One of the most entertaining horror films of recent years.

Rating: 8/10 (23 September 2017)

As an adaptation of Stephen King's IT – CHAPTER ONEthis turned out quite satisfactory; Andy Muschietti & his team did a pretty good job overall. The great bunch of young actors nicely shines in their respective roles but yesdidn't't get why they switched & changed few original ideas or things about characters like Mike, Ben & Bev...what's the point of making Ben as the history nerd instead of Mike without revealing anything about his family or background, particularly just moving into a new town & staying over at an Aunt's house, where he's having kind of difficult time to adjust because of an annoying cousin & aunt. Personally I loved that aspect in the miniseries which I found quite relevant for many kinds around that age passing through the similar sort of problem. And the other things that kinda bugged me were Bev's missing slingshot skills and the way they gave away the little mystery around 'the Secret admirer' thing to her so early in this phase of the story. But manthat stunning young actress (Sophia Lillis) turned out quite a catch for this movie, I'm sure she'll have some damn busy days with great prospects in coming years of her career. Pleasantly surprised by Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise! Mostly because of my early impression about this portrayal of Pennywise wasn't much positive or hopeful from what I've seen in the first teaser/trailer. Thought it was going to be somewhat cheesy but glad it turned out I was wrong. Enjoyed his every encounter with the kidsparticularly the major selling point was his very first appearance & interaction with Georgie and he nailed that segment with his own charisma of portraying the fabulously creepy 'dancing clown' of Derry (btw, shocked to see that ended in gruesome fashion! I wasn't expecting at all to see such explicit & gory death scene of such a young victim!). Anyway, coming out from the reels (inside the garage) & the freezer (in Neibolt house) were another favorite parts and also that 3-scary doors part was a clever touch by Muschietti. But I wouldn't call them jump scares as I was expecting something like that to happen at those parts of the movie. Those were deliberate scares for menicely done, entertaining & loved them all. The whole kid's viewpoint treatment worked so well for a change considering how most other major modern horror films came out in recent years. I think they can still add few more short scenes regarding how adult community was dealing with those child missing cases more elaborately while grown-up characters recalling about the old Derry in next chapter(s). As a whole, I'd say Andy Muschietti's IT is the most entertaining horror film of 2017 so far. Excited to see who they eventually cast in the all grown-up roles for these characters.