IT - ****/*****

By Porothy Darker

A fun thing to do is to tell people you saw "It" the other night - it starts a real who's on first type of conversation and isn't annoying at all. Anyhow, have you seen "Stranger Things" on Netflix? Of course you have. "It" is basically a more well-developed, rated-R version of "Stranger Things," right down to one of the actors appearing as a main character in both, which, to be honest, is a little distracting at first. "It" does an excellent job of capturing the bonds and struggles (pre and post clown) shared by the socially outcast kids (referred to as "the losers"), and provides a sense of empathy for most of them even before shit gets sideways. That is helped by the fact that every adult that appears in the movie in anything more than a passing scene is somewhere between an asshole and a giant piece of shit, which makes them not going to their parents/the police believable where it otherwise shouldn't be. While we don't actually see it, there's a lot of implied child abuse happening (and rape) behind the scenes, which no-doubt made them strong enough to face the Derry Demon that feeds on fear - what doesn't kill you makes you stronger and all of that. Each of the actors did an excellent job in roles that weren't easy to portray - I never got the sense that I was watching a bunch of kids playing pretend.

The story is fairly well-known - so much so that I don't think "spoilers" are even possible - which makes creating a feeling of dread/suspense/fear very difficult. There were times during the scary parts that I wanted the movie to get back to showing the kids' interactions in more "normal" environments - but that had more to do with those scenes being so well written and acted than it did with the scary parts being not-scary. The violence isn't overdone, but is enough to be unsettling at times - especially when that cute little fucker, Georgie, gets his arm bitten off - which shows some restraint as there were a number of opportunities to really crank it up to 11. The Derry Demon in it's clown form is well played, though I could have done without the sometimes lurchy movements that seem very reminiscent of The Ring and the litany of movies that have attempted to capitalize on it's success since. There were also a few scenes that involved blatant use of green screen to the point it's all I noticed - your mileage may vary, and I'm not typically the type to harp on that, but it's unneccesarily distracting at times. Aside from a couple of jump-scares, the movie didn't rely on the typical horror movie tropes of late - it feels like an original story that's well put together from beginning to end.

Horror movies seem to be held to their own standards - an objectively terrible movie in general can work as a vehicle to scare people, and I think the only real problem people might have with "It" is that it isn't all that scary. The movie does a good job of building/creating a sense of dread involving the kids, but because you know they're gong to "win," there really aren't any stakes - it's just a matter of getting there. Perhaps a departure from the book that would see one of the main characters die would have helped, but that would also affect the storyline, sequel, etc, and wasn't necessary. Really, that I wasn't scared while watching "It" is a fairly minor point - the movie is good enough to stand on it's own regardless of genre, but if you go in expecting to be terrified, it probably isn't going to happen. My expectations were high for a horror movie, but I was pleasantly surprised that "It" was much more than that - 4 out of 5 stars.