In
Medieval times, jesters served as a reminder of people’s mortality. In the
Twentieth Century, at least one “Killer Clown” serial killer went beyond
reminding. Last year, “evil clown” sightings became a full-fledged mini-panic.
Therefore, it is perfectly acceptable to be afraid of clowns. These days, it is
practically required. Stephen King helped solidify the evil clown archetype
with his 1,200-page 1986 bestseller, but there is more nostalgia than scares to
be experienced in Andy Muschietti’s adaptation of It
(trailer here),
which opens today nationwide.
Pennywise
is a particularly evil clown, whom we meet right off the bat. One rainy day, he
lures stuttering Bill Denbrough’s younger brother Georgie into his clutches.
Although he was sick in bed at the time, the older Denbrough brother is
tormented with guilt over his disappearance. Unfortunately, children disappear
all the time in Derry, Maine—so much so, the adults hardly give it any concern.
Nevertheless, Denbrough is determined to find him, with the help of his friends
in the so-called Losers’ Club.
Denbrough
and his pals Richie Tozier, Stan Uris, and Eddie Kaspack are the long-time
members. Overweight transfer student Ben Hanscom, home-schooled African
American Mike Hanlon, and unfairly slut-shamed Beverly Marsh are the new
recruits. They all have one thing in common. They have been bullied in some way
by sociopathic Hank Bowers. However, Hanscom and Hanlon’s insights into Derry’s
sinister history will lead them to suspect something darkly uncanny is afoot,
operating on a twenty-seven-year cycle. That would be Pennywise—and he knows
that they know.
There
is an awful lot of Bill Skarsgård mugging and cackling as Pennywise. A little
less probably would have been a little more. Frankly, some of the effects
involving him and the related supernatural terrors look pretty cheesy. That
might be partly by design, because Muschietti is clearly going for a nostalgic
vibe, but there are moments that draw the wrong kind of awkward laughter,
Still,
the film’s appeal to nostalgia is quite potent, unsubtly channeling Stand By Me, The Goonies, and The Lost Boys. The screenplay is
apparently cobbled together from drafts by Chase Palmer, Cary Fukunaga, and
Gary Dauberman, but it still nails the way kids (primarily boys) talk and act
when they are unsupervised together. Every scene that does not directly involve
a predatory paranormal clown rings true as a bell.
Jeremy
Ray Taylor is the stand-out as Hanscom, whose secret love for Marsh and the New
Kids on the Block adds the perfect air of comedic pathos. Likewise, Sophia
Lillis is terrific as the outwardly tough but emotionally scarred Marsh.
Wisely, they spare her the Snow White and the Seven Dwarves-style orgy scene King
ever so problematically included in the novel. Although he does not get a lot
of distinctive business to do, there is no mistaking the intensity Chosen
Jacobs brings to the screen as Hanlon. However, the other Losers’ Club members
sort of blend together.