Can’t say this’ll be Spoiler Free… Mostly because: THE STORY’S BEEN AROUND LONG ENOUGH THAT IF YOU HAVEN’T READ IT, YOU SUCK. AND YOU’LL FLOAT TOO.

 

Stephen King himself Endorsed the movie before it started, so to anyone who sees it and screams “BUT THEY DIDN’T…(insert whatever, here)”  :  SHHHH.

 

The Town of Derry: Beautifully Captured. Definitely some historically dark stuff going on. Still kinda wanna ride around it on a vintage BMX bike though.

PORT HOPE -- Port Hope Municipal hall is now Derry Public Library for the filming of Stephen King's It.

The locals: Minus a few key speeches, anyone that isn’t a “Loser” or one of the Bully characters (or Pennywise) doesn’t get DERRY much screen time. I’ll show myself out for that joke.

IT DERRY CURFEW

The Bullies: You hate em, you hate em. SO MUCH.

IT BULLIES

The Losers: Are almost perfectly cast.   In some cases, it seems like these kids were flat out BORN for the roles they’re in.

IT THE LOSERS 2

The TIME PERIOD: Also captured beautifully. You really DO feel like these kids are zipping around on their bikes in the Late 80’s.

Once you see the movie... This makes WAY more sense.

The ICONIC Opening Scene:  Masterfully done, though I’ve got a bit of a gripe with it… (IF YOU’VE NEVER READ THE BOOKS OR SEEN THE 90’s MINISERIES, SKIP THIS. IF YOU HAVE, or you just LOVE Spoilers: CLICK the LINE, YO)

GEORGIE

 

Pennywise:  Let’s get this out of the way: You CANNOT Compare the two men that have played the Dancing Clown. Tim Curry‘s a damned legend, and that’s that.   HONESTLY, I thought Bill Skarsgard did an INCREDIBLE job with the character, and took it in a slightly different direction than Dr F did.   Read several reviews BEFORE seeing the movie that claim he’s trying too hard, or done TOO comical:  Disagree.  Loved his portrayal.

The HUMOUR: Off the charts.  After talking to quite a few people, may have actually been a little TOO funny… but I loved it. And, hands down, the TRUE star of this movie ISN’T the Dancing Clown.  It’s Frogface from Stranger things.

Finn Wolfhard‘s delivery had me in tears, multiple times.

FINN WOL

 

THE HORROR: If the flick hadn’t been ruined for most of us by an entire row it seemed of non-stop talkers and Giggle/Cacklers (Seriously. The whole movie. Drained several of the “Scary” parts of their Scary. Thanks, jerks.)… has the potential to terrify many.  There’s quite a few SHOCK moments, an intense soundtrack and of course: Clowns. So many clowns, in some cases.  It also has some incredibly tense moments AND Squirm-inducing moments, that AREN”T necessarily “horror scenes”.

Variance from the Book:  It happens. A FEW TIMES. And yet: King himself endorses this edition, so who are we to argue it needed to be “closer to the source material”?

 

The VERDICT:  Loved it. Seriously. Will be going back to see it, the second we can land a sitter for both the Boys, since my lovely wife couldn’t make it to see the showing last night.

Score: Four RED “I <3 Derry” Balloons out of Five.

I HEART DERRY

 

Unique Note:  That’s the Second time in my career I’ve been at a Screening where there wasn’t a SINGLE seat left in the house. In fact, they had to bring a few chairs in.