IT review

By A. Wichmann

Age rating: R 
-May contain violence, horror/bloody images-
Rotten tomatoes: 85%
Director: Andy Muschietti
Based on: IT by Stephen King
Budget: $35 million
Box office: $274.3 million

A movie version of Stephen King's famous novel by the same name, IT follows the story of a clown with magical powers who terrorises the kids of Derry. A group of kids known as "the loser's club" must now find a way to get rid of this clown before it continues to kill more children. This time the role of our favorite dancing clown Pennywise will go to the famous actor Bill Skarsgard , best known for his role in the Divergent series.

This movie is a remake of the original movie that came out in 1990 and was a success with horror fans all around the world. It managed to open the door for all scary clown concepts we see today. Also, the movie reinforces the "stranger danger" warning we are told from a young age as one of the scenes shows a boy named Georgie coming face to face with Pennywise in the gutter. The clown claims to be a nice and loving, and convinces Georgie to accept a gift from him. This mistake Georgie made was his last. There is a common misconception that IT is just a horror story. However, it promotes the idea of facing your fears and friendship being stronger than any evil. The amount of metaphors and imagery in both the book and the movie are unbelievable, and once you understand them you realise that this is not just another "horror movie with a clown".

Personal opinion: It was a terrifying movie. It was definitely the best horror movie remake, and this is huge considering that other remakes such as Friday the 13th or The Nightmare on Elm Street were not so happily accepted by fans. Also, I believe that it makes the book more justice than the previous 1990 version.

Finally, I do not recommend this movie to anyone who scares easily or identifies as a Coulrophobic. But for those of you who love horror movies this is definitely your type of movie. For those Stephen King fans out there I do not think I even have to recommend it, if you have read the books the chances of you watching the movie and loving it are way up. 


​Press the button below if you would like to read some Fun facts about the movie and book (WARNING: They do contain spoilers)

Fun Facts