Clowns and more clowns

Rating: 9/10 (18 September 2017)

If you didn't like clowns before and if Tim Curry scared the beejesus out of you with his version of Pennywise, you are going to walk out of the cinema this time vowing never again to want to see any clown, including ones which seemed benign before.
Where do I start with this movie. Obviously a lot of the book is not here (as what movie maker ever wants to see kids getting it on with each other) but this movie at least shows better than the mini series, how Bill and Beverly have a sexual tension between them and Ben looks on with heartbreak. It also shows the other boys gawping at Beverly as teens will do. Very well done at least for showing just some of the reasons why the 'Loser Club' bonded so well. The scene where Beverly's dad tried to rape her is very close to what happens in the book, showing how the evil permeates all the actions of adults around Derry. Henry and his teen bully gang are seriously nasty in this movie, again more like the ones in the book. There are extra things added in like Stanley being scared of a picture of a woman which looks like a Munch painting 'The Scream'. There's also changes in how each child repels attacks.
Odd scenes have been added as well but I will leave it to you to see if you think they fit in with the flow of the movie.
My teen son went with me to the movie and was checking his watch all the time as he didn't understand the slow build up of the story and was waiting for more 'boom-shock-horror' than the movie really has. His loss not mine as I was engrossed.
Pennywise is more awful than the Tim Curry version as it is quite clear in this movie we are not dealing with a normal ghost/spectre/ghoul even at this stage of the first movie (of what will end up as 2 and obviously the second movie will show the kids as adults, just like part 2 of the mini-series did). Only thing I found false was that near the end, Pennywise halted for far too long to attack/eat some of the kids.
Overall, a very worthwhile experience, albeit with changes from the book and mini-series.
The child actors are very, very good and 'own' this movie. The landscapes are much better than in the Mini series and I thought I understood much better the layout of the Barrens. Bill Skasgard has a hard job of following Tim Curry but his version of the evil clown stands up with the old one. Very, very well made movie and I can't wait to see part 2!
I will also dust off my old paperback version of the story and re-read now after 20 years.