No, I don't want your balloon!

Rating: 5/10 (27 July 2018)

Even more so than with any other Stephen King based horror "classic" (although that term is highly debatable), a remake of "It" was bound to happen sooner or later. Clowns always were, and always will remain scary, and horror movies with children as the lead protagonists are incredibly popular for some reason. Moreover, the plot about a sleepy little New England town terrorized by a shape-shifting demon feeding on young children is a quite timeless one. It worked in the late 1980s with a fifties setting, it works in 2017 with a late 1980s setting and it will mostly likely work again in 20-30 year, presumably with a turn-of-the-century setting. To be rather frank and abrupt, I found the original film version massively overrated and had little hope that this reboot would be any better; - even despite all the praising reviews and hypes on Internet forums. "It" is a very average film, with a very thin plot and exclusively relying on a few strong gimmicks. Come to think of it, the upcoming star-director Andy Muschietti was the ideal man to direct a film like "It". Like with his debut "Mama", Muschietti again masters in camouflaging a mediocre and derivative plot by throwing in a lot of spooky imagery and seemingly controversial plot aspects. Whilst watching "Mama" and "It", you quickly get the impression that they are brave and shockingly intense horror productions, but when you start analyzing them, they're not much more than substantially void tales with meticulously pre-measured jump moments.
But I must be open and honest about one thing, however, namely that "It" has a brilliant and genuinely terrifying opening sequence! The footage of little Georgie chasing his paper boat that is floating in the pouring rain, and then subsequently getting confronted with the smooth-talking yet ultra-menacing clown Pennywise from within the sewer hole, is unbelievable tense and uncomfortable. At the exact same moment when blood stains and heavy rainfall are merging on the street, you already know the film will only be going downhill from here! Unfortunately, 2 hours of film and even the credits then still have to come. The story then unfolds in a very formulaic fashion. A group of social outcast and bullied friends, aptly referring to themselves as "The Losers Club", prepare for a long and boring summer in their hometown Derry. One of them is little Georgie's older brother and he still can't fathom that the boy simply vanished. Together, they discover that there's a remarkably higher number of missing children cases in Derry than anywhere else and that gruesome accidents with child casualties strangely occur every 27 years. Peculiar stuff, like evening curfews and numerous "missing children" posters on the walls, also appear to be the most common things in Derry. Naturally, all the dreadful clichés and typical Stephen King themes quickly start to follow. Pennywise the Clown is one scary villain, but obviously the real monsters are the adults in town, like the abusive father, the overbearing mother or the violently aggressive cop-father. Outcast kids, including an asthma-patient and an obese boy, transform into brave heroes. When the Losers Club threatens to fall apart, they realize the only way to defeat the demonic Pennywise is to stick together! You know, that sort of moralist nonsense. "It" is at its best when the source material, King's Novel, imitates that other great novel "The Body", which was also written by Stephen King and turned into the magnificent film "Stand By Me" in 1986. Yes, King plagiarizes everybody. Even himself! No, seriously, the child actors are terrific and clearly enjoying themselves the most when they drive around on their BMX bikes and mock each other. Bill Skarsgard is excellent as well, as Pennywise, but the old rule of the horror genre still stands: the less you see of the monster, the more menacing he becomes.