IT Movie Review 9/10

Rating: 9/10 (17 October 2017)

With inspiration from Stephen King's novel IT, Andy Muschietti, Argentine director, reincarnates the horror novel onto the twenty-first century theater screen. The movie takes place back in the 80's, while following a group of kids self labeled as the "loser club" of Derry, Maine. The movie opens in the same fashion as the book; the opening displays little six-year-old Georgie Denbrough (Jackson Robert Scott) chasing his toy boat, USS Georgie, as it sails down a gutter and into a storm drain. Then the plot develops to include Georgie's older brother, Bill, and his "loser" group: a nerdy chatterbox Richie (Finn Wolfhard), a germ-phobic mama's boy Eddie (Jack Dylan Grazer), plus a Jewish kid Stanley (Wyatt Oleff), a black farm kid (Chosen Jacobs), a new kid Ben (Jeremy Ray Taylor), and an abused daughter Bev (Lillis). This group of ragtag kids comes together to confront the Pennywise clown (Bill Skarsgard). From its fractional Stranger Things cast and terrifying special effects, Muschietti's IT balances humor and horror to produce the success, horror film of 2017.
Muschietti's effective use of humor throughout the plot exemplifies signs of humanity in ways all audiences can relate. The nostalgic, for many, 1980's America setting also helps to provide some classic clichés and comedy to the cast. Even in the midst of the final battle, comments from Finn and Jack position comedy where it is least expected. After the audience is absolutely creeped out from Pennywise's games, there are cuts in the nightmare showdown where a need to laugh is created. A few sexual punchlines, here and there, really go a long way to keep the audience scared and satisfied. Bill and his group of Derry kids manage to bring some sense of comedy to a mortifying situation of life and death. Unlike Muschietti's relative flop Mama from 2013 making only $28 million opening week, IT bursts out the gate with $123.1 million for opening week. From his previous endeavor, Muschietti learns there is such a thing as too many jokes. He then manages to find that perfect ratio of jokes to jump scares. At no point does one solely watch the movie as a horror or solely as a comedy, instead it is a concisely measured concoction of the two. The recurring childlike, yet not innocent, humor compliments the movie's deeper meaning to the terror of Pennywise: in a way that keeps the audience relaxed, but on the edge of their seats. Along with the humor, IT carries a lot of success from the horror of the clown, Pennywise, and his deeper rooted symbolism. Muschietti portrays the clown as a manifestation of the kid's fears. In many ways how Freddy Kruger lives from the nightmares of his victims, Pennywise feeds from the fears of the town's kids. However, there is no one clear cut event leading to the creation of the clown. Derry's history has been full of tragic events dating back as far as the books go. Muschietti is trying to convince audiences Pennywise's lore stems not only from the fear of death itself, but also a concept much more primal and unexplainable. Which is a key difference when compared to the antagonists of Jason and Freddy. The acting of the clown also exemplifies "show don't tell" strategy of great literature books. Most of the terror from Pennywise comes from the spot on acting of how the clown is simply just toying with the kids. Pennywise only comes out to scare the kids here and there with some indirect appearances. Sometimes the clown will be in the brush waving a bloodied hand, chilling in the storm drain, or watching from the haunted house. There's nothing special when it comes to the actual visual effects of editing of the movie, just the normal stuff from Hollywood in 2017. Yet the movie made $123.1 million in it's opening week, which is the third highest for movies in 2017. Much of that success can be accredited to Muschietti's image of Pennywise and the hysteria it was able to conjure from the audience. The director, Andy Muschietti, establishes the perfect mixture of humor and horror to yield the most successful horror movie of 2017. The "loser club" of kids' adult jokes brings a level of comedy and humanity to a horror film not yet too widely popularized. That right amount of humor combined with Pennywise's deeper allusion to raw fear blend perfectly to make the contemporary outline for horror in 2017. These resulting guidelines provide examples that other horror directors in the future should analyze before drawing their storyboards and interviewing their cast.