In my opinion, horror movies require their directors to possess great filming skills. Andrés
Muschietti is well known in this genre; his use of suspense made the
audiences feel nervous and on the edge of their seats all the time while watching his films.
Unfortunately, today’s horror movies and thrillers have degraded due to a gathering of
clichés, which differ only depending on the topic of a particular movie. One recent film that tried
to overcome banal horror clichés is “It”—a story of a group of 13 year olds that try and defeat
the evil clown Pennywise.
The “It” director, Andrés Muschietti, is best known for directing the 2013 horror film
Mama and the eponymous 2017 adaptation the Stephen King's novel It and the first movie of “It”
that came out in 1990. Considering this, one would be possibly awaiting a suspense
movie; for a film that scares rather with its atmosphere than with jump-scares, gore, and sudden loud noises. Justifying this expectation, “It” begins reasonably well—in that the first few minutes
are a little flat because it is just about how Georgie went missing. A little later, that’s when
Pennywise the clown comes into play and it gets way more fascinating.
The interesting thing about the 2017 movie “It” is that the director incorporated some of
Stephen King’s stories, the original novel of “It” , and the 1990 version. During the Losers
club(what they like to call themselves) first visit to the creepy rundown house on their street, 3
club members get separated and one of them winds up in the worst possible room ever. A room
full of clown dolls, but not just any terrifying clown dolls. One of them is a doll version of the
1990 clown. Another interesting fact is the t-shirts that they wear. One of Eddie’s shirts trails
back to one of King's other work. On his shirt is a design of an angry car with a chrome V on the
front. That may sound familiar to those that have read the Stephen King's 1983 novel about a
killer car named Christine. There are so much more that the directors could have incorporated about
Stephen King and the 1990 movie.
Another factor that does not speak in favor of “It” is a number of flaws. Some are factual
flaws and others are just editing or accidental mistakes. Some factual ones are that police cars
are shown with red and blue lights in the movie. But police cars in Maine, where the story takes
place, only display blue lights. Also at the beginning of the movie, they are leaving High School
for summer break. However, all of the kids are 13. (For instance, one of the characters is
having his Bar Mitzvah) However, most kids start High School when they are 14 or 15. That all
the kids are 13 at the end of High School is a glaring mistake. On part of the movie that I
thought was clearly not edited well was the part when Pennywise does his dance. He kicks his
legs from side to side but keeps his upper body still. It looks like his lower half is disconnected
from his body in the movie and for me that lost the scary factor. Also Pennywise leaps at one of
the girl characters but you can clearly tell he is on strings. If they had edited these two parts
better and many more, the movie could have been so much better!
“It” is a well-made horror movie about a killer clown that eats children. Although the
movie cannot be called perfect; it has a number of mistakes and a horror movie cliche that
everyone has seen before. While having nothing against the quality of the actors’ play and
special effects, I noticed a number of flaws that
can ruin the viewing of “It.