Skip to main content

IT (Chapter 1) Review


[The following review may contain spoilers]

So reviewing a film is difficult, gush and risk overdoing it, but under do it and it leads to indifference.
Let me start this review by saying, IT is absolutely 100% fantastic. Currently for me, my film of the year.

Growing up, my mum read a lot of Stephen King books, and so I found the book IT at a younger age. Upon reading i was immersed in this dark cloud covered Derry community, plagued by a recurring shapeshifting nightmare. The book became one of my favourites.
This however lead to a problem, the miniseries version of IT starring Tim Curry.. I didn't like it at all. Although Tim Curry and Co did a great job with the tools at their disposal, this version did not fit with the Derry and Pennywise I had in my head.

Skip forward to 2017 and welcome to Derry, Maine.. A picture esque quaint town with a terrible millenia old evil living benethe it.
Director Andy Muschietti breathes new life into a horror classic creating something utterly phenomenal piece of horror and cinema.

The kids in the film have been cast perfectly, each of the 'Losers' gets enough time on screen to showcase personality and development. They as a unit have a very 'Stand By Me' feel and camaraderie.
Each young actor performs their role with aplomb and vigor. It's nearly impossible for me to single out any in particular but would like to give special praise to both Jaeden Lieberher (Bill Denbrough) and Sophia Lillis (Beverly Marsh) for not only performing so well but for the two emotional arcs they portray during the movie.

Now lets talk Bill Skarsgård.
Bill will be immortalised in horror history for this portrayal of IT/Pennywise. The man is nothing short of amazing, his presence, his voice and vocal stylings, the precise and almost choatic movements he uses, hell the fact that during one scene he screams, drools on and laughs maniacally in the face of one of the children.
The fact he has taken on a role made famous by Tim Curry and in my opinion eclipsed him is remarkable.

The film itself is utterly wonderful, jumps and scares melded with sentiment and a story of friends.
The book has a few scenes left out of the film, but the flow and pacing of works well without.
The most notible thing left out, for me, was the absence of Maturin the Turtle.
Maturin is IT's natural enemy and represents creation in opposition to IT's destructive/consuming nature.. In the book Maturin appears during the Ritual of Chüd to advise Bill on how to defeat IT. The ritual and Turtle are both left out (assumingly to avoid the Macroverse and Dark Tower tie ins) but we do get several nods to the Turtle, both when the kids are swimming at the quarry and the lego toy Bill finds in Georgies room.

I cannot say enough great things about the film and frankly do not wish to spoil it for new comers.. as Pennywise himself says, 'they all float down here' expect IT to float to the top of the box office and film awards.
You'll never see a single red balloon the same way again.

Star Rating 5/5

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Spotlight: Candyfloss

My spotlight series returns, this time to introduce you to one of UK's brightest new stars, Candyfloss. Candyfloss is one of my favourite new talents here in the UK. The London native is a regular on the UK independent scene, plying her trade up and down the country and making new fans wherever she goes. Debuting a mere year ago, she has grown in leaps and bounds already having great showings against Dahlia Black, Jinny and Little Miss Roxxy. By all means don't let her happy go lucky attitude and sweet name fool you, this girl can go in the ring, happily mixing up her style to utilise high flying, solid ground work or her Candy Cane cross arm breaker submission. Candyfloss was trained through one of the UK's finest companies, PROGRESS, whom she also works for. Her time at the ProJo shows, she is excelling rapidly and is turning more than a few heads and I think that international talent will start to look to Candyfloss for matches shortly. At a time where womens w...
Post a Comment
Read more

Wrestling Spotlight: CCK

Spotlight: CCK Im an advocate for british wrestling. I love wrestling in general, but am especially proud of our home grown talent. Now UK wrestling is steeped in tradition from the days of Les Kellett and Mark 'Rollerball' Rocco to The British Bulldogs, Robbie Brookside and William Regal, we have a proud history of producing some amazing workers. With all due respect to those that competed, the WWE UK tournament didnt show the vastness of what we have, and while the guys involved have rightly used it to springboard themselves, I want to talk about the unsung, unknown or upcoming UK talents. Today you get 3 for 1 as I spotlight a tag team (s) - CCK Chris Brookes, Kid Lykos and Travis Banks. I will start simply by saying I love this group, they are innovative and exciting and could break out to much bigger things in 2017, but what they also possess is the ability to be likable, whether portraying heels or not, and that is impressive. I first encountered Chris Brookes...
Post a Comment
Read more

An Insight Into My Inside

Do you ever feel empty? I do. Do you ever laugh and joke with room full of people, yet inside you're screaming for help? I do. Depression is something i've battled with since my mid teens, and when I say battled, I do mean battled. No matter how often I slay the beast, it comes back.. sometimes larger than before. It's an awful thing, to be scared of your own thought process, there will of course be those who know this side of me, some however will find these truths shocking. I've been dragged to the edge and back again, had moments I regret and moments that help define me as a person, but every single day I wake up and try to adjust my focus to get on with my day as best I can. I forever play the clown, the good friend, the recounter of many stories, the sentimental guy, the music guy and although they are all parts of me, they sometimes mask how I'm really feeling. I've forever had an outsider complex, never truely feeling like I'd found my place in...
Post a Comment
Read more