Why So Blu?

I Loved IT! (Movie Review)

I wish I could be cool and say I love Stephen King’s 1986 novel IT.  The truth is I’d be lying.  Not only did I never read it but nor have I ever seen the 1990 network television miniseries either.  I know.  I suck.  It goes unsaid that I lived a very sheltered childhood up in Cleveland, Ohio.  Thank goodness I left there five years ago and grew into the responsible young adult you all know and love now.  So let’s fast forward some 30 years here since the book first came out and now IT receives a modernized (so to speak as still set in the 80’s) adaption on the big screen.  It’s actually part of something bigger too as this American Rated-R horror film is just the first installment of a planned two parts.  You had me at Rated-R.  Let’s take a closer look down below at what IT (also known as IT: Part 1 – The Loser’s Club) is all about.  Join me down below and you’ll float too.  I’m just saying.

IT tells the story of seven children living in Derry, Maine.  They are all separately terrorized by this entity responsible for the disappearance of children in their neighborhood.  Think of this first film as Goonies, Stand By Me and Stranger Things meets a real monster and the second planned installment will be about the adults, but more on that in a bit.  IT is directed by Andrés Muschietti off a screenplay written by Chase Palmer, Cary Fukunaga and Gary Dauberman.  The film stars Jaeden Lieberher, Bill Skarsgård, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Sophia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard, Wyatt Oleff, Chosen Jacobs, Jack Dylan Grazer, Nicholas Hamilton and Jackson Robert Scott.

The story of IT is set during summer vacation of 1989.  Remember that year?  I sure do!  That’s my coming of age, yo!  So anyway IT focuses on a group of outcast preteens that lovingly refer to themselves as “The Losers Club,” hence the alternate title I mentioned up above.  Like I said up above too they all our separately terrorized by some terrible ghostly force that appears to them as a result of the real life demons they individually battle.  Those personal demons range from over protective, neglectful and downright evil parents to bullies that relentlessly and violently never leave them alone.  They band together to protect one another and more importantly battle a seemingly immortal, shape-shifting entity, known as “it,” that’s ultimately responsible for the disappearance of dozens of other kids in their town.

So I honestly had no idea what I was getting into with IT.  I know it’s highly heralded as one of King’s finest works, but other than the balloons, clown and yellow rain jacket I had zero knowledge.  Afterwards I think back and wonder who the hell cares.  I frickin’ LOVED IT!  Had this came out when I was a child growing up it would no doubt have been one of my all-time favorite horror films ever.  Hell, this is my childhood with an R-rating.  And let me tell you this.  What a breath of fresh air this R-rating is here.  It enabled this movie to do something that few horror films are ever allowed to do anymore, swear with the utmost of debauchery and scare with the utmost of freakiness, violence/gore and sheer terror.  Just because this story is about little kids don’t let that frighten you off.  These kids get taken out just like Michael Myers would slay a couple having sex.  I LOVE “IT”!  Chew on this one for a moment.  What if Goonies, Stand By Me and even Netflix’s Stranger Things had a love child out of wedlock with Rob Zombie’s House of 1,000 Corpses and Nightmare on Elm Street?  Well, that’s IT here!

Next let’s talk about the kids here.  How about them?  They were perfectly cast.  Yes it helps the one is from Stranger Things (Wolfhard), but I swear to whatever God you want me to that it felt like I was re-living my childhood here with little nods to Goonies, Stand By Me and more.  IT does life right too.  What I mean by that is kids swear.  They have potty mouths just like we adults do.  Where do you think they learn it from?  They also have real life demons from parents trying to molest them to bullies relentlessly tormenting them.  That’s what I love most about these characters.  They are so three-dimensional.  This film is literally no holds barred from the violence inflicted upon the kids to the F-bombs they religiously drop throughout.  The only thing this one doesn’t have is nudity.  However, when I first saw our beloved Pennywise the Dancing Clown (Skarsgård) viciously rip apart a kid I knew right then and there I was going to absolutely love this.  No I don’t want to see pain inflicted upon helpless, innocent kids, but I do want to see a realistic, freaky horror movie and this was “IT”!  The pun here is VERY MUCH intended.

Let’s wrap things up talking about the horror and direction here.  First up, IT is a pretty horrific film.  It’s downright gory and nightmarish at times.  No it did not make me jump or anything like that, but what I truly mean here is it’s completely freaky (think Rob Zombie again) and is basically what nightmares are made of (think Freddy).  I felt like I was in a lucid dream at times and I can totally see people having some pretty twisted nightmares after watching this one.  I endorse them. It’s not for the weak hearted in terms of freakiness.  Pennywise is also done right too.  At times he can be completely ridiculous, but when those teeth come out it’s game on.  And finally, what I love about the way they ended things here is IT‘s directionality.  Make no mistake about it there will be a second film here and we all know now how it’s going to happen and we’re completely aware of the stakes.  I’m looking forward to “IT”!  Enjoy!

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