It

Rating: 7/10 (9 September 2017)

For the first 15 minutes of "It" (and frankly all of the time before that), I thought this film was going to be another pointless remake. Within the first scene, it already felt as if the director was trying way too hard to make things "scary". The classic scene where Georgie meets Pennywise the clown not only seemed to be unnecessarily stretched out, but there was a shadow over the top half of Pennywise's face, so all you could see were his glowing eyes. In the build up to this scene Georgie bumps his head into a construction barrier, providing what seemed like unintentional comedy before the scene started. And then there was Bill Skarsgard's performance in this scene, which also felt like he was straining. As the icing on the cake, the scene ends with a predictable jumpscare and an exaggerated amount of blood and gore. Overall, Tim Curry's performance in the original scene along with the quick and sudden end to the scene actually left a much larger impact, having you wonder what exactly happened to Georgie after getting a glimpse of Pennywise's terrifying face.
Even though the next few scenes in the school also looked to be following a cliché and cheesy route, surprisingly I actually began to care about these characters and enjoy watching the dynamics between them. That doesn't mean the overall trajectory of the film isn't still pretty predictable, but the kids acted like real kids of their age, with surprisingly great child performances across the board. The kids curse, joke around, and, when things begin to go down, they are realistically terrified. When the film wasn't trying to be scary, it was often genuinely hilarious, and it made the rest of the film a whole lot more likable.
While I still felt that much of the horror was exhausting every trope as an attempt to scare (way too many sharp teeth, missing limbs, and predictable jump scares) and Bill Skarsgard was straining with a one note performance, all of the horror in the film actually serves the story and characters, and it actually has a couple well executed scares and sequences. Also, it's surprisingly disturbing at points, not just showing the irrational fears children have, but real childhood trauma.
They call the monster in the film "It" because it is actually just a representation of their fear, inflicted upon them by overprotective parents, abusive parents, traumatic events, and bullies. Of course, the film makes a point to show that the bullies aren't exempt from this controlling force of fear either, and it is often the reason they need to feed on fear to feel stronger.
Of course, like "The Goonies", "Stand by Me", or the recent "Stranger Things", what gets them through their troubles is the care and understanding that they have for each other, and what really makes this rated-R film about a group of children actually relatable for an older audience is how much these kids remind you of yourself at that age.