I’ve no doubt that the opinion I’m about to put forth is going to be an unpopular one, but I did not particularly care for the new movie based on the Stephen King novel, IT. I was fully prepared to love it to pieces, after all, IT was the first Stephen King novel I ever read way back when in 2010. I was so excited about the new movie that I bought the book again, and delved into its pages and the sewer systems of Derry, Maine once more. But…I did not care for the movie.
The novel itself is a 1,000+ page story of the history of Derry and of seven little losers who stand up to a great, big, evil, spidery entity they refer to as IT. While I was a major fan of the casting choices for the children, I thought that the movie focused far too much on a select few of the Loser’s Club (specifically Bill, Beverly, and Eddie). The novel does paint Bill Denbrough as the main protagonist (for it is his tiny brother’s death at the hands of IT that vaults the characters in motion), but King also makes it perfectly clear that each and every one of the kids is important; without one of them, their cosmically magical circle would be nothing. I felt as though the film totally missed the mark when it came to valuing each of the character’s importance.
I understand the necessity of updating the time frame of the events of the story (in the novel, the children’s timeline is set in the 1950s and their adult counterparts are living in the 1980s), because the original novel was published in 1986, but I still don’t know if I’m a fan of that direction. The first movie takes place in the 1980s, so a lot of the events that are supposed to happen in the 1950s translate well to the 80s, but my question is how this will translate in the modern-day sense when the characters are adults.
It seems almost too difficult to stage any horror story in our 21st century because of the advent of technology: cellphones, computers, the internet, etc, and a lot of the quirks that impact the characters in adulthood seem like they would be more difficult to accomplish in 2018.
I grew up watching the original miniseries as a kid so when I picture Pennywise the Clown, I either have my own interpretation of him imagined from reading the book, or I envision Tim Curry in the slot. This isn’t to say that I didn’t care for Bill Skarsgård in the role-I did. I thought his acting was top-notch, but I also despised the makeup used on him. I’m not sure why, but I didn’t find the makeup to be scary as much as I found it sort of silly (that opinion wasn’t helped during one of the final scenes when Beverly watches him do this mad dance for upwards of thirty seconds). And even some of the fears that the children have didn’t seem to have the same effect on me as they did in the book.
Finally, I thought that the director of the film was clearly a big fan of the book. That was obvious from the way he chose to include minor details that didn’t really have a place in the movie. Those minor details could have been much nicer if they didn’t throw the entire film off, pacing-wise. Some of the inclusions seem to have been unnecessary because of the way they were handled. Why include Eddie-the-Bully if you’re just going to kill him off when they’re still children?
I felt like the movie was too long-and not in a good way. I did enjoy some of the tiny details and nods made towards The Turtle (every time a turtle was onscreen I squealed a bit), and I am excited to see how that is incorporated into the second movie. While it would have been nice to have seen him introduced more in the first one, I hope they flashback to it in the second one.
That all being said, I’m hoping that the sequel movie will touch upon more of the horrors and information that the book provides. I’m anticipating tons of flashbacks, because a lot of integral details from the Loser’s Club’s childhood was totally left out (the smoke-house scene!). The movie itself wasn’t terrible, and I’m not usually one of those people who screams through the streets, “The book was better!” I just think that this adaptation would have worked so much better as a Netflix miniseries. But if you find yourself in need of a good book recommendation, and you haven’t read this one? Then what are you waiting for? Go check it out!
Feature Image Via NerdGeekFeelings