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Agreed. It's the horror movie cliches that held it back a bit, for me. I wasn't that scared at most things, except the projector scene, which I felt worked well. I thought all the performances were really good, especially the characters Bill and Bev (I'm a fan of Bill Skarsgard too and he plays creepy quite well).
But it's the jump scares...so annoying! Makes you wonder if that was studio interference to make the movie 'scarier.' The kids were the heart of it, for sure. Struck me as very Stephen King/Stranger Things.
Yep. The movie had mostly "boo!" scares with no real sense of tension or building menace --- which actually robs the "boo!" of a lot of its impact. Everything is right in your face and never allowed to build up.
But the kids are so good that they really do save the movie. And the Stranger Things feel is no accident, since Stephen King was a huge influence on Stranger Things.
Yep. The movie had mostly "boo!" scares with no real sense of tension or building menace --- which actually robs the "boo!" of a lot of its impact. Everything is right in your face and never allowed to build up.
But the kids are so good that they really do save the movie. And the Stranger Things feel is no accident, since Stephen King was a huge influence on Stranger Things.
True. I did not express it well in my original response, but I was trying to make a comparison between King and Stranger Things while also saying that IT really felt like a King movie where other adaptations haven't. I imagine he must be a fan of IT since we know he likes adaptations that stick to his source work (unlike The Shining).
But, as far as tension/menace goes, that's where I truly loved The Shining. That is still the movie that scared me more than any other, and it has no jump scares I can remember. So while it wasn't really like the book (King said it was like 'ice' where his book was 'fire'), it was still terrifying.
I think IT would have done well building up that sort of dread, like you said, versus the brief creepy/gory images. I don't really think the movie lingered on those long enough to be truly effective. It teased the menace of Derry rather than go full into it. Derry as a place is almost as much of a character as Pennywise.
Like I said before, the projector scene worked well re: modern jump scare/horror, but the rest (like lady from the painting, burn victims etc.), while weird to see, just moved too fast. While it is hard for me to begrudge the script spending more time on the kids than the horror aspect, I do think it could have been fine-tuned to be scarier.
We went and saw the movie today. Wasn't bad. I never read the book and never knew much about it.
Spoilers....
Watchin the film to me it felt like pretty much like Stand By Me with a horror bent to it. Not bad, wasn't blown away. I will say that the visual elements of the clown was pretty creepy. Story wasn't bad, just felt a little rote at points. The film also seemed a bit long. Probably could have shaved a little time off with a running time of 2:15 min it started to feel like that long after a bit.
Three out of five for me. In other words worth a watch, specially if you can catch it on Netflix down the road.
Finally got around to seeing "IT" this weekend. Thought it felt like a mix of the Goonies and A Nightmare on Elm Street lol. It was decent, and as everyone has mentioned, the child actors did really well. It wasn't scary at all to me. I felt like they tried too hard with both Pennywise and the scares.
The cool thing about the original Pennywise was that he somewhat resembled a real clown, so he kind of drew you in and then his evil came out, which made him scarier. You could tell when the jump scares were coming from a mile away in this movie. They used too many and didn't use them effectively IMO.
The other weird thing about this movie was the scene transitions. As soon as the scene ended, they would quickly cut to another scene and there was no connection to the previous scene (I.e. I think Pennywise came after them at one scene and then the next scene cut to them just hanging out outside). Plus, other than the one mother (and the couple messed up fathers), there were like no other parents shown in the movie. You would think that a killer clown coming after these teens, you'd have the parents involved at some point. I just thought it was kind of weird that the movie was mostly void of parents (minus the few).
Saw it today, enjoyed it overall and the clown was one of the coolest bad guy characters ever.
The female actress reminded me so much of a very young Amy Adams, and in fact this actress is supposed to be playing a young version of Amy Adams in a future HBO series.
A few things though I didn't care for. First of all, what the f**k is up with all the swearing? I mean, was that all necessary? When I was that age, I certainly wasn't f***ing swearing like a sailor, and I was in the Navy myself. Second, I thought some of the scenes with the young people were a bit creepy especially the quarry swimming scenes. I was shocked that the actress "Bev", Sophia Lillis,is only 15 years old.
But overall was a good horror movie even with the nonstop cheapo jump scares. Looking forward to the sequel.
Saw it today, enjoyed it overall and the clown was one of the coolest bad guy characters ever.
The female actress reminded me so much of a very young Amy Adams, and in fact this actress is supposed to be playing a young version of Amy Adams in a future HBO series.
A few things though I didn't care for. First of all, what the f**k is up with all the swearing? I mean, was that all necessary? When I was that age, I certainly wasn't f***ing swearing like a sailor, and I was in the Navy myself. Second, I thought some of the scenes with the young people were a bit creepy especially the quarry swimming scenes. I was shocked that the actress "Bev", Sophia Lillis,is only 15 years old.
But overall was a good horror movie even with the nonstop cheapo jump scares. Looking forward to the sequel.
Could've been worse. Apparently in the book, Bev has sex with all of the boys.
Yep. The movie had mostly "boo!" scares with no real sense of tension or building menace --- which actually robs the "boo!" of a lot of its impact. Everything is right in your face and never allowed to build up.
But the kids are so good that they really do save the movie. And the Stranger Things feel is no accident, since Stephen King was a huge influence on Stranger Things.
IT was never intended to be a horror story. Like many of King's novels, Pennywise was simply an allegory that could have represented evil, or death, or trauma, or abuse, or social isolation, or any other real life horror that we experience. The story was about coming of age, about coming to terms with our mortality, about coming to terms with our need for human companionship, about emerging sexuality. The good news is that the film-maker did not entirely miss the substance of the novel in his effort to make a "horror" movie. But he did weaken it quite a bit, especially by adding over the top scenes that never happened in the book; by adding goofy unnecessary moments of levity; and by obeying his Puritanical overseers that required him to strip the story of sexuality. Overall, the story remains somewhat intact, although heavily commercialized. I am sure they see IT as a long running "horror movie" franchise, and the upcoming chapters will further undermine King's message.
Last edited by GearHeadDave; 10-02-2017 at 06:32 AM..
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