IT (2017)

[baumer]

It's almost here!

[chasmmi]

It's very good. 

 

Felt like a really good 'old school' Nightmare on Elm Street film.

[Tyrian]

Review Summary: You might have come for the scares.... but you'll be pleasantly surprised at the humour - and you'll remember IT for its heart.

 

Pls let either Amy Adams or Jessica Chastain play adult Bev!

This really is a movie about the kids... and also happens to feature a scary child eating clown. It's no wonder all the marketing / press for this film has been about showcasing the 7-kids, showing off their genuine chemistry, and downplaying Pennywise/Bill Skarsgard.
 

- The film knocked the ball out of the park

- The marketing department (trailers / poster / promotions etc) knocked the ball out of the park

- The casting director knocked the ball out of the city

I have very high hopes for Chapter 2, and the adult story, but worry because this is near universally considered to be inferior story material to what we've already seen. News that the kids will still feature (via flashbacks) is promising, however, and I hope we find a happy medium between continuing to showcase the kids via flashbacks... and dealing with lesser material of the adults in present day. And we'll all be wondering for the next 2 years wondering whether there will be any spiders in part 2....

They better hurry up and make Chapter 2 before the kids grow up!

Two favourite lines:

"Can only virgins see this shit?"
"....and now I have to kill this fucking clown!"

 

Edited September 8, 2017 by Tyrian

[Noctis]

This is one of the best horror movies I've ever seen. Almost everything about it is fantastic. It's genuinely scary, but it's surprisingly hilarious and the story has a lot of heart. One of the best set of teenage characters I've ever seen on film and they all work off each other really well. I never expected it to have this much heart and humor, so I was really surprised. The crowd LOVED it (this movie demands being seen in a crowded theater) and WOM will be sensational.

 

A

 

I'm confident in saying it'll be a classic in the horror genre. 

 

[K1stpierre]

I waited till today to post this review as last night I was not in any mind to post given how mad I was. I wanted to cool down and type with a much more clearer mind so that it's a more well rounded accurate review.

 

Safe to say, it really doesn't change much how I feel, except perhaps it saves you readers the amount of F bombs I would of typed, so there's that.

 

Ugh. I so badly wanted to like this movie......it was one of my most highly anticipated movies this year, probably number 1 is if weren't for Star Wars. And before anyone says anything, no it wasn't the hype that got me, I went it with about an average mind set. I wasn't going in hoping that this movie would scare the pants out of me, as I've watched horror movies all my life since I could remember and it's very hard to physically scare me. I don't think I've ever been physically scared from a movie, not since waaaaaaaay back when I was like 8 or so when I first watched Alien. It petrified me, haunted me and had nightmares for years, but at the same time in some sick sense I loved it. It didn't stop me from re watching it or watching the sequels that followed and even more horror movies. 

 

So with that said, I went in hoping for a great creepy, chilling, suspenseful film that would at least make me uncomfortable in my seat. I was also looking for an overall great movie. At least one of these sentiments did not disappoint.

 

The movie if you are judging without the horror/thriller aspect is actually quite good, like very good. The entire kid cast is good, though I will say I wished we had more lines from Ben but that might be being nit picky. I just know he's a bigger character when they are adults so it would of been nice to see him develop a bit more. I think the clear standouts for me were Beverly (she was so fucking cute and perfect, excellent choice for her) and Richie, fucking hysterical. His jokes were awesome and said perfectly. The group as a whole was good and you felt their chemistry throughout the film grow. The outer characters, such as Eddie's mother, and even more so Beverly's dad add even more weight to their characters. I genuinely felt comfortable when I was witnessing THOSE parts of the film, how creepy Bev's dad was had me thinking, "Ummm....are they going where I think they're going?". And Eddie's stand against his mother felt genuine and heartfelt. 

 

The score for the film at times was amazing, such as the opening scene with Georgie. Excellent score, really went with the film well. There were other good pieces, though sometimes I felt the score was just a little bit too much.

