Growing Up In Maine..."It"

It (2017)

Rated R

Starring Jaeden Lieberher, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Sophia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard, Chosen Jacobs, Jack Dylan Grazer, Wyatt Oleff, Bill Skarsgard, Jackson Robert Scott,

Directed by Andy Muschietti

The Story:

In the small town of Derry, Maine, every 27 years an evil entity returns to the town and feasts off the children of the town. The year is 1989, and Pennywise (Skarsgard), the personification of this evil has returned and the body count is climbing. A group of kids have banded together after realizing what is happening, and what has happened to their town throughout the last century. Can these kids hope to stop whatever It is?

As always with Stephen King adaptations I must fully disclose that I have not read the book upon which the movie is based.

Not only that, but I've never seen the 1990 miniseries which was the first adaptation of the source material.

So how's that for going in blind to this movie?

Thankfully, I quite enjoyed it.

The movie itself plays out quite a bit as a coming of age story, and that helps the film overall with the tone.

The scenes with Pennywise often have a jump scare, more than anything horrific or gory.

My biggest complaint with the film seemed to be in the sound department as much of the background score seemed to stomp over the movie itself. I found Pennywise's potentially scary dialogue to often come across muffled or garbled.

He was less scary than he was unintelligible. :)

The rest of the cast was really good, though I think I would have preferred Finn Wolfhard to have been recast just to avoid the obvious 1980s/coming of age/Stranger Things connection to exist.

I may have to go back and check out the miniseries, because who doesn't love Tim Curry?

I'll be back for the sequel, and see how the kids grew up and what they do when they realize they have to take out Pennywise one final time.

Final Grade: B+