Pennywise the dancing clown has resurfaced to frighten the audiences after 1990. Talking about numbers, here's a fun fact about the number 27 and the movie IT. According to Stephen King, Pennywise returns to terrorize people every 27 years. IT was released in 1990 as a mini TV series and is back in theatres for a fresh take in 2017, 27 years since the last one came out. Bill Skarsgard, the actor portraying Pennywise the dancing clown is 27 years old. IT released on 08/09/2017 which comes up to 27 when the numbers are added. Actor Jonathan Brandis who played the role of Bill in 1990 committed suicide at the age of 27. Now that you're sufficiently creeped out, let's get on with this review.
So we're in this town called Derry where people are mysteriously disappearing, particularly kids. We're introduced to the clown character in the very beginning with a very graphic scene right off the back which is clearly a warning as to how much violence there's going to be. Little kids are targeted by this clown character who looks to feed on their fear. We are introduced to a couple of bullies in Derry and how good they are at their job. Even for a bunch of bullies, they're pretty ruthless when it comes to torturing kids both mentally and physically.
Every kid who gets bullied is welcomed by the 'loser gang' which turned out to be the best part in the movie. Bill, Ben, Beverly, Finn, Mike, Eddie and Stanley are the members of this gang and they get along so well. Their relationship is so magnetic that it makes you want to be a part of them. Each of them is brilliant in their own way, Eddie is a born genius, Ben is a nerd, Bill is brilliant with sarcasm Beverly is so kind and helpful, but the one thing they have in common is that they were all victims of the bullies in some way. They've all experienced pain in some way mostly because of the bullies. I guess you can say that age is just a number because these kids have nailed their parts completely, it took a huge load of Skarsgard's shoulder and at times even pushes him to the sidelines considering what a fantastic job these kids have done.
Pennywise uses their fear and has affected almost everyone in the 'Loser gang' in some way or the other, making them see things other normal people can't see. The concept of seeing things which you're afraid of reminded me of boggarts from Harry Potter, but in this case, the boggarts almost try to kill you. Also the fact that Pennywise uses the plumbing system pretty often also reminded me of Harry Potter particularly, the Basilisk. Warner Brothers just can't stop showing off that they have rights to all DC comics characters and a few of those characters are mentioned even in IT just like when the Action Comic of Superman was shown in The Accountant.
I can't wind up this review without talking about Pennywise and the buzz about how scary he is. Ever since he was shown in the trailers, audiences were hyped to see how his take on the dancing clown was, clearly, he has done a great job as Pennywise, he was creepy in every second of screen time that he had, looked great, laughed like a maniac while he was feeding on people's fears, the makeup suits him but that doesn't necessarily make him extremely scary. He looks scary, he chops people's hands off, decorates the entire screen with blood and stuff but when you hear him talk, I feel like it makes him a bit less scary. Nothing against Skarsgard but I guess they could have added some more voice filters to make him sound a bit scarier. There's one particular scene where the projector turns on and Skarsgard shows up with his hair floating around and that is definitely the most creepy and frightening scene in the movie.
Overall 'IT' had a fantastic plot, some brilliant acting from the kids of the 'Loser gang' and Pennywise has enough horror, gore elements and breathtaking visual effects in him to make 'IT' a very satisfying nightmare. But if you hear someone say that they're completely terrified by Pennywise the clown or stayed up all night because of what they saw or got terrified after seeing a red balloon, they're either exaggerating or they have a reduced threshold for fear. This movie was excellent but that doesn't mean it was down right scary from the beginning until the end. I take back what I said about the balloon part because after this movie, red balloons floating around will never be the same but I will stay on what I said about the rest of the things.
We have to understand that horror movies are not about all the jump scares, the nail biting, the crucifix or a demon threatening to kill everyone it sees. 'IT' kept all that aside and focused more on its plot using strong friendship as its crucifix instead of a necklace worn by a priest and that is probably why I would say that 'IT' is one of the best if not the best horror movie of all time because rather than focussing on getting us scared about the demon, it made us connect with the Loser gang, made us feel the fear they felt and added in some beautiful elements about how important friendship is and how staying together can end up saving your life. I loved 'IT' not because of the fact that Pennywise was doing ghost movie stuff but because of the 'Loser Gang' and how they tried to survive Pennywise's attack. I had a great time floating around with all the others who floated in 'IT' and I'm looking forward to float again very soon because this is definitely watchable more than once.
Verdict:
8.8/10
Seriously, this movie has some brilliant writing and the kids in this movie definitely don't have a PG-13 mouth, especially Bill. I can watch this again just for the scenes featuring the 'Loser Gang', their conversations and their R-rated jokes. Bill and Eddie are simply the best.
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