January Embers

Rating: 9/10 (16 September 2017)

Stephen King adaptations can be a mixed bag. For every masterpiece, A Shawshank Redemption and The Shining there are other productions that sit opposite, CELL, Bag of Bones and the deplorable Mist TV series to name a few. King has a huge body of work and some times it takes a film director to make or break his writing for a cinematic audience.
Andy Muschietti and screenwriter Cary Fukunaga announced a cinema version of IT in 2014. Muschietti had directed MAMA and Fukunaga had gone into bat for Woody Harrelson and Matt Mcconaughey for the first season of True Detective. It was an interesting peering and then the production went quiet. until the first trailer.
Based on the the Novel by King and the television version which featured Tim Curry as the clown antagonist obsessed with killing children the question was; would the trailer that broke the internet match up to everything read and seen before? and if so would it be better?After two full versions Andy Muschietti had a lot of work to do.
Bill, Ben , Beverley, Richie, Mike, Eddie and Stanley live in the fictional town Derry Maine. They are all very early teenagers and find comfort among each other and are very close. Early on Bill loses his brother and it soon becomes obvious that Derry houses a demon so evil that adults cannot see it leaving it to the teens to do something about it. This is a very Stephen King story.
After a relentless death that will go down in the halls of Horror as a great film murder. This becomes a very adult version of the story compared to the mini series but not so the novel which is even more adult. Stephen King WTF !!. The Clown PENNYWISE is pivotal early and Bill Skisgard is owning it in the first few seconds which is important not just for the story but also the cinematography sound and general tension.
Muschietti has done an amazing job. Stephen King has mentioned he did not expect this to be as good as it is and he is right. This is a fantastic horror film but in saying it pays homage to the classic 80's and also addresses the issues of teens growing up ( Well almost ) and creates an on screen entity that future films other that the sequel will struggle to compete with.
PENNYWISE is not nice, Hannibal Lecter not nice.
A film that has had the highest opening of any horror film ever and it deserves this, We deserve it , This is the mini series on steroids and fills the gap between the three. Smart acting directing and writing for a simple horror film which has fallen into very caring hands.
Bring on Chapter 2...It's going to get very nasty.