When walking into the movie theater, I thought It was just going to be another clown movie.
I thought it wasn’t going to be great or scary (I could actually hear Stephen King laughing at me while I was typing that.) But I was so wrong.
It was originally a book that was written by the horror king himself, author Stephen King. While the book was much gorier, the movie had to take some of that out for it to keep it’s “R” rating. It wasn’t particularly on the bloody side, just a few scenes here and there.
The movie centers around a group of middle school kids called “The Losers” and how they’re trying to kill an evil clown named Pennywise, who feeds on the fears of children. Though Pennywise only comes out and hunts every 27 years, the gang is determined to end him once and for all.
The movie was directed by Andy Muschietti, who also directed the 2008 horror film Mama. The killer cast includes Finn Wolfhard (you might have seen him in the Netflix original series Stranger Things), Sophia Lillis, Jack Dylan Grazer, and Bill Skarsgård, who plays Pennywise. Opening weekend, the movie made $123.1 million in the box office according to CNN.
The film begins with children laughing and whispering, as if that’s not creepy enough. There were also plenty of jump scares and suspense throughout the film. There were some scenes that were so hard to watch I had to look away. The part that freaked me out the most was when the kids were in Bill’s garage looking at different pictures and IT magically made its way into the photos. Plus, the scene when Georgie put his hand out to grab the boat back from Pennywise also gave me anxiety. The movie also had a lot of graphic language, and all of it was done by children.
Considering the plot of the movie, the actors were fantastic. They really knew what they were doing and portrayed their characters well.
You could definitely tell that there was character development in the movie, by how the kids all grew as friends, even when fighting off a flesh-eating clown. The end of the movie also teased a possible sequel.
I would definitely recommend this movie to any horror fan. I was skeptical at first because clowns don’t really freak me out, but seeing this movie really changed my opinion. It was definitely one for the books and I do not regret seeing it. There are only 3 other horror movie characters to actually scar me for life: the shark from Jaws, the nun from The Conjuring 2, and now Pennywise the clown. I have not read the book because it’s a little long, but after seeing the movie, it makes me want to look into it. Overall, I give the movie a solid 8/10.