It (2017)
/“You’ll float too.”
Filmology Rating: 3.5 out of 4
The works of Stephen King will always take us to familiar worlds, that in some cases we want to stay far away from, like The Dark Tower which opened a few weeks ago. Others like Stand by Me always welcome us back with a warm embrace. Going into a film you always hope for the best, you are hoping to find the next Shawshank Redemption, but the little voice in the back of your mind tells you that this could be the next The Rage: Carrie 2. Needless to say, Stephen King adaptations are always tricky to get right on the silver screen. Even with such beloved material as in It director, Andy Muschietti seemed to have something to prove with bringing the beloved material to the silver screen and he brought forth a nightmare that most will never forget.
Children have been disappearing from the little town of Derry for years but most seem to ignore the disappearances until Bill’s younger brother, played by Jaeden Lieberher, goes missing on one October day. Bill becomes fixated on finding his brother Georgie, not being able to focus on anything else. Bill along with his friends decide to go into the sewers themselves to once and for all figure out what happened to Georgie. Unfortunately, what they find instead, might unleash all of their greatest fears.
I remember my neighbors when I was growing up in the 90s telling me about this horrifying movie with a clown and red balloons and showing me the two VHS tapes that the movie was on and I would always say “no that movie is too long, let’s watch Star Wars instead.” And we almost always did, but the real reason I never wanted to watch it was because I was afraid to. They were selling It as the most frightening movie ever made and up to that point the scariest film I had ever seen was The Black Cauldron or The Nightmare Before Christmas, I come from a family that doesn’t watch horror films. So still even after watching this new version of It I still haven’t watched the miniseries version of the book. I would actually argue that that miniseries increased the clown phobia by 80% from the children who watched the film in the 90s, and myself being one of the people who didn’t watch it and went on to do some clown work in the early 2000s. Basically this is me trying to say that I missed the entire phenomenon with the miniseries and Tim Curry as Pennywise. Nonetheless, after watching some YouTube videos of the miniseries I can honestly say that everyone is nostalgic for a performance that seems more comical than horrific with effects that look like a microbudget production. Every aspect of the new 2017 version is better and works as a more effective movie than than the 1990 version.
Andy Muschietti, whose only other feature film work was Mama back in 2013, does a fantastic job of balancing the horror with the sentimentality. I feel that calling the Losers Club sentimental is an overreach but most adults will look back at that group of friends and either have sympathy or empathy for them. Through the Losers they will sadly identify with the bullies that torment the group of loveable losers. Basically every aspect of this film that doesn’t drip with fear and tension feels like a Steven Spielberg film. You have the main focus of the film being children with parents who are either nonexistent or are terrible people, you have the children who are trying to balance the tricky line between growing up and staying at the age of innocence. You have the sense of terror that is at times more frightening when you don’t see, yet feel its presence. Taking inspiration from one of the greatest American filmmakers will never be a fault especially when the director is taking the best of elements from that director and expanding on it.
