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Jakarta Post

'It': Classic suburban horror revamped

Devina Heriyanto (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Wed, September 6, 2017

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'It': Classic suburban horror revamped Bill Skarsgård's solid performance as Pennywise the Dancing Clown shows a monster who enjoys the chase as much as the result. (Warner Bros/File)

In Derry, you either run from the school bully or from the monster. Either way, It will always catch up with you.

Expectations are high for the new It movie which, as any fan will diligently point out, come exactly 27 years after the 1990 TV series that ingrained the evil clown Pennywise in our mind.

The first out of planned duology, It focuses on a gang of children collectively known as the Losers' Club. If the book takes a nonlinear approach by alternating between the children and their adult selves, the movie simplifies the story by focusing entirely on the first half of the story.

The first 10 minutes of It sells the rest of the movie. In just a short time, the audience is directly introduced to the big bad clown, who lures little George “Georgie” Denbraough with promises of boat and balloon -- leading to his disappearance, which we will learn later is only one of many.

Read also: Upcoming Indonesian horror films you should not miss

After realizing that each of them has an encounter with different form of It, The Losers’ Club sets on a mission to beat It.
After realizing that each of them has an encounter with different form of It, The Losers’ Club sets on a mission to beat It. (Warner Bros/File)

Georgie’s disappearance haunts his older brother Bill (Jaeden Lieberher), who asks his friends Richie Tozier (Finn Wolfhard), Stanley Uris (Wyatt Oleff) and Eddie Kaspbrak (Jack Dylan Grazer) to join him in an attempt to find the missing body. United by a common enemy, school bully Henry Bowers (Nicholas Hamilton), The Losers’ Club welcomes new members Beverly Marsh (Sophia Lillis), Ben Hanscom (Jeremy Ray), and Mike Hanlon (Chosen Jacobs).

After realizing that each of them has an encounter with different forms of It, The Losers’ Club sets on a mission to beat the monster.

The approach to show the monster upfront, rather than endless teasing often found in an average horror movie, must be applauded. In It, when the scene teases you that there's going to be something, it's really there. Bill Skarsgård’s eerie portrayal of Pennywise the Dancing Clown sheds any doubt of the actor’s ability to continue the legacy of Tim Curry from the 1990 miniseries. Despite taking relatively much screen time for a monster, Pennywise still manages to invoke fear.

Portrayal of actors in The Losers' Club is the highlight of the movie. Rarely a horror movie that fleshes out the characters as people with personality and their own struggles rather than putting them there so the monster or ghost has someone to haunt or prey or fight. Finn Wolfhard as Richie steals the spotlight with his seemingly effortless performance, understandable considering his stardom after the success of Stranger Things.

Read also: Thai horror movies you should not watch alone

In Derry, you either run from the school bully or from the monster.
In Derry, you either run from the school bully or from the monster. (Warner Bros/File)

As a horror novel, It is not only terrifying for the depiction of Pennywise the clown and It's other forms. Stephen King does a very good job in exploring other types of suburbian horror as well, how family slowly tears apart after a tragedy, school bullying, poverty, racism, and abusive parent. Bill, Richie, Mike, Beverly, Eddie, Ben and Stan are not two-dimensional characters whose sole purpose is to be preyed upon by the monsters. There are other things that haunt them as well -- more real and by no means less scary than the monster. It is wonderful to see some of these issues not overlooked, translated well into the movie.

Of course, there are key differences between the book and the movie. Any reference of the Turtle and Ritual Of Chüd is omitted, as well as the controversial child sexual act at the end of the book. But any King's loyal reader will be glad to see several easter eggs.

It successfully keeps you gripping the side of your seat for more than two hours. One can easily see that the movie rating will float up there, or at least not suffer the same fate as the doomed adaptation of The Dark Tower series.

The movie is a treat for everyone -- unless you're Donald Trump, who had been banned personally by Stephen King from seeing the movie.

How high does It float?:

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