The new “It” movie, based on the famous Stephen King novel, is horrifying, hilarious and everything I was hoping it would be and so much more. The movie nails all the aspects of a horror movie, but that is not all “It” offers.
“It” is also a coming-of-age story for the Loser’s Club, the group of children protagonists. These characters are all interesting, varied and fun to watch. The standouts of the group are Finn Wolfhard as Richie Tozier and Jaeden Lieberher as Bill Denbrough. Most of the time, I feel children are not portrayed well in movies. However, “It” captures their characters very well. I felt they had impressive character development and could exist in real life. The banter and behavior of the group was entertaining and realistic.
The main antagonist of the film, Pennywise the Dancing Clown, is played by Bill Skarsgård. His performance as Pennywise is spectacular. Every time he is on screen, he is terrifying, otherworldly and completely unique for a clown character.
“It” crosses some of the lines that other movies, or media, in general, don’t usually cross, like hurting children. “It” doesn’t just cross the line, it hurdles five feet over it. Having read some of the book the movie is based on, I wasn’t sure the screenplay writers would include some of the more brutal scenes.
However, maybe to ease some of those fears for viewers, the first scene is one of the goriest shots in the film. This sets up the rest of the movie perfectly, giving the viewers a reason to be afraid.
The music is another incredible part of the movie. The score was composed by Benjamin Wallfisch, who also produced the music for “Hidden Figures” and “Lights Out.” Each piece of music set up the scene with precision and purpose. “It” has some light-hearted music that make sense in places, but the music accompanying the horror scenes specifically are beautiful, if you could call music for a horror movie beautiful.
The pace of the film is another massive strength. The buildup starts with the beginning scene and keeps going throughout the rest of the film. Each scene has purpose and is important for character development or to terrify the viewer. The movie isn’t short, but it also doesn’t feel long either. The pace of the movie makes “It” feel shorter than it really is.
“It” is a horror movie, and people that don’t enjoy being spooked won’t like “It” either. But for those horror movies connoisseurs, this is a pinnacle for the genre. “It” has every piece that a horror movie should, but all its aspects come together to create a movie that is one part horror and one part coming-of-age story. The horror in the movie terrifies, and the character moments of the Loser’s Club make this not just one the best movies of the year, but one of the best in the horror genre.
