It Chapter One (2017)

Even as a child the original filmed adaption of Stephen King's novel It never scared me. And the sad part of that is that It is all about fear. That's the point. It is about what scares us, how fear is used to control use, how American life is built on fear, and how overcoming fear is the secret to freedom, especially through relying on each other. So an It movie that isn't scary is a disappointment, it's a missed opportunity.

It is a long novel. I remember at the time of the book It's release there was a play on the irony of a long book with a short title, perhaps the shortest. And what often is required for a film adaptation to work is for the film to take the time to tell its story. Fitting a story into under 2 hours is often a fault of films. The original, made for TV movie allowed for more time as it spread the story out over 2 nights. The film version attempts this by breaking the story into its two (very logical) parts.

It follows the story of a group of self-named "losers" (Trump would hate them) who are terrorized (literally) by an entity (the "It" of the title) at two periods in their lives, as children and as adults. The film It Part One only addresses the children's story although it hints at the adult second chapter. This allows director Andres Muschietti to spend time on each character's story, giving them a full, rounded back story, letting us relate to each. This is the best part of It. We get to truly feel, empathize, and experience the point of view of the subjects.

Muschietti then explores all the ways their fear is tearing at them. Set in the 80s, Muschietti explores the sexism, racism, classicism, homophobia, etc. permeating their small town American lives and the way that contributes to their fears. In doing so he creates a journey far more interesting and impactful than a typical horror film. It's not just about overcoming some monster, it's about struggling against the nature of existence itself. It also explores how unity, how sticking together, is the secret to overcoming that horror.

My only main fault with It is one I know I am in the minority for. I found the day to day lives of these kids terrifying, but I didn't find Pennywise scary. I know, clowns are scary and Pennywise is all the things we are supposed to be afraid of in horror movies. But I felt the film threw him at us too much, didn't leave him in the shadows enough, CGI'd him a bit to strongly, so he didn't feel real.

You see, as I understand the point of the character is that he is being what we think we are to be scared of. There is some poetry in that and I think the film gets it. But by being overly what a horror movie audience is supposed to be scared of, he becomes reduced to a standard horror movie trope, and loses his power to scare. I was far more interested in fearing the abuse the kids were suffering and their isolation than I was in the "scary clown." I think Pennywise would have worked for me much more if he had been used more sparingly and was just more hinted it.

But having said that It is a triumph, a clever, thought provoking, and upsetting film which entertains and offers the promise of something even more frightening to come.

It
Starring: Jaeden Lieberher, Bill Skarsgard, Sophia Lillis, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Finn Wolfhard, Wyatt Oleff, Chosen Jacobs, Jack Dylan Grazer
Director: Andy Muschietti
Writers: Chase Palmer, Cary Fukunaga, Gary Dauberman