This is IT

Johnson Thomas

S TEPHEN King’s novel and the 1990 original adaptation is strategically different from this Andy Muchietti version. This is a film that can unsettle you especially if you are given to fanciful notions and are susceptible to building up a fear psychosis all your own.

Bill Skarsgård’s Pennywise is scary not because he throws up the works but because he plays it cool— allowing the curiosity to lure, interest to develop and fear to work it’s way into the young ones hearts. It’s not all suggestive in it’s attempts to scare. While the grotesque and terrifying bits may seem contrived , the emotional heft underlying it is not.

All the young actors rise to the challenge, allowing for great camaraderie and sparkling hypnotic chemistry and their emotional range should be seen to be believed. Watching children murdered here is sure to make you feel squeamish and ill at ease.

The shadowy camera work of Chung-hoon Chung and the evocative music of Benjamin Wallfisch only adds more sharpness and teeth to this macabre pursuit. It can make the young one squirm and squeal — no getting away from that!