Horror is rarely this well made!

Rating: 9/10 (8 September 2017)

In the early 90's when I started reading King, I was not allowed to read 'IT', for many reasons that would become clear later on. In fact I saw the TV-movie version before I ended up getting my hands on a copy of the book.
'IT' 1990 was everything I could have asked for; scary, charming, horrific, and perfect for a boy of my age. The film has a great blend of coming of age mixed with intense themes of horror and great foreboding atmosphere. One thing that was immediately clear was the overall fear of The Losers Club played a much bigger part of the story that the Pennywise clown character. The town of Derry and the individual problems of each character is what is scary about the story, and Pennwise is merely a physical form of the creature they call 'IT'. In many ways this is lost on most audiences. When you bring up 'IT', the clown and Tim Curry are almost always the chosen subject, where-as the story goes much deeper than that. Something that would prove to be true with the novella.
Very much a product of its time, 'IT' 1990 has a great cast of both child and adult actors of that era. But it's also limited by the very same elements. Its budgetary restraints are clear. The cast largely makes up for this, which adds to why they are so memorable. There is also an uneven feel between the two parts, something the director later admitted himself, saying he couldn't get the same on screen chemistry between the adults, as he had with the children. This aside, 'IT' will always be held dear to many horror or King fans as the stronger of his TV adaptions.
Fast forward to today, and after a long spate of pre-production hell 'IT' 2017 was finally announced later last year, and the hype from the teaser trailer that followed was huge. I dare say fans or King himself could have expected such a large response from the movie going public, after so many years. Throughout this period, I tended to stay away from any news about the production as the teaser trailer did little to interest me. My worry was it would fall into the trappings of modern horror, with jump scares galore and overly loud bangs in place of an actual score.
With that I'm happy to say this film is everything you could ask for in a Stephen King adaption. The setting (i.e. Derry), the atmosphere, the characters, pacing and plot are all spot on. It's nearly flawless in its presentation. The director has included all the necessary plot elements that keep the story moving, while never losing the over-arching fear that controls the story. Like the 1990 TV version, this film captures both the coming of age and horror elements that are essential to the plot. The child actors (inc. Henry Bowers gang) are all wonderfully cast, and each hold their performance as their own. The Losers Club in this story are not easily portrayed, each has their own distinct traits and emotional baggage. It's how they are as separate individuals and how they come together against the great evil surrounding them that is so important.
Bill Skarsgard's performance as Pennywise is for lack of a better word 'perfect'. He has admitted early on that he knows he could not out do Tim Curry's memorable role, so he went for something more true to the source material. His stature and build really helped set him aside from any real comparison to Curry, let alone his performance. With the help of the production crew, this version of the monster is far more supernatural than before. Bill went for contortion lessons, which although fairly minor in screen time, greatly helped how he perceived. He is not just a killer clown, he is a hidden creature that happens to inhabit a clowns body. Along with the local scenery he also feels like he is genuinely part of Derry, part of the local furniture. This is so important to the look of the film, he like the town of Derry feels old and as though it has roots that predate our characters in The Losers Club.
It's rare that horror film are this well made, character development is generally where this genre falls short, and in this case, the director nailed it to the wall. I was left speechless throughout, and walked away knowing that they had pulled off many things I thought impossible from this story.
The director and production team will have their work cut out for them to re-create this kind of magic with Part 2. At this point there is only speculation as to if and when this will happen. The current chapter is set to break records for horror films released in September, so we'll just have to wait and see. Though one thing is clear, if this does as well as current estimates predict, we will be seeing a renewed interest in Stephen King's work coming back to the big screen, and more revisions of his work to come.