Sucks the Scares Right Out of the Stephen King Novel

Rating: 6/10 (27 March 2018)

Horror really is subjective, isn't it?
"It" as a novel was terrifying, and if its popularity is any indication, people thought "It" the movie was pretty scary too. But I found mighty little to even creep me out, let alone outright scare me in this film adaptation. I read the book long ago, so my memory might be a little hazy, but as I recall it, this film is only very liberally based on the novel, and only half of the novel at that (the end credits tell us that there is at least one sequel to come). The lack of fidelity, however, is not what I object to in the film. It's the inability of the screenwriters and director to capture on film anything that's remotely as scary as what King conjures in his book. His novel was one sustained note of creeping dread, while the film is hard sell, throwing jump scares and loud sound effects at us, and nothing in it looks like anything we haven't seen in every trailer for every horror movie made in the last 10 years. The cast of young actors is quite good, and indeed the thing I liked best about the movie was its ability to capture that painful and poignant feeling only adults are able to have about childhood because they're looking back on it as something lost. I think I might have been more interested in a movie about that with this cast and director than the one I got, not necessarily a ringing endorsement for a horror movie.
The sequel clearly intends to cover the part of the book when all of the adults come back to Derry to once again confront their childhood ghoul, but I don't think I'll be in line to see it.
Grade: C