Reviews & Ratings for
It (2017)

Stephen King is a great writer, but movies based on his books have been a hit or miss affair.
This year’s Dark Tower being a total miss and a proper flop…
The good news is IT is the HIT we have been missing for so long. This movie works on SO many levels.
As a horror film, IT has all the perfect elements, jump scares, creepy grungy dirty dark dank places, haunted house, kids being stalked by a monster/ghost. But it ALSO has something which Annabelle and Conjuring 2 was missing, a solid story and premise of friendship, comradery and the sense of adventure.
If you have seen Stranger Things, you will know what to expect from IT. That TV show was made by the duffer brothers who were DESPERATE to make IT for the big screen. So the similarities are numerous. Though IT is horror and stranger Things is Sci-Fi Adventure.
Coming to the Horror elements of IT, this movie had the entire audience grasping out loud is fear in some scenes. That is effective… VERY VERY effective…
The music, the atmosphere, the town of Derry (Maine) everything is setup to perfection as the events of IT unfold. The kid actors are pretty amazing and it will be sad to not see them again for the inevitable sequel.
So if you are a horror fan, this is the best horror film to come out in a LONG time. It’s better than the conjuring or insidious or any of the James wan films. It’s more fun to watch than just horror scares all the time, but the kids and their jokes do not overtake the seriousness of the film.
Rating: 8.5/10. An amazing horror adventure experience. For the fans of the books, this movie is different enough to be enticing, for the new comers to the story, nothing is lost if you haven’t read or heard of the book.
Conclusion: IT is a rare film, with a perfect blend of adventure, horror and thriller, its better seen in Imax or some big screen with Dolby ATMOS for full effect.
P.S: If you are scared of clowns like I am… you are in for a TREAT… Pennywise the clown is SCARY at times, downright insane in all the others… what a great performance, Visual FX and technique to bring this horror legend back to life in the most cinematic fashion yet…

Welcome to the creepy town of Derry, where the children are carved with knives by bullies I hope don't really exist in real life, people keep going missing and are written off as dead without much of an investigation, the parents like keeping their children locked up or look at them as preys, and where the clown Pennywise returns after every 27 years and feeds on children.
The little brother of Bill, George, gets lured into the sewers by Pennywise in the beginning of the movie, and Bill is found clinging onto the hope of George still being alive, but neglected by parents. Soon after that, during the summer break, Bill and his group find themselves in the trail of the missing children and Pennywise, who feeds on these children, not realizing what they're getting themselves into. However, Ben, who the gang saves from Hower and the bullies, has conveniently done a lot of research upon the topic: of children been disappearing for centuries in Derry. Beverly and Mike also join hands with the group and start off on a mission to shoo Pennywise away from their town.
Now , I apologetically haven't read the book by Stephen King the movie is based on, so I'm going to take the liberty to talk about the plot of the film independently. Some things are either way too convenient- like new little Ben taking just a few visits to the library to figure out what's wrong with this town, or way too bizarre- like the kids actually committing murders. The town does not seem to have normal people looking after the children or a stable government or police looking after their citizens. The kids fail fighting their inner demons while on the hunt for Pennywise- which certainly looks like the clown has a spell on the entire town, because there's not other explanation for people acting that disturbing. Also, the plot is a little hard to follow, taking time to understand what actually is happening, but the story is already moving on by then.
However, this isn't like the other horrors, and hence certainly worth a watch. All of the ever increasing gang of kids have acted pretty well, especially Beverly. And the movie does not deal with the usually supernatural stuff. It deals with the curse of a shape shifting creature, violent bullies, abusive parents and inner darkness. Although, I must say, all the good things about the movie seem like the work of Stephen King and not actually a movie made well.
Get ready to chant things like "We all float here", which don't make much sense until you give it a hard thought.

The movie has taken a $100+ million opening at USA boxoffice and you realize that there are generations of phattoos(sissy pants) who are getting scared by such shIT. Now I understand why Kim Jong Un is so confident about Muricans.

The film is full of predictable jumpscares and that's IT. Nothing much to take back home. I will rather wait for Jigsaw.

...yeah, you're just better off watching this in a nearly-empty space on a weekday afternoon, without any friends beside you and seated close enough to the screen.

Few people come to my favourite shopping centre's IMAX screen at that time. Unruly scoundrels fill up the room on a Sunday afternoon at that rotten Bexleyheath cinema that used to guide my childish self into the world of film.

Fuck you, Stephen King.

IRL friends will ruin you.

Loneliness is bliss.



Anyway, you'll float too.

It is a film directed by Andy Muschetti. I remember watching the trailer when it launched and I was scared to hell. So my expectations for this film were quite huge. After watching this film, I can say that this film is horror at its best.

Plot; Bill and his friends decide to spend the summer investigating about Bill's missing brother, Georgie.

Story and direction: From the first scene itself, the mood gets set. It signified that the ride is not for the faint hearted. Never for a moment I felt that there were jump scares. And when there was a scare I literally had goosebumps, The story also was quite good. I liked the approach to separate the film into 2 chapters: One of the children and other for the adult part. This allowed for the story to be streamlined and focused. The characters, especially the Losers' club, were interesting. Each one of them had a kind of backstory that could be related to. The way this film handles and highlights issues related to children was impressive. The production design for the town of Derry was spot on. The makeup and VFX was amazing. It was as if I was looking at a real creepy clown. But the film had some issues for me. I felt the supposed love angle between Ben-Beverly-Bill was forced into the screenplay. Also the kid that starts cursing every second was very irritatting. I know that this film is R rated, but seriously to have a kid of 12-13 cursing is little bit overboard.

Performances: Bill Skarsgard nailed it as Pennywise. He looked crepy each and every second he appeared on screen. He emoted the character of the psychotic clown effortlesly. Jaeden Lieberher was great as Bill. Finn Wolfhard had already impressed me in Stranger Things, he continues to impress here too.Jeremy Taylor was quite cute looking to the eyes but he too delivered an earnest performance. Spohia Lillis was also impressive as Beverly. Wyatt Oleff, Chosen Jacobs and Jack Dylan Grazer all delivered awesome performanances.

Favorite Scene: It woule be the one where the kids go to Bill's home to see the town plan of Derry on a projector. But then Eddie doesn't feel well and tells Bill to stop his presentation. And suddenly just out of nowhere the projector changes slides on its own and then Pennywise appears in the slieds and then leaps out of the slides. The mood, tension and scare factor was what made this scene stand out from the rest for me.

Verdict: For those who think you will see a Stranger Things (which I love btw) on film, you are absolutely wrong. This film is way different both thematically and tonally from the famous series. I loved It and can't wait for the second part.

I am going with a 9/10.