"It" shows flare, but needs to have more confidence in it's ability to scare.

Rating: 6/10 (11 September 2017)

"It" is a mostly successful horror film that, unlike it's peers, manages to easily surpass the quality of it's predecessor (although it did have a slight luxury in being a remake of a TV film). Surprisingly enough, the film's biggest issue arises in the confidence of the film to allow itself to scare the audience.
Fortunately the film manages to stay standing in spite of itself. A large part of this is due to the casting of the child actors and the antagonist, Pennywise. For the most part these kids are believable in their roles even when they have to read through some clunky King dialogue. Only a few times do their performances feel hammy, the most notable being a painful but short exchange between Ben and Bev during the third act. The kids also play the comic relief of the film well in their dialogue. Although the film does push the comedic limit sometimes, especially a bit that referenced 'New Kids on the Block' that felt like it belonged in a tripe PG-13 comedy. Otherwise the only other shortcoming in the characters is the criminally underwritten role of Mike. I feel for Chosen Jacobs who did really well with what sparse material they gave that character.
I can't really add anything about Bill Skarsgard as Pennywise, it's everything that it's been built up to be.
I also appreciated that the film had some cinematic shots as well. Too often directors in horror forget how crucial framing a shot can be. Fortunately "It" does not forget this and I actually remembered a few specific shots the day after watching the film. One particular shot I enjoyed was a dutch angle shot from the perspective of a painting, the character in the frame straightens the literal frame and by extension the actual shot as well.
While I praise the film for those shots, I have to acknowledge the gigantic pitfall of the film.
Obnoxiously loud stings during every single scare.
"It" is filled with many disturbing and scary visuals. However, the film insults your intelligence by fishing for a jump scares with abhorrent sound cues. So much more could've been accomplished with appropriate ambient music, or sounds to really let the fear and unease creep into the audience instead of essentially yelling "Boo!". This was very unfortunate as even in a theatre with a full audience, only once did a single person scream during the entire film.
Jump scares aren't uncommon in horror, but this film was strong enough to stand on it's own without resorting to such trite measures.
As a result the film finds itself being just good, instead of great.