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IT (2017) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

IT (2017) movie

Genre | Horror Thriller

Classification | MA 15+

Running time | 135 minutes

Released | 7 September 2017

cast

Jaeden Lieberher as Bill
Jeremy Ray Taylor as Ben
Sophia Lillis as Beverly
Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise

director

Andy Muschietti

writer

Chase Palmer
Cary Fukunaga
Gary Dauberman

Based on Stephen King's novel

cinematographer

Chung-hoon Chung

music

Benjamin Wallfisch

film editor

Jason Ballantine

box office result

Worldwide $417,318,881

Australia $11,771,310

North America $245,418,881

the best dialogue

Ben Hanscom: Derry started as a beaver trapping camp.
Richie Tozier: Still is! Am I right, boys?

Richie Tozier: I hear the list is longer than my wang.
Stanley Uris: That's not saying much.

Richie Tozier: Hey Eddie, are these your birth control pills?
Eddie Kaspbrak: Yeah, I'm saving them for your sister!

things to spend money on ...

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IT (2017) IMAGES

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Posters

Images

Posters

IT (2017) STORY SYNOPSIS

In the Town of Derry, the local kids are disappearing one by one, leaving behind torn body parts/remains. In a place known as 'The Barrens', a group of seven kids are united by their horrifying and strange encounters with a clown called Pennywise. Bill Denborough has a personal vendetta with the clown. 27 years after their last encounter with Pennywise, the 'Losers Club' has regrouped from their successful lives and businesses because IT has returned and kids are disappearing again. The only problem is that they have all forgotten what occurred that summer. It's up to The Losers Club to regain their memories, to think of the key to killing Pennywise, and to stay alive long enough to end his tyranny but to also realise what brought them together in the first place.

IT (2017) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty | Review date 7 September 2017
Pop Movee Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Andy Muschetti, IT’s Director, owes his Casting Director Rich Delia a chicken dinner! Of all the moving parts of a movie, getting the right actors is among the hardest of nuts to crack. Many a movie, especially one that involves child actors, has been sunk by roles that have been miscast. The 2017 version of Stephen King’s classic Horror novel does not suffer this fate. From Bill Skarsgard’s Pennywise, Jaeden Lieberher as Bill Denborough, Sophia Lillis as Beverly Marsh and Nicholas Hamilton as Henry Bowers, Muschietti's young ensemble of actors help to deliver one of the best feature film adaptations of King’s vast catalogue of Horror, Fantasy and Science Fiction writing. The Argentinian movie maker, along with his writing and film editing team, have crafted a movie that serves as a stand-alone Horror movie, the opening chapter of a new film series and a story that demonstrates how adversity has the ability to bring out the best in people, no matter their age.

The movie opens as the book does, with the gruesome and graphic murder of young Georgie Denborough (Jackson Robert Scott) by Skarsgard’s Pennywise. While the killer clown’s look is what fans may have anticipated, it’s his voice and mannerisms that capture the viewer. Skarsgard seems have borrowed a page from Johnny Depp’s Willy Wonka portrayal; enlivening his character’s speech with inflections that range from high to low and imitate have a childlike quality, as interpreted by a shape-shifting, murderous entity. That’s not to say IT is 100% reliant on Pennywise. Unlike the 1990s TV mini-series, this movie version of IT has a super cast of young teen actors who do a fantastic job of bringing to life the ‘Losers’ club. Lieberher and Lillis headline, while Jeremy Ray Taylor, Finn Wolfhard, Chosen Jacobs, Jack Dylan Grazer and Wyett Oleff round the characters of Ben, Ritchie, Mike, Eddie and Stan respectively. What’s really great for fans of the novel is that the movie’s 135 minute running time give Muschietti enough time to highlight each character and provide the viewer with the backstory that provides a genuine connection and care for them.

Credit must also be paid to Production Designer Claude Pare, Art Director Peter Grundy, Set Decorator Rosalie Board and Costume Designer Janie Bryant. Muschietti and the writing team decided to move the timeframe of the kids section of the movie from the 1950s to the 1980s. In doing so, this creates a significant change in the visual culture depicted by the movie, somehow though, the movie still feels authentic to King’s novel. It doesn’t seem like a narrative or plot cheat on the part of the movie makers to have shifted the timing and, in truth, helps to contemporize the setting for the majority of viewers; most of whom would have no personal connection to the 1950s other than what their grandparents may have shared with them. The set decoration is especially impressive. Two key settings, both of which involve Pennywise, the Neibolt Street House and the creature’s lair are both stunning pieces of design and cut with visual effects, make for critical set-pieces between Bill and his fellow ‘Losers’ and their unrelenting antagonist.

The biggest challenge for IT is that this movie only tells half the story. The writing team, credited as Chase Palmer, Cary Fukunaga & Gary Dauberman, manage to avoid the normal pitfall associated with an open-ended story by giving the ‘Losers’ a genuine moment to shine during the movie’s climax. While it would be hard to find anyone who isn’t aware that this is a two-part tale, the movie works as both a stand alone Horror movie, and as the first-part of an epic tale that tests the bonds of friendship across time and space. Without waiting for any sort of Box Office results, it’s hard to imagine IT not being financially successful. Certainly, the limited fare on offer in North American market will see the movie exceed expectations there. There is a question as to whether Stephen King fans will turn out to support IT. King continues to write at a prolific rate, but his work no longer captures the popular imagination like it once did. In addition, the recent wounds of The Dark Tower movie adaptation are still very painful and that film’s poor critical and financial performance may have a carry-over impact. Those matters aside, Stephen King fans, along with movie lovers generally, should drop everything, if not tonight, at some time over the weekend, and float on into a screening of this great movie!