While Muschietti and the writers of the film; Chase Palmer, making his big screen screenwriting debut, Cary Fukunaga, who also wrote Sin Nombre and Beasts of No Nation, and Gary Dauberman, who wrote the recent Annabelle: Creation, need to be praised for making the Stephen King material fit for the screen . The reason why the film works as well as it does is because of the Losers Club. The child actors in this film are fantastic and if the Academy gave an award for best ensemble I would strongly lobby for this film to receive that award. Most of the child actors have never acted in a big movie before and you would never have guessed that by watching the film. The youngsters all give you a sense that they are living a normal teenage life and having authentic conversations and attitudes that every teenage boy has had. The inner battle that Bill, played by Jaeden Lieberher, is struggling with after his younger brother vanishes is heartbreaking to watch, especially since you as the audience watch the killing of Georgie and you know that Bill never actually found his brother alive. As someone who has a stutter every now and then, I never doubted that Lieberher had a stutter even though he was in The Book of Henry earlier this year. The take charge attitude that Lieberher developes is actually inspiring and I hope that younger views will take his performance and use it as a compass to make decisions that will not be easy, but are necessary. The longing for a friend that Ben, played by Jeremy Ray Taylor, feels is something that everyone has felt at some point in life. As someone who just moved to a new town where I don’t know anyone myself, I easily identified with the longing glances that Taylor gives when the Losers Club rides by on their bikes. The infatuation that Ben feels for Beverly, played by Sophia Lillis, which he feels will never be returned, but still he feels his heart explode with each glance from her. You feel the fear that Beverly feels due to not knowing what to expect every time she walks into her home. Will she get the father who is abusive or will she get the father who is absent to her life? The terror that Lillis feels at what should be the safest place for her is heartbreaking and you want nothing more to reach out a hand to her and help her to safety. The always wanting to be the strongest when you are probably feeling the most frightened in the group that Richie, played by Finn Wolfhard, feels is completely realistic. The moment when Richie starts to believe his own machoness is the moment that he is ready to fall head first into confronting his inner demons and you hope that he will come out better for it. The fear that comes with taking a life that Mike, played by Chosen Jacobs, has even when the life might mean a better life for his family is yet again heartbreaking. As someone who hopes that he never has to take a life, no matter how big or small the life, I greatly sympathized with his struggle. The fear that walking outside could just kill you that Eddie, played by Jack Dylan Grazer, feels due to his overbearing mother. The longing that Eddie has to become his own person is something that everyone is forced to deal with at some point and will speak to every young viewer. The logic that Stan, played by Wyatt Oleff, tries to bring to every conversation, the longing for trying to make sense out of a world that is tumbling into chaos is something that every person feels or has felt. Watching all of these characters going through situations that most of us have gone through is in many ways therapeutic to watch.
However, since It is a horror film you need to have a monster to terrorize the characters that you are rooting for. The maestro of horror for this film is Pennywise, played by Bill Skarsgård, who feeds off of the fears that we all have as humans. Skarsgård recently appeared in Atomic Blonde where he didn’t make much of an impression and I completely forgot that he was in Allegiant, as I feel he would want most people to forget. Basically Skarsgård like all of the other actors in the film has something to prove and prove it he does. He plays one of the most satanic figures ever put on the silver screen and the glee that Skarsgård shows while tormenting the children is simply terrifying to watch. One aspect that in some regards I find frustrating but on another level I find terrifying is the lack of backstory for Pennywise. Why does this demon only attack every 27 years? Why did the demon pick the town of Derry to feed? How did this demon come to be? Perhaps the book explains the motivations for this creature or they could be told in the sequel but I found that to be one aspect of the film that should have been fleshed out more. While my imagination can come up with answers for all of those questions that I was wondering, I still wish that the filmmakers would give me a definitive theory at least.
I can understand why many people would question my calling this film therapeutic. So, I would just like to explain my reasoning for that. One of my greatest fears has just become realizing what it’s like to be alone. I was in a five year relationship that had its ups and downs but I would always stick it out because I had a fear of the outcome. I have always worried that I will be alone and not be able to have the family that I have always wanted. This film in many ways made me confront my fear, this film made me realize that if a group of barely teenagers can confront their fears of abusive family members, or the death of loved ones, then I should be able to conquer my greatest fear as well. Don’t get me wrong - it will probably always be a little voice in the back of my head that will always tell me I’ll be alone, I had it for every single day of those five years, but I am accepting that fear and learning to not let it control me, and to not be afraid of it.
Going into It I was expecting to see one of the most terrifying films ever, but I walked out surprised with the amount of humanity that the film had displayed. I would honestly say that It has just as much humanity in it as The Big Sick, which still remains to be the year’s best film and most human film. For those who are afraid of clowns I would still recommend that you watch It, to try to conquer those fears and become a stronger person all while watching one of this year’s best films.
Rating: See It
-Jonny G