Great coming-of-age film, terrible horror movie.

Rating: 6/10 (7 September 2017)

I went into this totally fresh, having never read the book nor seen the original (despite watching horror films for over 30 years).
As a horror movie, I thought it was poor. I didn't find a single scene or shot the least bit scary. I thought the intro scene was interesting, and I was definitely intrigued by the appearance of Pennywise who had a welcoming creepiness about him... but this was totally lost in all of his subsequent scenes for me. I found most scenes where Pennywise was shaking and screaming to be borderline laughable. Every jump scare was clichéd to the point of predictability (not a single one landed for me), and I never once felt any sense of dread (and sadly, I never got a single spine shiver, which is what I seek when watching a scary movie). Although it featured gore, as a horror/scary movie... it completely failed. (The only scene I found suitably creepy was the old woman out of focus in the background in the library!)
But... aside from the horror elements, I actually found the human characters to be quite interesting and very entertaining. I think the boys (and Bev) were perfectly cast, and they were each interesting in their own arcs. The witty banter was immensely entertaining, and felt very natural... this was largely what kept me interested throughout an otherwise dull horror film. I also thought the 80's setting was handled quite well... certainly giving a feel of the era without ramming it down our throats, and the character sensibilities felt true to that period also. So... as a horror film, for me it totally fails... but as an 80's coming-of-age drama, I actually quite enjoyed it!