Lots of potential, but...

Rating: 6/10 (24 August 2018)

The characters are wonderful, to start off. The kids are all very likable and the best parts of the movie are the bonding scenes between them. The whole evil clown part, which is kind of the point of the film, is a step down. The first scene with Pennywise is pretty creepy, but Bill Skarsg책rd's performance (which is excellent in that scene) is wasted for the rest of the film. Nothing else that Pennywise does is scary. It's all jump scares and random other monsters that aren't nearly as scary as Pennywise.
As a coming-of-age story without the clown, it's great. But as a horror movie, I don't love it.