IT (2017)

I'll preface this by admitting that I've never read the Stephen King novel, and when I went to see this at the Vista Theatre in East Hollywood, I hadn't watched the 1990 TV movie. I subsequently saw the Tim Curry version a few days later, and as appropriate as it might seem to compare the two, it really isn't fair. 

Does anyone actually like the TV movie? Campiness and an appreciation for Tim Curry aside, it's dogshit, right? I actually enjoyed it more when it fully committed to humor, as when Pennywise turns into a freezer with the decapitated head of Stanley Uris/Richard Masur. But I'd say that less than five percent of the humor actually lands, and the bicycle scene between adult Bill and Mike kinda sums up the rest of it for me--painful to watch, yet slightly fun and humanistic.

The story itself has a real "Stand By Me" quality, but the 2017 version does a better job of portraying this. I actually buy the relationships in the Andy Muschietti version. The cast in the remake is also superior, and I love the decision to hire predominantly first-time, unknown child actors. I'll be genuinely disappointed if Part II doesn't include flashbacks with these actors. I miss hanging out with this version of the Loser's Club and would like to see more of them.

From a horror standpoint, IT is fairly successful, though it relies too heavily on repetitive scares and loud noises. There are a few sequences that are genuinely uncomfortable and terrifying, but for the most part, the horror elements didn't stay with me too much. Without the strong cast and the movie theater environment, I'm not sure how well this movie would hold up. 

One of my biggest complaints is Bill Skarsgard's performance. I'm on board with this Pennywise's makeup and costume, as well as the extremely dark humor of his personality, but Skarsgard's voice was difficult to understand at times. I'll admit that I also found the voice to be creepy, but I can't say it was memorable. It seems to me that with an iconic character like Pennywise, you'd want to make more of a choice with its vocals. Maybe it was the right call to not have the voice overshadow the rest of the movie (in the way that Tom Hardy's Bane voice overshadows everything else in The Dark Knight Rises), but I just wish there was more to it. It's almost as if the film expects to just get by on certain people's fear of clowns alone. Mostly I feel indifferent about clowns, so the movie didn't creep me out too much.

I eagerly await Part II and hope that the cast will be just as good. Given the film's reception and box office returns, there is certainly a lot on the line to screw up. I would've loved to have seen Cary Fukunaga's vision of this story, but Andy Muschietti definitely deserves credit for this. He was able to update the story in a way that resonated with audiences, and he made the right casting decisions. Time will tell on whether or not he can capture that again with Part II, but I'll be there on opening weekend.