Knowing the Story Hurts it somewhat

Rating: 7/10 (10 September 2017)

The biggest problem with this film is that if you have either read the book, or seen the earlier mini-series, then you have a pretty good idea of what is going on, and that honestly has an effect of really ruining this film. In fact I spent half the film thinking that it was basically a cut down version of the book (which I haven't read yet, but I want to), or the previous film and it was having the effect of ruining what is actually a really well made movie. Honestly, as the film progressed, I was becoming more and more impressed, but I could not shake that nagging feeling that there was actually supposed to be more, and also that the mystery had been ruined. However, one of my concerns was allayed when the film ended and we were told that this is basically chapter one.
The story, like a lot of King's stories, is set in a rural New England town named Derry and centres around a group of children who are sort of outcasts – in fact they refer to themselves as 'the Losers Club'. Every twenty-seven years the town is tormented by a spate of disappearing children, and as such they are forbidden to go out at night. However the children suffer horrifying hallucinations, and one of them happens to be a clown, Pennywise, that seems to shift in and out of the corner of their visions. The movie actually begins with a child chasing a boat down the street and is then captured by the clown, and we immediately know that there is something sinister going on.
The children, one of whom happens to be the brother of the child from the beginning, decide to get to the bottom of this mystery. Mind you, there is always this tug of war between simply enjoying the summer, and actually finding out what is going on. All the while they are being tormented by hallucinations, and other horrors that the town throws up at them, including some teenage bullies.
The film tackles the horror themes that King likes to explore quite well. At times it feels like a slasher flick, but then turns around and proves us wrong. There is a reason why King is referred to as the master of horror because the supernatural always seems to be a side issue to the real horror of what is going on. For instance there is the horror of the unknown – children disappear all the time, and it is not necessarily because some monster is lurking in the sewers.
For instance the monsters aren't always supernatural, they may simply be over protective parents. Sure, the parents believe they love their children, but the fear of losing them overwhelms them to the point that they become over protective. The film does well in trying to follow the line of somebody who is normally a good person turning into a monster simply through fear. In fact fear is what is the driving force of the movie, because in part it is about overcoming ones fear. In a way by overcoming one's fear one can actually overcome the monsters that lurk around the corner.
The question that bugs me now is whether to look at reading the book before the next movie comes out, or not.