Spell-bindingly Spooky

Rating: 8/10 (4 February 2019)

Coming of age stories are a cliche rolled out time and time again in cinema, but never has the story been so gripping as this tale of a band of outcasts coming together to defeat a truly monstrous evil. Stephen King's fantastic novel comes to life in the grisly and traumatic hallucinations of unbridled terror, balanced perfectly with a child-like comic undertone which lures you into comfortable self-security before hurling you down a well of fear. Bill Skarsgard's incredible performance as the eponymous 'It' is as uncomfortable and hypnotic as the Dead Lights themselves, fully immersing himself into the character to draw the most genuine and reactionary terror from his co-stars, made up of some of the best young talent working today. This is how you adapt Stephen King.