 

And now, with the bad:

 

I really don't understand how people have been raving about Bill Skarsgard's (sp?) performance when he literally only had like.....maybe in total 10 minutes of screen time, and in those ten minutes he had like what? Maybe 6 lines? 7? Most of what he said in this entire film was said when we first met him as Pennywise when talking to Georgie. After that, he literally says nothing, no peep, maybe a "Beep beep ritchie" or some other causal thing, but doesn't actually say much till the end when he has Bill. Don't get me wrong, I thought when Bill was actually allowed to act and talk, he was creepy and awesome, the Georgie scene to me was the best part of the entire film (except the part when he bit his arm off, that to me fell really flat and I'll get to that). You actually had time to look at Pennywise, interact with him, and get that suspenseful feeling build up. After that, he was literally shown at times for literally one second and then he disappeared. I'm just sitting thinking to myself, "Are they gonna let Bill do anything in this?". We can call the mini series crap all we want, because for the most part it was crap. However, with that said, at least Tim Curry had to at least act and portray Pennywise, striking into the hearts of fans (sure there were moments he might have went a little over the top). I felt like this Pennywise was just......there.

 

Now back to the arm being eaten off, because that's another overall huge gripe I have with the film: The use of CGI. I just found the CGI to absolutely suck, and take me right out of the movie. The scene were he bites Georgie's arm off was horrible, it was super lame and the teeth looked so fake. It's not even showing the teeth I minded but the CGI. Instead, they should of went with something more real like animatronics or puppets or even Skarsgard himself, I don't know something that looked REAL and not just a computer image. And not to mention, after that you didn't really see any violence or gore from Georgie, he yelled for like two seconds and then was sucked down........like, wow, that really just left me super bummed out. I would of preferred had that scene (with the incredible build up it had) been something along where Pennywise grabs him and shoves him against the sewer drain, almost crushingly where you can hear his bones smashing against the drain, straining. Meanwhile he's yelling out a real blood curdling scream. Meanwhile the neighbor they showed walking outside where she could hear/see Georgie (which I THOUGHT the film was hyping us up for, to see this person's reaction), it would of been perfectly painted everything wrong with Derry: a child writhing on the ground, blood soaked and spilling underneath him while screaming, being compressed and squeezed awkwardly against a sewer drain, yet meanwhile have said adult just stand there still in terror, helpless. Georgie's shoulder loses mass, sinks a bit into the hole from his loss of an arm and his shoulder now popping, until it's clear to viewers he's being eaten into the whole, his shoulder devoured through and in a flash he's contorted awkwardly through the drain. Silence follows. (of course the book had it where Georgie was left in the middle of the road with a bone stump, visibly dead).

 

I don't know, it's something like that I was hoping to see rather than a cheap CGI trick, where you didn't really see any of the biting or tearing. All you saw was a bit of blood in the street, and then he's sucked down. Lame. Other areas where the CGI to me was horrible was the projector scene. It had a good feeling and vibe, up until that stupid CGI of Pennywise being this big thing of himself coming out of the projector took me out. I would of much rather of preferred if one of the kids in the dark backed up into said Pennywise, but the actually actor himself vs a CGI Pennywise. It would of, again, gave Skarsgard a chance to enact his terror on the kids and for us to get to know more of Pennywise. But, alas we get some dumb CGI thing, also made it super loud trying to scare but it just came off as loud and dumb. I could get into more and more stuff but I think you all got the point.

 

I just don't understand how you put so much attention to Skarsgard, makeup, clothes, and Skarsgard himself said he took some sort of classes to make his mouth twitch and face in general move a certain way for the film. So why do all that, when the film makers are just going to throw it all away, not use it, and instead use CGI in it's place? It makes zero sense. As a result, the scares never hit home for me. I wasn't even creeped out by it, nor was I ever disturbed. I just honestly sat there thinking, "okay? That's it?" 

