By Shayna Rolon | Observer Contributor
Based on the cult-classic novel written by Stephen King, It, (directed by Andy Muschietti), sends off rather quick frights from jump scares but leaves something to be desired in terms of truly invoking fear within the viewer, the type of fear that would leave you sleepless the same night of watching it.
The setting of It takes place in the small town of Derry and begins with Georgie, the little brother of Bill Denbrough (Jaeden Lieberher), who goes out in the rain to sail a boat that his older brother had given to him. Georgie suddenly loses the boat as it falls into a gutter, and as he attempts to retrieve it, he meets the ominous Pennywise the Clown (Bill Skarsgard), who has the paper boat and taunts Georgie to enter the sewer, repeatedly chanting, “take it, take it…”
The scene that follows after is Pennywise ferociously unhinging his jaw, biting Georgie’s limbs, and dragging his bloody body into the sewer. This is a strong start for the horror movie and definitely more than just a ‘warm-up’ for the faint of heart that occasionally watch horror movies, but for those that are well experienced in the genre, this is more of a mild appetizer for the underwhelming entree that has yet to arrive.
The following summer, Bill and his friends Riche (Finn Wolfhard), Stan (Wyatt Oleff), and Eddie (Jack Dylan Grazer) attempt to survive as they are constantly bullied by the upperclassmen of their school; they are later accompanied by Ben (Jeremy Ray Taylor), the new kid at school who is lonely and enjoys reading and researching, although he is also overweight and does not have a lot of friends, making him an easy target for the bullies to toy with. Beverly (Sophia Lillis), a girl who is also bullied often with rumors of promiscuity, also joins the ‘Losers’ Club along with Mike (Chosen Jacobs), a home-schooled african american student who is somewhat of an outsider. Together, the Losers Club helps Ben attempt to find Georgie, as Ben believes Georgie may have ended up within the sewers of Derry and believes there is a chance they will find him. However, the Losers’ Club don’t realize that they will have to experience their personal fears coming to life as Pennywise or ‘It’ will come for them.
The movie is opulent in its plot, as well as having a rather exceptional cast; the actors and actresses, being rather young, have good talent in accurately conveying the nostalgia of the late 80’s as well as protruding the realistic, prepubescent stage of pre-teens budding into teenagers (we see Bev shopping for tampons, Ben developing feelings for Bev). The cast show to have good potential and promising future careers in acting based on their performance in the movie alone; the costumes chosen successfully reflect the fashion trends of the 80’s.
However, the special effects are underwhelming, as the movie relied too heavily on jump scares and did not truly delve deeply into the horrors that each child had greatly feared, but rather only shows small hints of it. For those that are easily scared of anything that is out of the ordinary, this will be much of a fear-inducing film, but for aficionados of horror movies, this will not fully satiate your appetite of horror.
Either way, this is a movie to see if you want to see a strong cast of promising young actors as well as a decent plot line that follows pretty accurately to the original novel, only leaving out the scenes that would never be allowed in a movie.
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