Totally disappointing

Rating: 5/10 (31 October 2017)

I wouldn't believe anybody who has read and enjoyed the book who tells you they thought this movie was a satisfying experience. It might be scary for pre-teens, but it has nothing of the unsettling supernatural build up of the book, or any of its 'sympathetic observer' style social commentary; there is none of Stephen King's chilling blend of everyday human cruelty and humanity turned cold by supernatural intervention. Instead it just skims the themes of the book and cherry picks the elements necessary to create a likeness of the book's story line. There are so many opportunities in the book for a genuine horror or thriller film that were for some reason neglected in favor of unremarkable CGI monster scares so generic they are laughable and unenjoyable. I believe that even someone who has not read the book, would find the movie lacks depth, what with all the scares so conveniently staged and glossed over in order to bring the viewer rapidly to the climax. The source material in its entirety obviously cannot be adapted into 2 hours of film, but I do think they would've done better homage by following closer to the narrative pacing of the book, building the scare scenes slowly, at the cost of the lengthy CGI chase scenes.
After watching 3/4s of the film, I turned it off and I wanted to contribute my disappointment. As far as storytelling goes the movie is a failure in my opinion.