The Comedy that was IT

Have you seen any clowns in your sewers? In the city of Derry, there are a few sightings of a famous clown roaming around in the sewers. On September eighth, Stephen King’s 1990s It remake hit box offices. King published the original book, which has over 1000 pages, in September 1986. Just like the clown that returned 27 years later, the remake came almost exactly 27 years after the release of the TV miniseries.

The movie starts off with Bill Denbrough’s little brother, Georgie, playing with a paper boat in the rain and having an encounter with the clown, Pennywise the Dancing Clown. Georgie goes missing and having many kids add on to the missing kids list. Six months after his disappearance, seven friends have been witnessing the clown in person. Because Pennywise never introduced himself to the kids, they referred the clown as It.

The founders of The Losers Club were Bill Denbrough, Stanley Uris, Eddie Kaspbrak and Richie Tozier. Three new members, Ben Hanscom, Beverly Marsh, and Mike Hanlon, were added as the original Losers Club saved them from the school bullies, Henry Bowers and his friends. Another thing they all have in common is that they all have encountered the same scary clown.

This movie is different from the book. Stephen King included supernatural and horror events in the book. The director of the movie, Andrés Muschietti, didn’t include any supernatural scenes in the movie, excluding the shapeshifting. King also wrote graphic and detailed scenes in the book that Muschietti did not put in the movie. It is said that Muschietti wanted the kids to meet the clown as soon as possible so the movie wouldn’t be as long as the book. Since 2 hours and 15 minutes isn’t enough time to show the friends as adults, there will be a sequel showing The Losers Club 27 years older to defeat the clown once again.

This movie can put you into an emotional rollercoaster. There are sad, scary, funny and happy parts. However, the “jump scares” don’t make you jump in your seats you, but most of the time, you’ll be laughing when the whole gang’s together. If anything, I find this movie more funny rather than scary. Bill Skarsgård did an extremely great job acting as Pennywise. Although the original is better than the remake, I find 2017 Pennywise more horrifying than 1990 Pennywise. This movie is rated R.