If you know Stephen King, then you should at least be familiar
with It. The thing that makes King’s
novels so hard to adapt is that he’s great at packing them with so much extraneous
detail that will inevitably be lost on the cutting room floor, and he has a
habit of writing things that read scarily but don’t translate well visually.
(Compare Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining,
which is a classic in its own right despite taking several liberties with the
source material, to the mini-series that’s technically more loyal but far less
interesting.) That’s why I was skeptical when they announced they were making a
feature-length adaptation of It. Not
only is it one of King’s heaviest, both in page count and subject matter, it’s
a fusion of several conflicting genres that if stripped away would leave you
with just a basic ghost story. That, and it was already adapted once as a mini-series
in the early 90’s with Tim Curry, which has its fans but hasn’t really aged
well and never scared me much. And I must admit to raising an eyebrow to this
coming out a month after The Dark Tower
since I thought that meant we were in for some kind of Stephen King cinematic
universe. Thankfully, I was wrong about both of those concerns.
Our story takes place in the town of Derry, Maine, where
children have been known to disappear under mysterious circumstances every few
years. Those children are all the victim of It (Bill Skarsgard), an evil
shapeshifting entity of unknown origin who transforms into its victim’s
greatest fears, but usually opts to take the form of a Pennywise the Dancing
Clown. He haunts a group of seven young misfits who dub themselves The Losers
Club; Bill (Jaeden Lieberher), a boy with a stutter who feels guilt over losing
his brother to It, Ben (Jeremy Ray Taylor), a new kid who’s bullied for his
weight, Beverly (Sophia Ellis), a pretty young redhead who’s abused by her
father, Richie (Finn Wolfhard), a four-eyed wisecracker, Eddie (Jack Dylan
Grazer) a hypochondriac mama’s boy, Stan (Wyatt Oleff), the most skeptical of
the group, and Mike (Chosen Jacobs), a homeschooled kid whose parents died
tragically. The Losers Club realize that It is not of this world and has been
haunting this town for centuries, so they make a pact to band together, find
It, and kill it.
The thing that stands out the most about It is the way it develops its central
cast. The novel is essentially two stories; the first half being about the main
group facing the monster as children, while the other half sees them reforming
as adults to finish the job. The movie wisely decides to keep these stories
separate, saving the latter for the sequel. A good chunk of the book goes into
great detail about the history of Derry and the inner workings of the daily
lives of our protagonists. While the movie isn’t nearly as methodical (Derry’s
history is summed up with a few establishing shots and we don’t know any more
about the main characters than what we need to), the pacing does carry over.
However, this does work in the movie’s favor since it gives
it more time to build up the scares, which it dishes out in evenly spread out
rapid-fire bursts. I never found the mini-series to be that scary at all, and
there were times where I thought to myself, “Okay, when’s this gonna get scary?”
To which the movie replies, “Oh, you want scary? I’ll give you scary!” If Pennywise alone doesn’t send shivers down
the spine of any non-coulrophobes watching, the way he terrorizes the screen
will, baring rows upon rows of sharp teeth, contorting his limbs in impossible
knots, or simply silently popping up whenever one of the kids find themselves
in a tight space with little to no escape route. This is exemplified in one
scene where he attacks them in a garage that has no right being as well executed
as it was, and in a second act confrontation in an abandoned house that’s
turned into a labyrinth of your greatest nightmares.
Although each member of the Loser’s Club is interesting in
their own right, they’re not the most three-dimensional of King’s characters. Their
personalities don’t rise far above stereotype (the fat kid, the comic relief, the
worried wart, the girl etc.), and nearly everyone who’s not in the club is an irredeemable
psychopath. Pennywise is by and far the most intriguing part of the movie, thanks
in large part to Bill Skarsgard’s performance, who’s funny when he needs to be
but adds a sinister layer that Tim Curry’s iconic portrayal was lacking. The
main cast of kids work incredibly well with each other as well, with the
standout being Finn Wolfhard, who has a joke or smartass remark for every
situation and had the audience laughing all throughout, and Sophia Ellis, who
channels Molly Ringwald and Mia Farrow in the fragile elegance she brings to
her character.
But the movie’s greatest success is the daunting task of
merging an earnest coming-of-age story with a monster movie that gradually
shifts from basic supernatural horror to Lovcraftian cosmic horror, even with
the absence of the cosmic turtle god (long story) and sewer orgy of friendship (again,
don’t ask). And while he spends most of the runtime in clown mode, the forms he
takes when facing the children individually reveals a lot about them, with each one having some very adult fears. Bill
feels immense guilt over his brother’s death, so It presents himself as his
brother. Eddie’s mother lies to him about having a debilitating illness and
turns him into a germophobic nervous wreck. It confronts him as a leper. Beverly
is seen as an object of desire by men and boy alike, and faces such traumatic
abuse at home that you’d think that even the demonic clown would leave her
alone, and is on the cusp of womanhood. It torments her in the shape of a
fountain of blood spouting from her sink.
Bottom line, It is
smart, sharp, and scary as hell. While it may be just half of the real story,
there’s plenty there to help it stand on its own. Easily my favorite horror
movie of the year, and the best film version of an otherwise unadaptable book
that one could reasonably ask for, which alone makes it one of the best Stephen
King adaptations period.
8/10
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