A King Mishmash

Rating: 5/10 (24 August 2019)

This movie seems to get rapturous praise from a segment of the population, a segment I suspect that has never seen a Stephen King adaptation made prior to 2014. I never fell in love with the book the way that many others have, and was not expecting much from this adaptation. I got what I expected.
Let's see.....a group of early teens calling themselves the "Loser's Club" bullied by psychopathic older teens....The Body/Stand by Me.
Sadistic parents who the Losers Club have to contend with every night....Carrie.
A creepy abandoned mansion that overlooks the town and is the center of the evil....Salems' Lot.
An evil plaguing a small Maine time...take your pick of any King adaptation (from Pet Sematary to Needful Things to The Mist).
And just to make sure the Loser's Club is politically correct, we have an African American teen and a Jewish teen.
At 2 hours and 15 minutes, the film fails to develop many characters clearly. It prefers to dwell on set pieces. It all seems to be a set up for "Chapter 2."
This apparently is the most successful horror film of all time. I'll stick with pre 2014 King adaptations. Except perhaps Maximum Overdrive......