In last week’s review, I discussed the difficulties of film adaptations of lengthy source material, using Stephen King’s best-selling novel “It” as reference material while simultaneously praising the concept of a duology based on the thousand-page book. The most recent film, covertly titled “It: Chapter One”, serves as the first half of that aforementioned duology, and it serves to simultaneously deliver a faithful, loving adaptation of the beloved epic and render the concept fresh and modern enough that the by now-popular story doesn’t grow too stale. The result not only succeeds where the 1990 miniseries fell short, but stands so strongly as its own self-contained horror film that I feel VERY inclined to call this one of my favorite movies based on a Stephen King story.
Following the two-halves structure of the original novel, the first film focuses entirely on the childhoods of the Losers’ Club, consisting of stuttering Bill Denbrough, intellectual, obese Ben Hanscom, wise-cracking Richie Tozier, hypochondriac Eddie Kaspbrak, abused tomboy Beverly Marsh, Jewish boy scout Stan Uris, and African American farm boy Mike Hanlon. The seven are brought together by their mutual encounters with a shape-shifting, fear-mongering monstrosity that primarily manifests as a malicious clown named Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård), and are particularly driven by the death and disappearance of Bill’s younger brother, Georgie. While understandably terrified of the multi-formed menace due to its unpredictable nature and resonance with their own personal demons and troubled home lives, they soon realize that their options are very slim, and limited to either fighting the creature together to allowing its centuries-long grip on their town of Derry to continue.
While the previously-reviewed miniseries based on “It” leaned more heavily on the slice-of-life tone of the story in terms of atmosphere, this film dials back those aspects a notch or two in favor of balancing them out with pure horror. Fortunately, the result of that approach manages to be infinitely more terrifying. While the old film placed more emphasis on the titular creature’s clown form (and Tim Curry’s portrayal thereof), this film sticks more to the source material, in that the monster’s forms are consistently varied, bizarre, and and scary in their own ways. Pennywise himself is also played as much more direct in his hunt for the protagonists, and Bill Skarsgård nails the clown’s novel-rooted sadism and gleeful joy in scaring the protagonists. This Pennywise mocks and tortures his victims mercilessly whenever he appears, and those moments are made more effective due to his appearances being limited to only a few throughout the movie. In addition, the film’s scares end up being much more shocking and powerful as a result of its faithfulness to the details (and the gore that follows), with Georgie’s tragic demise in the film’s beginning being particularly gut-wrenching. When the movie attempts a scare, it almost always succeeds due to the well-timed direction, expertly adaptational editing that moves at the necessary pace at any given time, and the pleasantly surprising presence of practical effects.
That said, the film isn’t so wrapped up in the horror side of things that it forgoes dedication to the characters and their own stories. Humorous, touching scenes of the characters are littered the film’s screen that make the scares as shockingly well-executed as they are, and the child actors playing them all give natural and impressive performances that render the Losers as endearing as one might hope them to be. The actors all capture their characters to a tee, and that sort of dedication to the novel’s spirit is another stand-out feature of this film. Though the time frame has been updated to more modern times (with the past being set in the 80’s as opposed to that decade being the present time in the novel), this still is Stephen King’s story, and the inhabitants of Derry manage to be just as one would expect them to be without rendering the narrative predictable. The story, naturally, is still trimmed down, but the crucial details and memorable scenes from its source material are executed in a way that’s sure to surprise average filmgoers and impress fans of the source material. “It” is so well-executed is in its ambitions that I’m barely even going to acknowledge the paltry few pacing problems the story takes from adapting its source material.
And this is all for good reasons- “It” is a terrifying, well- crafted, and touching send-up of one of Stephen King’s most popular stories, and you owe it to yourself to catch it in theaters if you’re a horror buff or a fan of the original novel.
Rich Reviews 