Goosebumps

Rating: 7/10 (30 August 2018)

STORY: 7 Predictable, yet Foundational.
The story is predictable. Pennywise comes, terrorizes the kids, takes one hostage, the rest have to save her and "kill" or "banish" Pennywise. It's a story that many predicted, including myself. But I still invested in it, there is no doubt about that. It unraveled each child's greatest fear well and in proper increasing horror. It was the classic IT that we know and love, but brought to more life and a realistic approach.
VISUALS: 7 Pennywise stole the Show.
There is no doubt, visually, that most of the makeup crew were put directly on Bill Skarsg책rd. Pennywise is the backbone of this film, and they needed his transformation to be seamless and clean. The CGI was subpar at some parts, especially when Stanley Uris' greatest fear personified out of the painting. The worst was when Pennywise came out the projector screen as a giant version of himself, man that was bad. The rest of the makeup seemed rushed, especially Eddie Kaspbrak's fear in the zombie being. Pennywise was impressive though, I liked his transformation to the screen. It was scary, it was something haunting.
SOUND: 7 Build the moment.
I love horror thrillers that create suspense with an eery toned soundtrack. IT definitely brought that. With a basis of piano and stringed instruments playing a big role in the more innocent and slow-moving scenes, the larger scenes contained blasts of trumpets and flutes with hints of kid's toys layered at certain places. The places in the soundtrack that really did it for me, was the incorporation of voices in the music itself. Mostly children, you hear them singing songs and saying phrases that only add to the creepiness that this movie brings. It sets the scene for what this movie is all about, children. It takes turns going from happy to frightening, but continually keeps that eery feel in the back. It never goes away, just like Pennywise never leaves you alone.
CHARACTER: 5 Lacking development.
I watch movies hoping to engage fully. I want to feel like I am there with the characters and they are people I feel like I have known for my whole life. This movie lacked in doing that for me. I felt empathy for some of the characters, primarily Bill, solely for the reason that he lost his brother Georgie. It was an empathetic device used in the movie to create that connection with the characters. But, that was where it came to a hurtling stop. I felt almost no other connection to the other members of the Losers Club. The humor that Eddie brought, and the remarks made by characters such as Richie made me recall times with my friends where we acted so similar to them. But I didn't get a lot of the backstory of the characters, better yet who they are as a person. I feel that the biggest problem that brought this disconnection with the characters was the packed story. There was so much they had set out to accomplish in a span of less than 2 hours. Pennywise's character should have been approached with more of a backstory, I think. Why does he do this? Where was he created? That sort of thing. But that might not have been what the director wanted, and I can respect that. Not knowing a lot about Pennywise in particular does bring an unsettling nature to the character. Overall, not great but enough.
ENJOYMENT: 6 Goosebumps.
It was creepy. Not super scary. The narrative aspect helped with that part of the movie. I didn't get jumped scared at all, but the creepiness still stuck with me after the film. I enjoyed it, especially the fact that it was a horror movie but still had a concrete story. Bill Skarsg책rd did a fantastic job as Pennywise. He was the scariest part of this movie, and every little mannerism looked on point at all times. This is my perfect horror movie, along with another narrative horror The Quiet Place. Gave me goosebumps, which is what I was looking for going into this movie.