 

As great as the cast is and even the cinematography, overall this was SUPPOSE to be a horror/thriller film at it's core. To walk into a movie like this, then walk out feeling nothing whatsoever (despite again how great the other parts of the movie was) is a tragedy and completely makes the movie feel mute to me. That's like if you went and saw a comedy, the actors were heartfelt, score great, cinematography great, oh.....but film didn't make you laugh once. You'd walk out feeling so confused and weird. It just doesn't make sense.

 

Overall, I give the movie a 6/10, as much as it pains me. Really the kids saved this film from me giving it a harsher score. C for me. Sorry guys, just being honest.

 

 

I think horror is truly dead.

[Ethan Hunt]

15 minutes ago, K1stpierre said:

 

I think horror is truly dead.

why would horror live or die based upon this one movie. for christ sake we had Get Out this year

[jb007]

It is very good. Plenty of scares and good performances from the young actors. The constant swearing by the teens was a negative and took away from the enjoyment of the movie.  The pacing could have been crisper.

 

Was a big fan of the TV mini series. Enjoyed the movie quite a bit.

 

B+

[baumer]

As a horror movie and a movie in general, I thought it was quite good.  But the problem is that I adore the book so much, like adore it.  And the liberties they took in this film really pissed me off.  They ruined the story by making Mike and Ben basically after thoughts.  They eliminated the Barrens completely and instead of really getting into the the nuts and bolts of why the kids were able to defeat IT, they just brushed upon it.  It the book, it's their child like minds that allow them to come together and take down Pennywise.  Eddie uses his aspirator as battery acid to hurt the clown and the kids also make silver bullets to kill IT.  Never in the book did they separate as friends, never did they throw punches at one another and never did Beverly become a damsel in distress than needed saving.  She in fact was the best shot of the group and she was the one who did perhaps the most damage to IT.  Mike and Richie were also the ones to get visions that helped them figure out how to kill IT.  

 

The rock fight was much too short in the film as well and I never got the sense that Mike ever really belonged to the Losers in the movie the way he did in the book.  

 

I realize I should not compare the book to the movie because it's almost impossible to condense a 1000 page book into 135 minutes for part one.  But they killed my hopes by making questionable changes.

 

As a film, not comparing it to the book, it was really well done.  The script was sharp and witty and the banter between the seven of them was excellent.There were some good horrific moments and there were some genuine scares.  If I was grading this as a movie without any knowledge of the book, I'd give it a 9.  But as it stands, I'm giving it a 7.5/10.  I just can't get past the changes from the book.  I wish I could.

 

 

[John Marston]

12 hours ago, K1stpierre said:

I waited till today to post this review as last night I was not in any mind to post given how mad I was. I wanted to cool down and type with a much more clearer mind so that it's a more well rounded accurate review.

 

Safe to say, it really doesn't change much how I feel, except perhaps it saves you readers the amount of F bombs I would of typed, so there's that.

 

Ugh. I so badly wanted to like this movie......it was one of my most highly anticipated movies this year, probably number 1 is if weren't for Star Wars. And before anyone says anything, no it wasn't the hype that got me, I went it with about an average mind set. I wasn't going in hoping that this movie would scare the pants out of me, as I've watched horror movies all my life since I could remember and it's very hard to physically scare me. I don't think I've ever been physically scared from a movie, not since waaaaaaaay back when I was like 8 or so when I first watched Alien. It petrified me, haunted me and had nightmares for years, but at the same time in some sick sense I loved it. It didn't stop me from re watching it or watching the sequels that followed and even more horror movies. 

 

So with that said, I went in hoping for a great creepy, chilling, suspenseful film that would at least make me uncomfortable in my seat. I was also looking for an overall great movie. At least one of these sentiments did not disappoint.

