Photo courtesy of movie pilot.com
By Luke Gair
Staff Writer
IT, Andrés Muschietti’s latest film, perfectly captures the eerie writing of the book’s author, Stephen King, but I thought there were several instances in which the directing choices could have improved. These hiccups are only minor inconveniences in the broad view of the film.
Set in the fictional small town of Derry, Maine, an insidious clown known as Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård) reemerges from the sewers after twenty-seven years. When Bill Denbrough’s (Jaeden Lieberher) younger brother is murdered by the clown, a group of outcasts, known by their classmates as “The Losers Club,” must band together and fight the demon who is hungry for blood.
Almost every character deals with their own conflicts at home, whether it’s an abusive father or an overprotective mother, but note the inclusion of “almost.” I do realize that King’s novel is over a thousand pages, and that can be difficult to cram into a period of less than three hours, but there were several holes in character development that left me desiring more. Richie Tozier (Finn Wolfhard) may have provided the audience with an occasional laugh, but I hoped to learn more about him rather than just the constant slew of penis jokes.
There were far too many times I found issue in stylistic choices the director carried out. A montage can strengthen a film, but in IT, there was a point where I rolled my eyes when it came time for montage number three.
In this era of filmmaking, it’s more than likely a movie will include CGI, and while Skarsgård’s portrayal of the clown may have been creepy, I think the added animation to his actions made the movie’s terrifying parts more like a series of cheap jumps scares.
Don’t get me wrong, I was absolutely terrified during several scenes, but there were also several other instances in which I was left disappointed by their inability to create a terrifying scene without a plethora of CGI additions.
In the end, I left the Student Union Theater with a sense of uneasiness, a result of being creeped out by the film. This is exactly what horror filmmakers set out to do. With only minor hiccups, Muschietti’s IT still stands as a solid scare for any fans of horror.