Bite-Sized Movie Review - 'IT' (2017)

It's well documented that I don't like Stephen King's work, though I feel like I should and I keep trying. I've never read IT and doubt I ever will. The orgy at the end of the book is enough to make me not want to read it (excellent decision to cut that from the movie). While a lot of King's archetypical characters were present in the movie, it was overall a good, creepy watch, with lots of thrills and scares. Skarsgard was suitably fiendish in his role as Pennywise, the shapeshifting creature who emerges every 27 years to feed on the children of Derry. 

As with a lot of King's work, the evil isn't limited to the big bad. In Derry, there are scales of evil that must be addressed. Sure, at the top we have Pennywise the child-eating clown. Just below him we have every single adult in Derry. Every. Single. One. From Beverley's father, to Eddie's mother, the town Sheriff, the Jewish kid's Dad, Billy's Dad, creepy pharmacy guy, and so on. Just below that are the town's psychotic bullies who are fine with carving names into kids. And below that is everyone else in Derry who isn't a member of the loser squad. This town sucks!! 

Some stuff didn't make sense: Pennywise's motivations or powers are rooted in being able to generate fear (he's basically a miscast creature from Monsters Inc) but it's never explained. What are the lights in his mouth that made Beverly float? Why did she snap out of it with a kiss? What's the deal with all the other floating kids? Are they dead? Trapped in a spiders web kinda thing?! Some great scenes included the rock fight, the projection screen attack, that classic opener with the storm drain, and the few moments when the kids seemed to genuinely be having fun. 

The jumps were well-executed, and everyone should now be thoroughly afraid of clowns. Stranger Things' Finn Wolfhard (best name in history) stole the show as the archetypical King loud potty mouth with a heart of gold. And thanks to some nefarious title trickery at the end of the movie, it appears we're in for a sequel. If you like scary movies, give this one a watch! ​​