39. IT

I’ve never seen the original IT (it came out before 2015 so the chances of me seeing it were very slim), but I am a fan of scary films. I probably won’t go back to the original, as I often find with scary films, they date badly with the moving on of technology. I watched The Exocist, and found it hilarious, and not scary in the slightest, because the effects were so awful and laughable. I wasn’t aware of the storyline for IT, as I’ve never read the book either, but I was excited to see what it was all about. When I’m about to watch a scary film, I get excited all day about it, and as soon as I walk into the cinema I get scared and need to hide under my coat. IT was no exception.

 The first thing I liked about this film, was the fact I now fully understand the meme where the woman slides into the grid in the pavement. The film gets full marks for this alone. Meme education AND entertainment.

The tension in the film was built up incredibly well, the suspense made me so scared, and there were several points where I jumped. I enjoy this in a film, where the actual scary part is nowhere near as bad as the build up to it. I did find some of the scary bits laughable, but I don’t think that they distracted from the plot. I found the gore manageable, and not used as shock tactics or overkill. Sometimes I think gore is added to a film for goresake, and then I find it quite distracting and annoying.

I found Pennywise absolutely horrendous, those teeth are just disgusting, and he was so creepy, I thought Bill Skarsgård was great. The acting of both Bill Skarsgård and the children was great, and really portrayed the fear and emotion of the film. I think this really enhanced the plot, and made you understand how Pennywise works and how he can be beaten. I did feel like I was watching a Halloween version of Stranger Things, with Finn Wolfhard as well as the period of time it was set in.

I enjoyed the backstory to the plot, with people going missing in the town in question for a period every so many years. It again paints the picture of the film, giving it narrative, and not just being a horror film for horror’s sake. I guess this may be down to the film being based on a book, written by one of the greatest horror writers. As someone who has never read a Stephen King novel, I may be tempted to now.

Overall, I really enjoyed the film, I think it did the job that it set out to do, and has probably inspired a lot of costumes this Halloween. If you’ve not managed to see the movie yet, I’d urge you to try and catch it at the cinema, so you can get the full creepy experience (or maybe watch it at home, on a dark windy night, and leave the front door open for extra creepy noises).I’d give it an 8.5/10, one of the best horrors I’ve seen in a long while!