 

The movie if you are judging without the horror/thriller aspect is actually quite good, like very good. The entire kid cast is good, though I will say I wished we had more lines from Ben but that might be being nit picky. I just know he's a bigger character when they are adults so it would of been nice to see him develop a bit more. I think the clear standouts for me were Beverly (she was so fucking cute and perfect, excellent choice for her) and Richie, fucking hysterical. His jokes were awesome and said perfectly. The group as a whole was good and you felt their chemistry throughout the film grow. The outer characters, such as Eddie's mother, and even more so Beverly's dad add even more weight to their characters. I genuinely felt comfortable when I was witnessing THOSE parts of the film, how creepy Bev's dad was had me thinking, "Ummm....are they going where I think they're going?". And Eddie's stand against his mother felt genuine and heartfelt. 

 

The score for the film at times was amazing, such as the opening scene with Georgie. Excellent score, really went with the film well. There were other good pieces, though sometimes I felt the score was just a little bit too much.

 

And now, with the bad:

 

I really don't understand how people have been raving about Bill Skarsgard's (sp?) performance when he literally only had like.....maybe in total 10 minutes of screen time, and in those ten minutes he had like what? Maybe 6 lines? 7? Most of what he said in this entire film was said when we first met him as Pennywise when talking to Georgie. After that, he literally says nothing, no peep, maybe a "Beep beep ritchie" or some other causal thing, but doesn't actually say much till the end when he has Bill. Don't get me wrong, I thought when Bill was actually allowed to act and talk, he was creepy and awesome, the Georgie scene to me was the best part of the entire film (except the part when he bit his arm off, that to me fell really flat and I'll get to that). You actually had time to look at Pennywise, interact with him, and get that suspenseful feeling build up. After that, he was literally shown at times for literally one second and then he disappeared. I'm just sitting thinking to myself, "Are they gonna let Bill do anything in this?". We can call the mini series crap all we want, because for the most part it was crap. However, with that said, at least Tim Curry had to at least act and portray Pennywise, striking into the hearts of fans (sure there were moments he might have went a little over the top). I felt like this Pennywise was just......there.

 

Now back to the arm being eaten off, because that's another overall huge gripe I have with the film: The use of CGI. I just found the CGI to absolutely suck, and take me right out of the movie. The scene were he bites Georgie's arm off was horrible, it was super lame and the teeth looked so fake. It's not even showing the teeth I minded but the CGI. Instead, they should of went with something more real like animatronics or puppets or even Skarsgard himself, I don't know something that looked REAL and not just a computer image. And not to mention, after that you didn't really see any violence or gore from Georgie, he yelled for like two seconds and then was sucked down........like, wow, that really just left me super bummed out. I would of preferred had that scene (with the incredible build up it had) been something along where Pennywise grabs him and shoves him against the sewer drain, almost crushingly where you can hear his bones smashing against the drain, straining. Meanwhile he's yelling out a real blood curdling scream. Meanwhile the neighbor they showed walking outside where she could hear/see Georgie (which I THOUGHT the film was hyping us up for, to see this person's reaction), it would of been perfectly painted everything wrong with Derry: a child writhing on the ground, blood soaked and spilling underneath him while screaming, being compressed and squeezed awkwardly against a sewer drain, yet meanwhile have said adult just stand there still in terror, helpless. Georgie's shoulder loses mass, sinks a bit into the hole from his loss of an arm and his shoulder now popping, until it's clear to viewers he's being eaten into the whole, his shoulder devoured through and in a flash he's contorted awkwardly through the drain. Silence follows. (of course the book had it where Georgie was left in the middle of the road with a bone stump, visibly dead).

