Ridiculous

Rating: 5/10 (14 September 2019)

"It" is the worst kind of horror movie: it isn't scary, and makes entertainment out of violence towards children. The movie's "horror" scenes are so silly they make you laugh, not scream, and the entire premise is ridiculous. This is best shown in the movie's now infamous opening scene. The entire plot of this movie depends on a boy not being able to see an obstacle right in front of him, hitting his head on it, then being tricked into sticking his hand into a dark, dirty sewer by a creepy clown that no intelligent child would trust. Any kid would immediately run away or call their parents if they were in that situation - I suppose the filmmakers aren't aware of the "fight or flight" response.
My biggest problem with "It" is the title character: he's genuinely intimidating in a few scenes, but very quickly you realize he's mostly an annoyance who isn't that much of a threat. For the next two hours It - who is actually an ancient alien from outer space - will spend his entire time not eating children, but scaring them and then letting them live. Why? The in-story excuse is that to It, people taste better scared. But is it really necessary to play this silly peek-a-boo game with a bunch of kids? When It appears on screen he's more irritating than anything else because you know he won't really kill the main characters, making his increasingly bizarre appearances a waste of the viewer's time. This really undermines It as a villain and ultimately makes for a rather boring horror movie.
I'm normally not one to recoil against violence in movies, but seeing a movie studio show a small boy's arm being bitten off and turning it into entertainment is a bridge too far. In fact this whole movie has a truly distasteful fascinating with torturing children both physically and psychologically. I'm not making the same criticism that Siskel & Ebert directed against "Aliens." When reviewing that film, both critics faulted James Cameron for showing a child in mortal danger. They were wrong about "Aliens," which is a great movie in part because of how it incorporates the character of Newt into an adult action movie. I don't criticize "It" for showing violence against young people - but I am of the opinion that film studios have much better things to do than making money off the maiming and killing of small children.
I could give "It" a 3 or a 4, but I'll give it a 5 for the following reasons: the music, special effects, and performances are all very good and the ending is satisfying. While "It" is impressive on a technical level, and it has a handful of fine scenes, it's still not a good movie. 5/10.