Just come back from watching IT.
Bloody hell!
I'll start this by saying that this is only part one of the story, Chapter 2 will cover when the kids have grown up and have to return to face Pennywise once more.
Set in Derry, Stephen King's version of small town America, the plot has been brought forward from the 1950's to 1988 and there is a strong 'Stand By Me' feel to the early part of the film. In fact The members of the Losers Club come across as natural and charismatic and there is an easy camaraderie between them. This is soon put to the test however when Pennywise starts making more appearances, and when he does he includes almost everything but the kitchen sink (although there is a scene with the one in the bathroom that puts Carrie to shame).
As with all Stephen King works there parts of the story that have been based upon obscure historical events, in this case the disappearance of the people who originally signed the town charter shares a clear parallel with the Roanoak colony mystery of 1585.
While Miss D will undoubtably disagree with me there is only so much you can do to make a clown truly horrific and Skarsgard does a blinding job with Pennywise, basically becoming the epitome of every scary clown meme that has ever made it into the media. Swapping between talking to kids in order to lure them away to turning into their worst nightmares or just attacking them with no warning whatsoever. Combine that with the work done by the special effects team and you end up with a monster is truly unnerving to watch. Having read the book and seen the Tim Curry version I knew that Georgie was going to be grabbed at the start of the film but there was no gentle 'ease you into the film' approach it was a brutal opening.
While I did find myself doing it you can't really compare the 2 portrayals of Pennywise as comparing Tim Curry's Pennywise to this one is like comparing Nickelson's Joker to Ledger's, both good but very different.
Speaking of Tim Curry if you keep an eye out you do see his version of Pennywise make an appearance during the film which I thought was a nice tip of the hat to him.
All in all the film is certainly worth a look and I'm eagerly waiting for chapter 2.
