Are you afraid of clowns? You will be!

Rating: 8/10 (16 September 2017)

IT (2017) *** Jaeden Lieberher, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Sophia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard, Chosen Jacobs, Jack Dylan Grazer, Wyatt Oleff, Bill Skarsgard, Nicholas Hamilton. Well-done big-screen remake and adaptation of the TV miniseries based on Stephen King's epic horror novel about a group of misfit tweens ("The Losers' Club") of Derry, Maine who are plagued with a centuries old demon disguised as a Victorian clown named Pennywise (Skarsgard giving Tim Curry a run for his money who played the monster previously) who literally feeds on their flesh and fear manifestations to sustain its unquenchable hunger. Director Andy Muschietti punches the scare factor exponentially in this R-rated version (bloodier and more visceral with some gore; um, no not for kids) with a streamlined and affective screenplay by Chase Palmer, Cary Fukunaga and Gary Dauberman by shifting the focus of the group of friends as kids instead of pogo-ing back and forth t their adult versions as the aforementioned TV film did. The unknown cast of children are all equally talented and provide enough emotional weight throughout even if the ending's CGI gets dodgy as has been the case with the visual effects of the era.