A Familiar, Visually Impressive Remake, It Lacks a Human Connection

Rating: 5/10 (25 January 2018)

A fresh-faced adaptation of Stephen King's horror classic that's staunchly loyal at times, decidedly less so at others. Some removals make sense, like the tremendously cringy sex stuff that King likes to pepper among his novels, but others are a detriment. The production regularly goes to great lengths for a knowing wink - repeated close-ups of a silver bicycle, for instance - but then often fails to follow through with appropriate explanation to make less-familiar viewers do more than furrow their brow and move on. That's a disease that plagues much of the picture: it's in such a rush to touch all the right scenes that it forgets to make them mean anything. King's book can be grotesque and macabre, but it's also very human and patient enough to let its characters establish themselves. On film, there's the hint of a rapport among our child protagonists, but they fall together so quickly that it can be difficult to tell them apart, let alone empathize beyond a base human compassion. Everything looks great, and a legitimately terrifying performance from Bill Skarsgård does well to distinguish itself from Tim Curry's earlier take on Pennywise the Clown. But with so much budget to swing around, glossy special effects and a creepy villain aren't quite enough for me. Negative points for jamming the screen with every trick in the modern horror playbook, too, trying way too hard to fit camera judder and triple-speed jump scares into a story that already had more than enough going on.