Movie Review: “It”

After a couple weeks of drought, the cinema box office should be back to normality this weekend. Why? Because “It” saved the box office from plummeting farther than it already has. Yes, a Stephen King book about a killer clown that terrorizes kids is the savior of the box office. On Thursday night, “It” made $13.5 million dollars. That’s a record setting number right there. Not only did “It” make that much money, it’s broken a number of records and it’s only been out for a couple days. “It” set new records for Highest Preview Night for an R-rated film (surpassing Deadpool if I might add), horror film, September release, and Stephen King film. The film was originally projected to make around $60 million this weekend, but with Thursday’s outcome it reached $117.2 million.

So what did I think of the movie? Well, “It” was truly a scary rollercoaster ride with (almost) nonstop scares and scenes that will make you either gag or sit up in your seat and eat your popcorn until it’s about gone. Based off the acclaimed novel by Stephen King, “It” is about a demonic entity that terrorizes the children of Derry, Maine, and usually takes the form of a clown. After being haunted by “It” a couple times, a group of kids decide to fight and hopefully destroy it.

Everything about it was truly fantastic! Not only was it a good fright fest, it’s also a well-made movie. From the casting to the frights and dialogue, it was all exceptional. For casting, I’m going to start with the Losers Club. Every member of the Losers Club has a problem they deal with. Leader Bill (Jaeden Lieberher) is scared to face the fact that his brother is dead, Richie (Finn Wolfhard of Stranger Things) is scared of clowns, Eddie (Jack Dylan Grazer) is a germaphobe, Stanley (Wyatt Oleff) is afraid of a painting in his Dad’s office, Mike (Chosen Jacobs) is haunted by his parents tragic death, Beverly (Sophia Lillis) has a pedophilic Dad, and Ben (Jeremy Ray Taylor) is the new kid in town. All of the losers standout in their own way, and all do such a great job at what they do. Wolfhard, however, is the best of the best! His character is a loud-mouthed cursing kid that pretty much is the comic relief of the movie. Speaking of which, not only was “It” a horror fest, it was also funny at parts and hits you in the feels at other moments. The humor was on point unlike other horror movies that try to throw in comedy (those movies end up falling flat).

Now let’s talk about Pennywise for a sec. Bill Skarsgård’s Pennywise makes Tim Curry (the original Pennywise) look like a dumb, “yep I saw that coming” bag of nothingness. Whenever Pennywise was onscreen, it was either a lead up to a big jump scare or a jump scare you never saw coming. That right there is the reason why Bill Skarsgård crushed it! On the flip side, there were a few minor things I didn’t like about the movie. Like I said minor, so what I’m about to say doesn’t change my overall opinion. I would have loved to see more of Mike, Richie, and Stanley’s fears because the movie mainly focused on Bill, Beverly, and Eddie (there wasn’t much to show for Ben). Also, I feel like Henry Bowers wasn’t a convincing bully. Yeah he cuts kids and all, but he wasn’t all that intimidating.

So to conclude this review, I’m gonna talk about the ending. I’m not going to spoil it, I just wanna say something. So “It” is a 1,138 paged book that’s divided into two parts. Part one focuses on the kids and part two fasts forward 27 years when the kids are adults and Pennywise returns. The movie focused on part one because (drum roll please) there’s a sequel coming out in 2019 that’s gonna be all part two. I am very much anticipating it, and I can’t wait to see what part two has in store. Maybe more scares? Maybe more humor? I don’t know, guess we’ll just have to wait and see.