Review of It (2017)- a critique by Jeremy Jahns

Full text transcript of the review of It (2017):

I remember when the first images of Pennywise came out and everyone on the Internet was like, it looks like it was just all myself probably included. We should take a breath, take a moment, breathe for a little bit, then pass judgment, because this is not a valid argument. This is not. It so it is an adaptation to the Stephen King novel, and it’s also technically a remake of the miniseries that came out back in the day. And where is the novel? Concentrates on a group of friends when they were kids. And as they’re adults, this movie concentrates on when their kids are in their little Stephen King hometown of Derry. And there’s this thing that’s terrorizing the town quietly. It’s not like it’s openly terrorizing the town now. People are disappearing. People are dying. These kids all figure out, hey, we’re kind of experiencing the same thing here. All the while they’re dealing with Stephen King bullies. I like that this movie nailed what’s wrong with a lot of horror movies these days. A lot of horror movies these days like, I don’t know, get a group of people together, have a demon or a ghost terrorizing, rinse and repeat. Let’s make it for about five bucks. Let’s get some money out of the masses. But Stephen King does write like that. So this movie had to be different and it is different. I love the group of losers in this movie. No matter who you are, if you’re reflecting back on your time in junior high. I was a kid in here.

It’s going to remind you of you. But really at his core to the backbone of this movie, it’s not this evil clown thing’s terrorizing these kids. It’s a character movie. It’s this group of kids dealing with junior high. They just stepped into the summer season, but they deal with these horrid Stephen King bullies. Stephen King was never about just the thing at hand. The evil that he’s writing about, whether it be a vampire or ghost, are always deeper things that the people deal with. And it is no exception. And the acting from this young talent was quite good. It reminded me of stranger things. Yet that show is still yet to review. We just look at it and you’re like a lot of you have a bright future ahead of you. Finn Wolford was in both and he did a great job in it, betraying me when I was in junior high and stranger things. Which makes you wonder, does he just choose to be in good shit or does he make good shit happen? Question for the philosophers. The movie has heart. The movie made me laugh. And yes, the movie is quite frightening. I don’t know if frightening is the word as much as it was intended. There are a few scenes I had. Maybe I like sitting where the rails are in the movie theater so I can put my feet up. My feet were on the rail and I was pushing on the rail. There’s the scene was just getting to me. It was a very intense scene.

I like the fact that the It movie doesn’t shy away from the Stephen King ism. Stephen King is such a specific way of portraying life in people. When you see moments in here, you’re like, that’s a Stephen King ism. But the movie didn’t shy away from, I would say, kids when they’re swimming in a lake together, they usually use swim shorts. Maybe because I love the losers so much that I relate to them. I saw them so much. It’s kind of the embodiment of my past as I knew it. When they’re swimming in their underwear, I was like, no, I wouldn’t give them my underwear with anybody. I mean, like not sorry guys, did we hit up the store shorts? Speaking of Pennywise, Pennywise was great. He was a straight up creep. I love the effect they do with his eyes. His eyes look like they’re glowing. They’re just very pronounced. No matter how dark the scene is, his eyes are very bright and they’re kind of askew, making him look a little weird. The thing that I notice when he’s talking to Georgie in the drain, water is just dripping from his mouth and he doesn’t give a shit. He’s not licking his lips or wiping the water away because that’s such a human thing to do. And that’s just not his intention. You’ll know when you see it. There’s just more to Pennywise and Scary Clown. And this movie revolving around kids is Pennywise is terrorizing kids. I was impressed with the fact that this movie did not shy away from violence towards kids.

I’m so used to movies being like children, we can’t hurt them. I’m not saying movies never do it. I’m not saying kids never get hurt in horror movies because they do. But this movie really one scene in particular, you’re like, oh, they showed that just gave this movie a level of grit that not a lot of movies would have been willing to get. I will say for a movie that has such character development among the kids, a couple of them kind of get left in the background. And it was a bummer. But you really think about it, that’s seven characters in this movie. They have to concentrate on allowing time for the bullies, allowing time for their personal shit that they’re dealing with. It actually adds to the movie and doesn’t take away from it. Like apparently a lot of horror movies think moments like that. And dealing with Pennywise, really, if this movie was just based on the scares, the monster, the scary thing, I’d walk out of the movie going, it was a fresh take on a monster movie. But you give it the depth and layers that the characters actually get in this movie. It’s actually quite a unique experience. And, you know, one of my main gripes that I have when there’s a movie that revolves mostly around kids is the fact that the kids don’t talk like kids. Sorry, parents, your kids probably a model citizen, I’m sure. Just know when he’s around his friends and you’re not there.

He does not have a PG 13 mouth. He’s cursing up a storm. And now, you know, you heard it from me. And these kids totally do that, but they don’t overcook it. Just a justifiable amount of cursing among young people. Young friends who are hanging out with no parents are chaperoning guys. In the end, it was great. It has an interesting premise. Great characters, good depth, good development. It justifies its runtime. I hope a lot of other people making horror movies actually look at it and take a page out of its book and just think, oh, well, for good development in a horror. I guess horror movies can use that, too. There’s a lot more to Pennywise and Just Scary Clown, but I can’t really talk about it here. I have my thoughts on that, but I feel like it infringes on spoiler territory, so I’ll let you figure it out yourself. I walked out of it saying I can’t wait to see it again. It’s worth watching and definitely worth buying on Blu ray. The simplest way I can put it, this movie is a Nightmare on Elm Street, meets The Goonies. All right, guys. So have you seen it? What did you think about it? Whether it be the old one? The new one, which do you prefer? What? Pennywise will keep you up at night. Whatever you think, comment below. Let me know. And as always, if you like what you’ve seen here and you want to see more, click right here to see more.