IT: Horror Record 2017

You’ll float too.

IT brought the scares in 2017. IT also became the biggest (R-rated) horror movie of all time.

IT is out on Digital, Blu-ray, DVD and 4K Ultra HD (with High Dynamic Range).

Box Office Mojo statistics show the other top R-rated horror movies include  - The Exorcist (1973), Get Out (2017), The Blair Witch Project (1999) and The Conjuring (2013).

The box office for IT brought in about $327 million domestic, for a whopping worldwide gross slightly over 700 million.

Most people already know, IT is lifted from the pages of a book. The Stephen King bestselling novel was first published in 1986. Readers have a nice slim size of roughly 1,168 pages to go through. (Length noted from the reissue edition to coincide with the movie.)

The story made such an impression on readers. Rolling Stone asked them to vote in a poll to pick King's scariest and most page-turning books.

And IT took second place out of 10.

(Those same Rolling Stone readers, put The Stand first.)  

PAST

The New Line Cinema’s thriller is directed by Andy Muschietti. There's not much doubt of the movie's blockbuster status. Of course, it’s not even the first time the Losers’ Club and a killer clown named Pennywise, appeared onscreen.

A lot of Internet chatter seemed nostalgic for the 1990 mini-series, which aired on television. The two-night event brought in an estimated 30 million viewers, with many giving praise to actor Tim Curry, for his role as Pennywise.

I have not seen the television version, so I can’t compare to this movie. I have read the book. (It's been a long time now.)  The standout sequence that I can remember is Georgie meeting Pennywise, at the very beginning.

The action for the new movie is shifted to the late 1980s, while the book has events in the 1950s.

The main story is still there. Children begin to disappear in the town of Derry, Maine.  Bill (Jaeden Lieberher) becomes obsessed with finding out the truth, especially after what happened to his brother Georgie (Jackson Robert Scott.) Bill leads his friends into trouble, Ritchie (Finn Wolfhard), Eddie (Jack Dylan Grazer), and Stan (Wyatt Oleff). They soon cross paths with amateur historian Ben, (Jeremy Ray Taylor), Beverly (Sophia Lillis) and Mike (Chosen Jacobs,) as they all have encounters with Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård), and try to uncover the mystery.

At the same time, they try to deal with the anger of neighbourhood bully, Henry Bowers (Nicholas Hamilton), and his friends.

VERDICT

Would I buy this film? Yes.

I am a Stephen King fan. I read some of his books through school but one Christmas I received Under the Dome, and my bookshelf has slowly filled up since then.

Critics will say plenty of Stephen King adaptations are bad. (Dreamcatcher didn’t work for me.) IT easily goes on the good list.

The obvious questions now:

Was IT scary? Overall, no - at least, not for me. There were a couple of decent scares though.

Was IT creepy? Definitely.    

Was IT tense? Yes.  

Is IT the best Stephen King adaptation? Probably not. Although, I would watch the movie again.

I think what makes the film work, for me anyway, are the Losers. While Bill is the driving force of the adventure, many of the Losers get highlighted with little moments. Sure, they fight. They are crude, and the language is plenty foul. Yet, when things get tough and gruesome, they come across like real friends.

If clowns aren’t your thing, the scare factor might be different.    

SPECIAL FEATURES OVERVIEW

Filmwise, I would buy. If special features are taken into serious consideration, it might be best to play the waiting game. There is the next chapter coming, so more goodies could pop up later.

The special features do feel pretty short for such a hit movie.

Pennywise Lives! (16 minutes, 25 seconds)

- Revealing Bill Skarsgård behind the role of Pennywise. They discuss Bill’s audition and then his first meeting with the cast and crew. Found it an interesting and funny conversation, especially a few of the reaction stories.

The Losers' Club (15 minutes, 42 seconds)

- This feels more of a behind-the-scenes reel. It really depends on your interest in the cast. It focuses on the teenage actors and how filming went for them. (Example - The bullying scenes may be uncomfortable to watch but everybody got along.)

Author of Fear (13 minutes, 51 seconds)

- Stephen King discusses the common writer question…how the story of IT was formed. Bangor, Maine, actually gives many of those answers. And why he wrote about kids and (inevitable on the movie front) the adults.

Deleted Scenes (15 minutes, 18 seconds)

- Eleven deleted or extended scenes from the film. It’s easy to understand why most of them were cut. There is a gag scene which is the highlight of the bunch but won’t be spoiled here. There is also an alternate ending.   

Warner Brothers Home Entertainment