It's 1988, and a group of young teens in the town of Derry, Maine are terrorized by an otherworldly clown named Pennywise (Bill Skarsgard), who can make them see their worst fears. They must band together to stop the fiend before it kills them all.

King's novel succeeded in large part due to the nostalgic immersion into Baby Boomer cultural touchstones. The filmmakers decision to update the setting to the late 1980's is understandable in the sense that the follow-up, featuring the adult versions of the characters, will now chronologically fit with modern times. The filmmakers also decide to forgo any excessive wallowing in 1980's pop iconography, with a movie poster here and a song there the only references. That boils the story down to the horror film essentials, and while there's nothing original in the mix, it is well presented, and features a handful of memorable scare moments. The special effects are also largely successful, and Skarsgard is good as the monstrous clown. The filmmakers also made the interesting decision to not explain Pennywise, perhaps leaving that for the sequel. I'd be curious what a first time viewer, with no knowledge of the source novel or the previous 1990 TV mini-series version, thought of the story.

I recently caught up with the first season of the TV series Stranger Things, which almost certainly had some impact on this film version of It, even going so far as to cast one of the show's leads in this as well. That's not a problem, though, as that kid (Wolfhard) is good in both, and the rest of the cast in this is also terrific, with Lillis, as the sole girl in the group, and the aforementioned Wolfhard, as the foul-mouthed jokester, the stand-outs.

It (2017) was a pretty good movie overall, most of it was entertaining and well made. I will say that it wasn't as good as I expected, there were parts that could have been better. Well first the positives. One of the positives is the acting, great performances were given by all, I was impressed by the child actors, clearly very talented. I think the child actors really committed and showed the level of talent that you'd usually see in an adult actor. The special effects were also very well done. Pennywise's look was well put together and all the wild effects with him looked good. The beginning sequence was very well done, I loved the exchange between Pennywise and Georgie. The middle part of the film was alright, it had good acting and it set up everything for the finale, but to be honest, the beginning and the end were great, very well done, and I felt like the middle portion was alright, but my mind wondered some and I just felt like there wasn't enough substance to the middle part of the movie. Yes, the characters were good and the acting was still good in the middle, but I feel like the story needed more support in that section. I haven't seen the original Tim Curry It miniseries yet, so I cannot compare the two, all I know is that the original is basically like two films in one. I am excited for an It 2, which I feel is on its way since the original had two parts to it. All in all, a 7/10. Overall enjoyable, and I was entertained by the end of it, even though there were places in the movie that could've been better.

Like the miniseries Stranger Things, It hearkens back to 80s filmmaking, falling somewhere between Stand By Me and Poltergeist. While ostensibly a horror movie, in spirit it is more a coming-of-age drama with a monster.

The movie is not particularly scary, even by Poltergeist standards, but it is quite exciting, particularly in the final, thrilling confrontation. The movie also does a lovely job of reminding us that not all evil dwells in the sewer, with some of the most disturbing scenes being purely human; I was ultimately more scared of Bev's father than of Pennywise.

The kid's are all excellent. I like how little they fit to typical stereotypes; the stuttering kid is the brave one, the kid with glasses is a sex hound rather than a nerd, and the chubby kid is a scholar.

I don't have strong feelings about Pennywise. He is probably most effective in that first disturbing scene, but unfortunately I had already seen the SNL/Kellyanne Conway parody of that scene which was so dead-on that it impacted how seriously I could take the movie Pennywise (it's not the movie's fault, of course, that Kate MacKinnon captured the role so well). The actor doesn't have as strong a personality as Tim Curry did in the previous version of It, and ultimately seems like more a vehicle for evil rather than a distinct character.