IT (2017) Review

Seven young outcasts face their worst nightmare when an ancient, shape-shifting evil emerges from the sewer to prey on the town’s children.

Director Andy Muschietti’s story beats are perfect the casting is top notch. Bill Skarsgård is fitting as IT/Pennywise the Dancing Clown, a trans-dimensional evil that awakens every twenty-seven years. Skarsgård’s and Tim Curry’s IT is like Jack Nicholson to Cesar Romero’s Joker, both equally great but a different take on the same character, so there’s no need for comparisons. Incidentally there’s a fitting nod to Curry’s TV Pennywise in a room of clowns. For the main cast there’s the one reminiscent of a young Kevin Bacon, the Rob Lowe looking one, the Molly Ringwald (amusingly self referenced within the film) the River Phoenix one and so on. Echoing The Breakfast Club, Goonies and Stand By Me to name a few.

Muschietti and writers Chase Palmer, Cary Fukunaga and Gary Dauberman even cram in a creepy gnarled tree and a dilapidated haunted looking house. Starsguard moves eerily slow and contorted at times and uneasy fast at others. There’s much more gore in this adaptation. As a horror it offers enough creepy moments but where it gives today’s horrors a run for their money is the friendship, outcast and bully themes which come directly from Stephen King’s source material.

A major departure from King’s 1986 novel and 1990 miniseries is the 80s setting for the child part, even with the Airwolf T-shirt, New Kids on the Block songs, Casio watch, Gremlins posters and Nightmare of Elm Street 5, Batman and Lethal Weapon 2 showing in Derry’s cinema, some of the period feels a little off but the recreation for the most part works.

Again its strengthen comes from the casting which emotionally affects the story at its core. Frights, whether a cellar, sewer, bathroom or the alley or simple a dark office, the music, sound design thanks to Muschietti’s staging amplifies the chills while wearing its heart on its sleeve with the young performers.

It’s tight and pacey, with enough time for the characters to breath. Muschietti injects plenty of jump scares and creepy moments, and with a larger budget and omitting the adult segments (saving them for an IT sequel/chapter 2 and possibly flashbacks to 1989) it actually, surprisingly is better than its predecessor adaptation.

Packed with terrifying, hallucinatory and nightmare imagery coupled with a near on perfect cast IT is highly recommend.

Clown (2014) IT doesn’t clown around

The perfect dad dons on a clown costume which he discovers only to find that he is unable to take if off with terrible consequences.

Relative unknown TV actor Andy Powers is excellent as the lovable dad who becomes a killer clown. With lots of welcomed grim exposition, it builds a horrifying background to the clown legend and costume. It’s explained convincingly by Karlsson played by Peter Stormare, the brother of the deceased previous owner of the costume. Eerie from the outset Jon Watts and Christopher D. Fordit’s screenplay is played as a straight bloody horror thriller with touch of dark humour. Never before has a children’s ball pool or the tunnels of a play area been so scary.

What sounds like a B film with its outrageous crazy concept actually works in this modest budget production that has Eli Roth on board as producer. It goes from one gloomy odd set up to the next giving it a dream like surreal quality and it gets graphic as Kent tries to remove his costume, goes on a killing spree and begins to regurgitate body parts.

Despite Roth’s involvement it’s very much director Jon Watts film who offers creepy, slicing, gore, demons and clown creatures with some interesting shots, even a bird’s eye view car crash feels different from the standard affair put on screen. All the cast are effective right down to the child actors and Laura Allen is great as Meg, the protective mother fighting for survival.

Taking a leaf from IT’s tale and channeling King’s Pennywise the clown it also has the psychological element of Magic and is reminiscent of in places of the recent Stitches and American Horror Story Freak Show to name a few. That said, it stands on its own two feet with plenty of original ideas. To Watt’s and the production team’s credit the effects are outstanding, including and not limited to – dismemberment, amputation and Kent becoming a child eating clown.

Clown is a fast paced solid grim possession horror with a splatter/slasher element that never takes it eye off the story. It’s probably the definitive clown horror and naturally those suffering from coulrophobia should avoid at all costs.