IT (2017)-Fitz of Horror Review

Written by Bryan Fitzgerald (Fitz of Horror)

When rumors first started to circulate years ago about a possible IT remake, people were going nuts. How could anyone be more terrifying than the original Pennywise?

From the start I said that if the director could channel the feel of Stand By Me and Super 8 as far as the kids went, the remake could absolutely work, but you also needed someone to play the infamous Pennywise and live up to the high bar that Tim Curry set with the original.

The marketing campaign for this movie was genius by slowly building and keeping us privy to every change and development that was made. When they finally settled on Bill Skarsgard as our new Pennywise, the internet went nuts again with disbelief on this crazy choice but when this trailer dropped we all became believers and the hype train was rolling!

Now everyone was abuzz about how good this was going to be and with all of this hype building, the 2017 IT had some huge expectations to meet.

I personally believe that this film absolutely lived up to the hype and then some!

Most will criticize it for being too funny and not scary enough but I felt that the balance was great. The plentiful jump scares weren’t forced and were for the most part actually scary. The humor was plentiful as well which lent to the Stand By Me/Super 8 vibe. The Losers felt like real kids that were forced into a scary situation.

People also need to realize that this is just the first half of the Stephen King book and the second half is much darker.

In the days after viewing IT, I can’t get it out of my mind. Director Andy Muschietti took great care in sticking close to the source material without being long winded. The movie had amazing pace from the surprising opening sequence to the cliffhanger ending. He paid close attention to detail and you can bet that if something was in a shot it had meaning.

I truly believe that IT Chapters 1 & 2 will go down in horror history as true game changers in the genre.

Horror fans should be rejoicing right now because horror is on top and the new Pennywise is to thank! I am hoping that this opens doors for the insane amount of independent talent the horror world has to offer.

Go see IT in the theater and get the big screen experience!

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