I have to admit I wasn’t looking forward to seeing the new It. I enjoyed the book, having bought It back when it was first published, thirty years ago this year. But I never considered It to be the best of Stephen King’s works (that would be ’Salem’s Lot, with The Shining a close second; a more recent favorite would be Mister Mercedes, followed closely by Doctor Sleep). I thought that It, the book, felt a little too long-winded to me back then, and the concept of an evil being taking the shape of a clown felt more silly to me than scary.
The 1990 TV miniseries that was adapted from the book was good, up to a point. Tim Curry gave an enthusiastic and enjoyable performance as Pennywise the clown, and the first half, with the child actors, was superb, but the scares in the miniseries wound up being pretty lame, thanks in no small part to the fact that the 1990 version of It aired on broadcast TV, and was severely restricted in what horrors it could show by the standards and practices of the day.
But two things about the new It that I noticed right off the bat that filled me with hope: the first was that it was rated R, and that the film would only cover the childhood portion of the story. The ‘R’ rating would free the filmmakers from any restrictions in how they would show the scares (and the fact that they were allowed to curse like sailors gives the story a much added realism), and devoting the entire first film to the childhood portion of the story meant we would have more time to spend with these characters.
The new Pennywise is well-played by Bill Skarsgård--at least whenever he’s actually on screen. In many scenes, Pennywise’s presence is conveyed through marvelous special effects that work to amp up the creep factor however possible. And it's very effective, because Pennywise becomes even more formidable as a result. Skarsgård’s take Pennywise is a truly frightening force of nature with his unnaturally glowing eyes and a faint whispering voice that can turn as loud and vicious as the fangs that abruptly sprout within his mouth without warning.
Director Andy Muschietti (Mama) is relentless and imaginative with the scares. And he clearly makes the most of the freedom that the R rating has given him, creating a villain in Pennywise that is spectacularly awesome as well as unnerving. The child actors, led by Jaeden Lieberher as Bill and Sophia Lillis as Beverly are all fantastic. They perfectly embody the camaraderie that’s needed to battle a seemingly overwhelming monster that feeds on their fear.
The town of Derry also becomes a character of sorts in the story when its revealed that the place always has been a little off, acting like a magnet that attracts evil. The citizens of Derry drive or walk right past outrageous acts being perpetrated on children, and it’s clear that their apathy makes them part of the problem, if not actually complicit in Pennywise’s horrendous deeds. Thanks to its everyday banality of evil, Derry wound up being the perfect place for Pennywise to lurk, and the fact that the film manages to make this point is all the more impressive.
Even if you’ve read the book and seen the earlier TV version of It--like I have--this new version is still chilling and gripping right to the very end. That’s because it embraces the story, as well as the fact that it is a horror film and runs with it in great style. And, I have to admit, thanks to this bold, fantastic new version of It, I’ve recently been looking at clowns in a (scary) new light. --SF
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