Stephen King finally captured on screen

Rating: 8/10 (28 September 2017)

IT is not my favourite adaptation of a Stephen King novel. Obviously, that would be "Shawshank". But there's something about IT that feels more authentically Stephen King than any of the other adaptations I've seen (and I've seen a LOT - I've even seen "Firestarter" and King's performance as Jordy Verrill).
This is not to say that it is wholly faithful to the novel. It is not, and with good reason. There are some parts of IT-novel that would never work on screen. Let's just say that the turtle only gets a cameo role as a piece of Lego in this film and quite right too.
But where the film seems to capture the strengths of King is in warping reality, just a little. Venturing into the basement and seeing something that might be eyes, glowing in the dark. Passing by a creepy picture every day and trying to NOT look at it... just in case...
These are the experiences we've all had - but in King's world the thing you know that CAN'T happen sometimes does. And sometimes those eyes in the dark look right back at you.
Director Muschietti captures this spot-on. Also King's ability to take more prosaic horrors like school bullies or overly-affectionate fathers and add them to the palette. I could hear the audience around me tense up whenever Mr. Marsh was on screen.
The reason it works so well is that the film takes the time to develop (most) of the child characters well. Unfortunately, a film's running time is a tyrannical thing so Stanley and Mike lose out. In Stanley's case, I think this might be a problem for chapter 2. In Mike's case, I didn't mind so much - the acting in this film is uniformly good except in the case of the actor who plays that part. I'm sorry, but he was wooden in comparison to the rest of the Losers.
So this is not by any means a perfect film, but I can see why it has been so spectacularly successful. It's a terrific ghost-train ride. If you go in with the right frame of mind it will make laugh, jump and be enthralled.
IT is definitely NOT the scariest film ever made though. Go in with that expectation and you will be disappointed. This is a film that wants to entertain as much as scare - it's often as funny as it is spooky.
But IT does have one ace up its sleeve - the nightmarish creation that is Pennywise. We all have a built-in suspicion of the creature who smiles too wide, whose friendly grin so easily becomes a snarl, a rictus of bared teeth. King didn't create our shared fear of clowns, he just built on it. His Pennywise is a creature that will be hard to forget, and I even though I didn't feel that scared during the film, I felt my mind going back to him for a few days after I saw it. Bill Skarsgard gives an amazing performance as a being not quite in its own skin, and the subtle special effects merely emphasise his strangeness.
I'm looking forward to IT Chapter 2 much more than I ever expected. This is a far better film than I thought it would be. But I'm also hoping that Chapter 2 will really take the gloves off and try to terrify in a way that Chapter 1 shied away from. Chapter 1 did feel a little like an R rated kid's film, or "Stranger Things" with a more meaningful monster. I hope that in Chapter 2, the fears are fully-grown. But this will do nicely for now.