 

I don't know, it's something like that I was hoping to see rather than a cheap CGI trick, where you didn't really see any of the biting or tearing. All you saw was a bit of blood in the street, and then he's sucked down. Lame. Other areas where the CGI to me was horrible was the projector scene. It had a good feeling and vibe, up until that stupid CGI of Pennywise being this big thing of himself coming out of the projector took me out. I would of much rather of preferred if one of the kids in the dark backed up into said Pennywise, but the actually actor himself vs a CGI Pennywise. It would of, again, gave Skarsgard a chance to enact his terror on the kids and for us to get to know more of Pennywise. But, alas we get some dumb CGI thing, also made it super loud trying to scare but it just came off as loud and dumb. I could get into more and more stuff but I think you all got the point.

 

I just don't understand how you put so much attention to Skarsgard, makeup, clothes, and Skarsgard himself said he took some sort of classes to make his mouth twitch and face in general move a certain way for the film. So why do all that, when the film makers are just going to throw it all away, not use it, and instead use CGI in it's place? It makes zero sense. As a result, the scares never hit home for me. I wasn't even creeped out by it, nor was I ever disturbed. I just honestly sat there thinking, "okay? That's it?" 

 

As great as the cast is and even the cinematography, overall this was SUPPOSE to be a horror/thriller film at it's core. To walk into a movie like this, then walk out feeling nothing whatsoever (despite again how great the other parts of the movie was) is a tragedy and completely makes the movie feel mute to me. That's like if you went and saw a comedy, the actors were heartfelt, score great, cinematography great, oh.....but film didn't make you laugh once. You'd walk out feeling so confused and weird. It just doesn't make sense.

 

Overall, I give the movie a 6/10, as much as it pains me. Really the kids saved this film from me giving it a harsher score. C for me. Sorry guys, just being honest.

 

 

I think horror is truly dead.

lol I found the scene on Youtube and Pennywise looks horribly fake. Wasn't as scary as I expected. Hope the rest of the movie is good

[K1stpierre]

14 minutes ago, John Marston said:

lol I found the scene on Youtube and Pennywise looks horribly fake. Wasn't as scary as I expected. Hope the rest of the movie is good

Which scene are you referring too? 

[baumer]

@K1stpierre....I assume you read the book?  If so, did the massive changes bother you at all?

[K1stpierre]

Just now, Stutterng baumer Denbrough said:

@K1stpierre....I assume you read the book?  If so, did the massive changes bother you at all?

To be honest, I've only read like half of the book. I've always meant to finish it but to be honest, King's style of writing doesn't suit me. So, my review of the movie should be taken from someone who really isn't that close to the book.

 

[baumer]

Ok, thanks.  

 

I've just noticed that most who love it haven't read the book.  And those who have problems with it, have.  

[K1stpierre]

4 minutes ago, Stutterng baumer Denbrough said:

Ok, thanks.  

 

I've just noticed that most who love it haven't read the book.  And those who have problems with it, have.  

Well, that tends to be the trend as we all know  

 

My best friend is a King fan, like legit huge King fan. I've tried to get into his books, but I just can't. I can't do long books where it goes into descriptive territory on and on and on. Even Harry Potter which each book I've read, I couldn't help but skim as I read a lot as it just was waaaaaaay to much filler in describing things. Sometimes as an author, having your fans imagine things themselves is okay. I love authors who write and get to the point, like my fav Dean Koontz. I love how he writes, but then again neither is better than the other, it's all about preference. 

 

As for this film, I'm going to give it another go to give it another chance to see if I change my mind. I might try Sunday. We'll see.

[John Marston]

13 minutes ago, K1stpierre said:

Which scene are you referring too? 

Georgie death scene  

[K1stpierre]

4 minutes ago, John Marston said:

Georgie death scene  

Yeah, building up to it was my most favorite part of the entire movie. Unfortunately they went with bad cgi and ruined it, it just felt flat when you built it up so much imo.

[rukaio101]

3 hours ago, Stutterng baumer Denbrough said:

Ok, thanks.  

 

I've just noticed that most who love it haven't read the book.  And those who have problems with it, have.  

I read the book (albeit a few years back) and... honestly, I actually kinda prefer the film?

