Not Just Your Typical Horror Movie, It's Much Much More Than Just That

Rating: 6/10 (9 September 2017)

Yah I grew up with the 90's original TV mini-series, and yes I have read the extensive but unique Stephen King Novel, It. I've been waiting for this movie to be made for quite some time, cause all though I do find the original 1990 It to be a harmless, cheesy horror flick that you can have fun with, I felt as if it did not do too much justice to Stephen King's sufficient story. The 2017 It movie, I can gladly say was one of the biggest surprises of the year. This film not only was a horror film with some good scares, but a emotionally impacting coming of age film, about friendship and lost. No joke, I actually got very emotional towards the end and even throughout the entirety of the film, due to some of the very important themes this film portrays. What I surprisingly actually liked the most in this film was the relationship between all the kids in this film. Every kid in this film acts so well, and they're all given very entertaining dialogue that was consistently intriguing throughout this entire movie. The film doesn't tone down on kids cursing or anything, these kids will make sex or immature jokes all the time and I enjoyed it so much, because it felt real. To my knowledge I definitely remember most kids at my middle or high school making inappropriate R-Rated jokes a lot so that was real treat. This film also, is actually quite funny. Particularly this kid in the film named Richie played by Finn Wolfhard from Stranger Things, was absolutely hilarious. All the kids stand out, they're all given really emotional backgrounds, that are sometimes really disturbing particularly with Sophia Lillis's character that really added to the films levity. I thought it was very unique for this horror movie to develop these characters for most of the run-time of this film, in having to sacrifice scares and what not. Most horror movies these days typically never develop the characters a lot, and rather throw a bunch of scares at random people instead of having the chance to allow the viewer to understand certain people's backgrounds. Thank you, to the screenwriters, noticing that a bundle of character development, would ultimately save this film from going under the radar as your everyday cliché horror flick.
As for Bill Skarsgard as Pennywise, I thought he was incredible. Probably the most perfect adaption of Pennywise we will ever get. He really killed it. Nothing for me about him particularly scared me, maybe because I don't find clowns scary, but every scene he was in made me feel so unnerving. It was almost like I had such a level of intensity built up with me, cause every time I saw him on screen I was just waiting for him to do something terrible. Because generally, most of the time Pennywise is on screen, he does normal clown stuff like normal clowns do. He does his silly laugh, smiles a lot, talks about balloons and what not, it just really disturbed me. I can't exactly explain it, but the eeriness of Pennywise really just blew my mind in this film, No spoilers of course, but there is a particular scene at the very beginning of the film, that I will stand by as probably one of the all time best scenes I have ever seen in a horror movie. There was so much uncomfortable but satisfying vibes going throughout me when I saw the scene, and it just basically gave me the predicament that this film was going to be pretty exceptional.
As for flaws I don't have many, but I do think they overuse CGI a bit too much sometimes. There's a particular form, that is shown in the film a couple of times that really didn't work for me. All though, sometimes they do use the CGI for good reason, involving Pennywise's scenes that didn't bother me whatsoever.
So overall It is pretty much a near perfect adaptation of King's novel. It didn't really scare me, so that might come across to some as very disappointing, but the fact that this film allowed itself to be more of a coming of age, emotionally impactful, and exceptionally fun and thrill-riding, mystery, adventure throughout, I was satisfied to the highest level. I can actually say, that I can see It becoming a possible horror classic in the near future. I think It is one of the better, Stephen King adaptations I've ever seen, and if you're looking for something that is going to enthrall you, for 2 hours and 15 minutes, I definitely recommend checking out It. I'd give It a grading of a solid A, and a score of a 9.5/10.