Movie Review: “It”

'It' came; 'It' saw; 'It' conquered.

Do you have that one movie you know you shouldn’t watch, but you want to just because you are curious about how creepy it really is? Well, that's what this rendition of Stephen King’s ‘It’, did for me. Re-living my childhood past of when I was scared sh*tless of that creepy clown, The New Line and Warner Bros. adaptation of Stephen King’s novel shattered the box office records during its opening weekend. The R-rated horror film will make a whopping $117.2 million, far surpassing earlier expectations. That would give 'It' the third-largest opening weekend of 2017, about even with “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” which made $117 million. 'It' also earned a fresh rating of 87% on Rotten Tomatoes and a B+ CinemaScore.

The infamous clown is plenty freaky, and to me it’s the youngsters in this film, bursting with hormones and one-liners, that really make ‘It’ one of the better Stephen King adaptations. The film is set in the late 1980s and tells the story of the self-titled Losers Club – including (Jaeden Lieberher) as stuttering Bill, (Finn Wolfhard) as wise-cracking Richie, (Jeremy Ray Taylor) as chubby new kid Ben and (Sophia Lillis) as tomboy Beverly – who set out to discover who or what is behind a string of disappearances in their small town of Derry, Maine.

To their horror, the kids discover that an evil clown named Pennywise (Bill Skarsgard) is preying on local children and feeding off their fears. And as if that wasn’t bad enough, they also have their own real-life horrors to contend with, like the school bully Henry (Nicholas Hamilton), or Beverly’s creepy father (Stephen Bogaert). The film’s opening recreates the most memorable scene from the 1990 version, in which Bill’s younger brother Georgie is lured to his death by a drain-dwelling Pennywise.

As for the performances, director Andy Muschietti assembled an outstanding young cast, each of whom creates compelling, instantly likable characters. There's a clear Stranger Things vibe to everything in this film, which isn't that surprising when it even stars Finn Wolfhard, Richie, who happens to be my favorite character in this film with his crazy one-liners and cleverness. The best thing about 'It' is the coming of age storylines are compelling enough they could be a film themselves. You root for these kids, their romances, pains, and struggles - regardless of whether Pennywise is about to pop up or not. And he certainly does. 

So that's 'It' in a nutshell. It was a good film, the storyline was great, the casting in this film was excellent, Pennywise the clown is still creepy as heck, and the art direction was on point. 

'It' will creep you out big time ... you'll float too. I give it 4 out 5 stars. Enjoy! -xo Mel