Twenty-seven years after the original and quite cheesy mini-series adaptation of Stephen King’s IT, a whopping 1100 page book full of gory detail and a great story, we get a faithful adaptation of the child half of the book. Now I’ve already done a review of the original, so let’s get to the current version. IT is terrifying. It holds back no punches in regard to the gore and violent aspects of the story.

   The first 15 minutes of the film are so well made in regards to accuracy to the book.  nearly doing it line for line and then when the moment the scenes been building up to comes, it doesn’t shy away from showing you a young 8 year old boy getting his arm ripped off. Pennywise in this adaptation is also tremendous! He’s disturbing and playful in all the wrong ways. The way Bill Skarsgard portrays Pennywise is so immensely disturbing and chilling that scenes that once had comedy in them quickly turn to “oh now I have goosebumps and want to look away.” The movements of Pennywise are unnatural and thanks to today’s VFX we can see how King’s Pennywise should be depicted.

   Every actor in this film is spectacular! The Losers club is so lovable and you care and root for each of the kids but know that they could be mauled at anytime. Finn Wolfhard, made famous by ‘Stranger Things,’ plays Richie the foul mouthed kid. Richie is one of the best characters in this film and adds so much comedy to it and levity. It’s hard not to love him. Bill, played by Jaden Liebrher, is such a good character and is just how you imagine him in the book. He cares about his lost brother and is a huge influence on his friends. Beverly, portrayed by Sophia Lillis, is spectacular! She’s the sweet caring person from the book with all the trauma of her character still in it (and a warning her background is very disturbing) and thank you Warner Bros for not including THAT SCENE from the book. If you read the book you know.

    Now people have been complaining that this movie isn’t scary enough and to them I say “what!?” This film is focused on building these characters that you feel for and understand or even fear. The horror of this film is present and although there’s not so many jumpscares but in regards to cinema that’s just a cheap method. Real true horror is building an atmosphere that haunts you and makes you remember it. This film builds a very cruel and terrifying atmosphere around Pennywise and everything he does. You feel an immense sense of anxiety when seeing Pennywise on screen whether it be the scene itself or the cinematography. So, although the film isn’t focused on throwing in cheap scares, it does a good job of building the story and making a GOOD movie.

    IT is immensely better than its mini-series counterpart and takes scenes from the book and gives them the adaptation they deserve.

    IT is rated R for violence/horror, bloody images, and for language. IT gets an A- from me. I love this film and wish to see it many more times.