 

Don't get me wrong, the movie has issues as an adaptation (since I do agree that Ben and especially Mike both get somewhat shafted) but I thought it did a great job at slimming down the narrative and cutting out a lot of the unnecessary fat and stupider aspects of the book. Most of the changes you brought up I honestly thought kinda actually improved the movie or at least had good enough payoffs to justify the change. Even Beverly getting kidnapped I felt worked narratively (although I'm 50/50 about the damsel in distress implications) since she was the heart of the group, the one who tried to keep them all together when they started arguing and the one who did the most damage to Pennywise in the wellhouse. Plus her kidnapping worked to force an immediate confrontation between the Losers and It, without time for the former to prepare, hence more tension. 

 

Anyway, personally, I really liked the film a lot. I don't think I'd call it all that actually scary but I thought the Pennywise setpieces were fun and twistedly inventive and the movie had a lot of heart, especially with the Losers club. It had a lot of good strong emotional beats and character arcs and I liked the movie's slow-burn use of Pennywise as a slowly encroaching menace. I'll admit I'm skeptical to see how they handle the second movie, since there are quite a few changes and I'm not sure the movie's charms will work as well with adult characters, but this turned out a lot better than I thought it would. A

[eXtacy]

I see most reviewers praising the changes from the book saying its a great improvement. Glad I didn't read it because as a movie goer only this was extremely entertaining with probably the most likable group of kids I have seen. As for K1sT complaining about CGI what (TF?) are you expecting when its only got a 35m budget and is a whopping 2hour 20mins long. I thought the use of CGI was rather seemless and only one scene did I think that looks fake to point it was distracting (when he was coming out of the projector). Pennywise himself is an awesome villain and they brought him to life very well.

 

9/10

[baumer]

4 hours ago, rukaio101 said:

I read the book (albeit a few years back) and... honestly, I actually kinda prefer the film?

 

Don't get me wrong, the movie has issues as an adaptation (since I do agree that Ben and especially Mike both get somewhat shafted) but I thought it did a great job at slimming down the narrative and cutting out a lot of the unnecessary fat and stupider aspects of the book. Most of the changes you brought up I honestly thought kinda actually improved the movie or at least had good enough payoffs to justify the change. Even Beverly getting kidnapped I felt worked narratively (although I'm 50/50 about the damsel in distress implications) since she was the heart of the group, the one who tried to keep them all together when they started arguing and the one who did the most damage to Pennywise in the wellhouse. Plus her kidnapping worked to force an immediate confrontation between the Losers and It, without time for the former to prepare, hence more tension. 

 

Anyway, personally, I really liked the film a lot. I don't think I'd call it all that actually scary but I thought the Pennywise setpieces were fun and twistedly inventive and the movie had a lot of heart, especially with the Losers club. It had a lot of good strong emotional beats and character arcs and I liked the movie's slow-burn use of Pennywise as a slowly encroaching menace. I'll admit I'm skeptical to see how they handle the second movie, since there are quite a few changes and I'm not sure the movie's charms will work as well with adult characters, but this turned out a lot better than I thought it would. A

 

You make some great points.  I respect your opinion.  But where we disagree is that I didn't think the book had any stupid parts.  I loved every page, every word.  So for me, and I'm not speaking for anyone else, but for me alone, perhaps no film adaptation will ever do the book justice.  But this was still a very good movie.  

[rukaio101]

Just now, Stutterng baumer Denbrough said:

 

You make some great points.  I respect your opinion.  But where we disagree is that I didn't think the book had any stupid parts.  I loved every page, every word.  So for me, and I'm not speaking for anyone else, but for me alone, perhaps no film adaptation will ever do the book justice.  But this was still a very good movie.  

Come on, Baumer. The sewer sex scene? All that crap with the Turtle and the Ritual of Chud? There's a lot of things I like about the book, but that doesn't change that there's some really stupid stuff there.