By Dominic LoVallo
Editor-in-Chief
“It” aired as a miniseries 27 years ago and now “It” has found its way –not only to our theater, but into our nightmares.
The movie “It,” based on its namesake, the 1986 horror novel by Stephen King, lived up to the hype as a scary movie. At least for everyone else.
For me, I wasn’t that scared. Scenes in this movie were shocking, creepy and downright disturbing. But, despite one or two jump-scares, there was no trouble keeping eyes glued to the screen.
The plot finds its start as Georgie, brother to one of the film’s protagonists, loses his paper boat to a sewer drain. It is there we first encounter Pennywise the Dancing Clown– the most used form of the shapeshifting entity known as “It.”
I could feel everyone else in the theater begging Georgie to walk away from the clown in the sewer.
But at the same time, we all knew what was about to happen. It is this scene that sets the tone for the rest of the movie. A little boy, screaming in pain, one arm chomped clean off, failing as he tries so desperately to crawl away from It.
From that point on, we follow the stories of all seven members of the Losers Club, the main character being Billy, Georgie’s older brother.
Throughout the movie, scenes become more and more disturbing, as each character’s biggest fear is revealed. That fear is how It “salts its meat” according to Stephen King.
Those fears include a leper, a mummy, clowns and someone’s own father.
Even though “It” is portrayed as a horror movie, the film is also a great coming-of-age story. The Losers Club all need to learn how to face their fears, which they figure out is the only way stop It from eating more children.
The casting for the younger actors was great. The main character, Billy, was portrayed by Jaeden Lieberher. He was incredible. Also, for “Stranger Things” fans, Finn Wolfhard (Mike) landed the role of Richie. His smart mouth brought much-needed comedic relief to the film.
But the real genius had to be in casting Bill Skarsgård as It. You can put clown make-up on almost anyone and call them scary, but Skarsgård took it to another level. Whether his voice was high-pitched or deep it could make you tremble.
When Skarsgård was being goofy or creepy, you wanted to cringe. Then, Skarsgård just looked at you. Stared at you. And you could feel his captivating eyes going through you. Skarsgård did an incredible job.
The movie’s special effects were also phenomenal. If you have it in you to keep your eyes on the screen, do so. All the different forms It took to scare the characters looked so realistic. The painting scene still sends a chill or two down my spine.
If you are not sure about shelling out the money to watch “It” in theaters, do it.
“It” is not even close to a gory movie, it is very entertaining and it is far better than the miniseries that aired 27 years ago, (Fun fact: the same amount of years It rests before returning to our realm to feast on more people.)
“It” is worth it.
lovalldv15@bonaventure.edu
