One of the Best Stephen King Adaptations

Rating: 9/10 (1 October 2017)

While the miniseries was far from perfect, it's most fondly remembered for Tim Curry's (Rocky Horror Picture Show, Legend, The Wild Thornberrys) legendary performance as the terrifying children-eater Pennywise the Clown. However, even with the over three hour runtime, certain details or story elements were still changed or entirely left out. One example being that Pennywise was much more cold and demonic in the novel as opposed to Cury's Freddy Krueger-like interpretation.
Now, how much a movie is faithful or not to it's source material is of no consequence to me because most of the time..I just want to see a good movie. I don't care how much King hates Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of The Shining for being unfaithful to his original story, it's still a horror masterpiece.
Having said that, I think the thing that intrigued me most about this latest adaptation of the novel was the decision to split the story into a two-parter with the first movie strictly focusing on the Loser's club story from when they were kids in the 1980's (as opposed to the 1950's in the novel) and the second one with the Loser's club coming back to Derry, Maine over twenty-seven years later to fight Pennywise again as adults.
It's a strange choice from an adaptation standpoint since a key element of the novel and the miniseries was it's constant back-and-forth between the two stories in order to showcase the past's effect on the present. The adult narrative also served as the framing device for the child narrative.
But in a way, while it may have sacrificed some of the nuances of the novel, keeping the first movie fixed on the past vastly improves the narrative for me because, personally, it made for a much tighter and more intense story. One of my personal pet peeves are when movies make it clear right from the outset that the characters are going to be alright because it kills any suspense. Heck, the movie itself doesn't even make it clear that there will be a chapter 2 until the very end.
Plus, I always found the kid story of the Loser's Club from the miniseries much more interesting than the adult story.
If I had to describe this movie, it would probably be a combination of the demonic spook- house thrills of The Conjuring series combined with the setting of Stranger Things and the antics found in 80's nostalgic classics such as The Goonies.
Even though the trailers have sold It as a horror film and while it is indeed a solid horror film, this is not the movie's strongest attribute. That is because at it's heart the movie is a touching coming-of-age story with Pennywise serving more as a metaphor for the traumas and personal issues that each of the members of the Loser's club must overcome. I think it's due to this reason that the movie not only ends up being one of the best King adaptations ever, but possibly one of the best movies of the year period.
This feat is thanks in no small part to the excellent cast. Bill Skarsgard ended up being a great choice to fill in the clown shoes of Curry. Skarsgard's Pennywise is every bit as creepy as he looks and I love how he gives the character a more creature-like demeanor, almost as if at any anytime the unstable Pennywise is on the verge of going full-on monster mode. The character of Pennywise is also helped by the sheer amount of terrifying hallucinations he imparts on each member of the Loser's club in order to bring out their worst memories or fears.
While I will always prefer Curry's portray of the character due to the sheer amount of fun he brought to the role and the fact that he iswell.Tim Curry, Skarsgard interpretation is nothing to sneeze at either.
But the true stars of the movie are the Loser's Club. For most of the movie we are strictly focused on their perspective and fortunately the quality of the acting is excellent across the board. There is literally not a single weak performance and the chemistry between the actors captures the magic of those coming-of-age classics such as Stand By Me.
When it comes to acting prowess Lieberher and Lillis obviously come out on top but probably my favorite character was Richie Tozier played by Finn Wolfhard of Stranger Things fame due to his endless supply of hilariously inappropriate jokes and one-liners.
I also liked how the sociopathic bully character Henry Bower, played by Nicolas Hamilton who funny enough has been in TWO Stephen King movies this year (The Dark Tower and It), is given some much needed depth compared to his miniseries counterpart.
While the film does not skimp out on the horror in anyway (some of the novel's darker elements are included where they were absent in the miniseries), the coming-of-age story and the child actors form the very tender human heart that makes this film seem so special compared to other film's in it's genre.
I think this is why I am able to forgive a few of the film's flaws such as Chosen Jacob's character Mike Hanlon disappointingly given the shaft when it came to character development and dialogue, a couple of scare scenes suffering from less-than-optimal CGI and Benjamin Wallfisch's overall excellent moody score getting a little over-bearing at times.
So if you are one of the hold outs who hasn't seen It or simply looking for a quality King adaptation to wash away the bad taste left by The Dark Tower..then what are you waiting for?!?!?!