I remember the first time when my mom and I watched IT, directed by Tommy Lee Wallace. I was around the age of nine and eleven and it was horrifying. Just the pure evil and sadistic tone IT had; had me up all night for the longest time. Before anyone ask why my mom let me watch horror movies at a young age. It’s because she is awesome.
Fast forward to 2017, watching Andy Muschietti, IT brought back so many memories. With that said, the nostalgia factor was significant! Now when it comes to everything else such as acting, storytelling, cinematography, music, etc. For me, Andy Muschietti did it so much better than Tommy Lee Wallace’s IT.
So many of Stephen King’s novels had bad film adaptation, so when the news came out that IT was going to be remade, a lot of people were upset and understandably so. Andy Muschietti had a lot of pressure with this adaptation. Despite that pressure, Andy Muschietti killed it, critically with eighty-five percent critic rating and eighty-four percent audience rating, and financially with seven-hundred million-plus worldwide.
The cast is incredible! Jaeden Martell as Bill was phenomenal, Jeremy Ray Taylor, as Ben killed it. This goes for the rest of the cast. Sophia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard, Chosen Jacobs are why this franchise succeeded, along with Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise the clown.
Andy Muschietti’s IT focus more on the chemistry and development of the kids more so than jump scares, and that is the reason where most people criticize this movie, not being super scary. Which is a fair criticism, but I could argue that the reason why chapter one works more so than chapter two is that chapter one did not rely on jump scars as much.
If you have a fear of clowns, I can not recommend this movie to you. With that being said, EVERYONE watch this movie! Entertainment wise for me, it is a 10/10 so much fun, and I can watch this movie repeatedly.
Critically I’ll give it a 9/10 because I feel that Andy Muschietti is so talented that he could have found a way to make it scarier without relying on jump scares.
Happy Spooktober, 25 Days Until Halloween! 🎃👻
