blank mask or true face is barely seen in Halloween. Horror loses its effect with each passing moment of seeing too much of it. Except Pennywise of course as his appearance was not a shock factor. He became more disturbing the more you looked at him. At times, the crooked lady and leper were shown just a few moments too long. It’s a tiny detail that maybe I’m one of the few people that noticed it.
Regardless of my gripes, I still liked this movie a lot and clearly the rest of the world has too. The film's only been out in a few weeks and already it's the highest grossing R-rated horror movie of all time! It broke records with the highest grossing opening weekend of a horror film, and an R-rated film. September tends to be a bit of a box office lull along with January, but thanks to IT, and the just-released Kingsman: The Golden Circle, September is close to a record high in box office numbers.
IT was an equal part of coming-of-age film and a horror movie. We jumped. We laughed. We cried and overall enjoyed the film. I cannot wait for the second chapter.
Did you enjoy the film? Did you have any gripes? Let's talk! Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
By now, many of you have already seen one of the most anticipated films of the year, Stephen King's IT. Millennials all over the world were traumatized as kids seeing a razor-sharp toothed, shape-shifting clown referred to more as IT than Pennywise. The first adaptation of Stephen King’s terrifying novel was in 1990 with a two-part miniseries with Tim Curry taking on the role of Pennywise the Dancing Clown, as well as the likes of Richard Thomas, Annette O’Toole and Tim Reid among many others. The mini-series was generally well-received by critics and audience alike, praising Curry’s menacing performance.
Talks of a feature film adaptation began as early as 2009 with a screenplay by David Kajganich (Blood Creek, Invasion). In 2015, a two-film adaptation was planned with Cary Fukunaga (True Detective, Beasts of No Nation) set to direct and co-write the screenplay. Andy Muschietti of Mama fame eventually signed on as director with Fukanaga remained attached as a co-writer, along with Chase Palmer and Gary Dauberman. The film also went through several casting changes as Will Poulter (The Maze Runner) was originally attached to portray Pennywise and Ty Simpkins (Insidious, Jurassic World) considered to play one of the members of the Losers Club.
IT stars Bill Skarsgard as Pennywise, as well an incredibly talented young cast featuring Jaeden Libherer as Bill, Finn Wolfhard as Richie, Jack Dylan Grazer as Eddie, Wyatt Oleff as Stanley, Chosen Jacobs as Mike, Jeremy Ray Taylor as Ben, Sophia Lillis as Beverly and Nicholas Hamilton as Henry Bowers.
BROOKE PALMER/WARNER BROS
Personally, I loved this film. It was visually stunning, the score was equally beautiful as it was chilling, Skarsgard and the young ensemble cast were phenomenal and Muschietti’s direction was clear and bold.
THE REMAINDER OF THIS REVIEW CONTAIN SPOILERS!!!
Let’s start with the cast. Jaeden Libherer portrays the leader of the Losers Club, Bill Denbrough, who goes through the tragic loss of his brother, missing but assumed dead by his parents. He enlists the help of his friends to find him and the many other missing children from Derry, an epidemic that the adults in the town seem to ignore. Jaeden portrays Bill as a soft-spoken, young teenager in mourning who refuses to believe this his little brother is dead. He breathes new life into this character, with his quiet but determined nature and character’s stutter showing a sincere and genuine vulnerability.
Sophia Lillis plays the tormented yet sweet Beverly Marsh who goes through physical abuse from her father and endless bullying in school from other girls that call her a slut. Word even gets around to the adults who seemingly shun the girl based on the rumors.
Finn Wolfhard's (Richie) constant goofing off and one-liners combined with Jack Dylan Grazer's (Eddie) frantic monologues keep you laughing plenty in between scares and they share some of the best moments in the film. The other, for some reason less talked about antagonist of the film is Henry Bowers, played by Nicholas Hamilton. The charming young Australian actor really flips the script as the knife-wielding, mullet-wearing bully constantly on the hunt for the Losers.
Now onto BILL FREAKIN’ SKARSGARD. Tim Curry’s performance as the dancing clown is forever iconic but Skarsgard brings a whole new level of terror and different tone. His Pennywise can be wacky and goofy then turn sinister and creepy in an instant. What’s worse is that IT will shape shift into your biggest fear, whether it’s clowns, mummies, a leper or the subject of a creepy painting that you’re utterly terrified of. Pennywise is also a contortionist as you find out in one scene and his layered teeth and piercing blue, sometimes yellow, eyes are downright chilling.
WARNER BROS. PICTURES/NEW LINE CINEMA
Muschietti’s direction deserves serious praise for getting a young cast to have so much chemistry and for creating a coming-of-age tale that is laced with enough suspense to have you on the edge of your seat. His cinematographer Chung-hoon Chung captured so many brilliant shots throughout the film, one that I loved particularly is when Stanley straightens out the painting on the wall, the camera straightens out along with it. Small detail some may have missed that I found really cool.
As a huge music nerd and film score lover, I really liked the score of IT. Filled with sinister undertones and crashing moments at each major scare, without it the film would probably be much less scary. This however, leads to one of my few gripes with the film: the sound. The scares got to me more because my best friend’s reactions, who was sitting right next to me during the movie. At each deafening surge of music at the film’s biggest scares, we all had an jerking reaction as instruments crashed when Pennywise or one of his alternate forms would pop up on screen.
My only other gripe is some of the editing. Not so much the flow or pace of the film, but the amount of time we saw Pennywise, his ‘crooked lady’, leper or other shape-shifting appearances. We all know that Jaws, Alien and Halloween are some of the most iconic horror films ever made. What made them so scary was how little they showed and what you saw as the ‘monster’ was left to your own imagination. The shark in Jaws isn’t seen until the very end of the film. The Xenomorph in Alien is seen in brief glimpses. Michael Meyers terrifying blank mask or true face is barely seen in Halloween. Horror loses its effect with each passing moment of seeing too much of it. Except Pennywise of course as his appearance was not a shock factor. He became more disturbing the more you looked at him. At times, the crooked lady and leper were shown just a few moments too long. It’s a tiny detail that maybe I’m one of the few people that noticed it.
Regardless of my gripes, I still liked this movie a lot and clearly the rest of the world has too. The film's only been out in a few weeks and already it's the highest grossing R-rated horror movie of all time! It broke records with the highest grossing opening weekend of a horror film, and an R-rated film. September tends to be a bit of a box office lull along with January, but thanks to IT, and the just-released Kingsman: The Golden Circle, September is close to a record high in box office numbers.
IT was an equal part of coming-of-age film and a horror movie. We jumped. We laughed. We cried and overall enjoyed the film. I cannot wait for the second chapter.
Did you enjoy the film? Did you have any gripes? Let's talk! Leave your thoughts in the comments below.